Francis Kan

Born in Hong Kong, Francis Kan learnt music from childhood and it has become an integral part of his life.

In 1993, after graduating from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, he continued his studies at the Guildhall School of Music in London with a full scholarship. Recommended by Maestro Sergio Commissiona, he was appointed as a conducting intern of the Asian Youth Orchestra, with whom he toured in Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States.

In 1995, Kan won the International Competition for Young Conductors in Portugal and since then he has worked, as a guest conductor, with several orchestras abroad, including the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, the Bucharest Philharmonic and the Silvestri Chamber Orchestra etc.

Besidies, Kan has worked with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, and the Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra, and had been the Principal Conductor of the Union Philharmonic Orchestra, HKUSU, since its inception until 2013.

From 2006 to present, Francis Kan has been the Assistant Conductor of Macao Orchestra, with a commitment to promoting musical education in Macao. From 2010 to 2012, he also took up the role as a resident conductor at the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he has frequently cooperated with the China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, and the Harbin Symphony Orchestra. In March 2015, he led the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra on a cultural exchange performance to South Africa and also conducted the opening concert for the “Year of China” in South Africa, which was highly praised by Luo Shugang, the Minister of Culture of the People’s Republic of China. In September of the same year, he toured Europe with the Macao Orchestra, leading it to perform with young pianist Zhang Haochen in Zürich, and Budapest. Also, he acted as the Conductor of“A Dream of Fragrancy”, a local original chamber opera in three acts composed by Liu Chenchen, at the 30th Macao International Music Festival in 2016. In June 2017, Kan performs with the National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra at The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing commemorating the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China. In the September 2018, he led the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra on a tour of Brazil, performing in four places in Iguazu, Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with great success, which caused great echoes in the Brazilian cultural and musical life.