CHARLES KWONG
鄺展維
Charles Kwong is a composer from Hong Kong whose practice approaches music as collective experiential situations - within, but also beyond, listening and sounds. His creative output spans orchestral music, collaborations with performers across diverse musical cultures, site-specific and transdisciplinary projects departing from the concert paradigm, and the exploration of performative possibilities in electronic sound synthesis. Rituals, fictionality, chaotic systems, nonhuman temporality, social ordering in performances, and intertextuality and hauntology arising from classical forms are some recurring core preoccupations that underpin his creative process and agenda across different media.
Kwong’s music has been featured internationally at prestigious festivals such as Lucerne Forward, Ultraschall Berlin, Takefu International Music Festival, Ticino Musica, Festival International de Piano La Roque d’Anthéron, Marvão International Music Festival, and ManiFeste, among others. Recent commissioners include the Lucerne Festival, Takefu International Music Festival, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Ensemble Recherche, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (HKNME), Tai Kwun Contemporary, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Other renowned groups and musicians who performed Kwong’s music include London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble of Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring, Francesco Dillon, Mario Caroli, Jeanne-Marie Conquer, Tadashi Tajima, Tosiya Suzuki, Colleen Lee, Edward Gardner, Yip Wing-sie, Christoph Poppen, Pierre-André Valade, Sandro Gorli, among others.
Kwong has maintained a long-term collaboration with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta since 2014, which included a two-season appointment as the orchestra’s Artist Associate in 2020-2022, resulting in multiple commissions that have been showcased locally and as well globally in the orchestra’s overseas tours. Since 2015, he has also contributed to the orchestra's programming in contemporary repertoire and commissioning through his role in Contemporary Music Research. He was an invited composer at the Takefu International Music Festival in both 2018 and 2025, and undertook artist residencies at Initiative Freie Musikszene Zürich (2024), the Zurich University of the Arts Transdisciplinary Studies (2020), and Tai Kwun Contemporary (2020).
Recent highlights of Kwong’s artistic activities include a new orchestral commission from the Lucerne Festival in summer 2025 to commemorate the centenary of Pierre Boulez; Piano Concerto “Hereafters” (2023), written for Hong Kong Sinfonietta and pianist Colleen Lee; Made in Laterland (2023), a performative sound installation in collaboration with sound artist Ho Tsz Yeung at the Goethe-Institut Hong Kong; Elsewhere (2022), a site-specific composition for performances at the KKL Luzern Concert Hall with its world première being praised by Luzerner Zeitung for “enchanting the concert hall”; Lullabies (2022), an orchestral commission to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Hong Kong City Hall, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner; and Migrating Tracks (2021), written for ensemble recherche’s collaborative project The New Recherche on the theme of gentrification; In 2016, Ensemble intercontemporain performed Kwong’s sextet Lachrymae (2015) in their first-ever concert in Hong Kong in the ensemble’s history since 1976.
Kwong has conceived and led multiple large-scale site-specific and transdisciplinary productions in Hong Kong. He curated Our Audible City (2018–2019) for HKNME, composing Atlas, a cycle of six site-specific pieces written for non-concert venues. This artistic trajectory continued with Lifelike (2020), commissioned by HKNME for the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, and Requiem (2021), commissioned by Tai Kwun Contemporary.
As a performer, Kwong has made appearances in recent years at Kunstraum Walcheturm (2025), Festival Rümlingen (2024), WestK Freespace Noise Fest (2024), WestK Freespace Jazz Fest (2023), and WestK Sonic Encounter (2023, 2022).
Born in Hong Kong in 1985, Kwong studied music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and King’s College London, before earning his doctorate in Composition from the University of York in 2013 under the supervision of Thomas Simaku. His artistic development has benefited significantly through the tutelages of Toshio Hosokawa, Isabel Mundry, Francesco Filidei, Mauro Lanza and Oscar Bianchi, among others.
Kwong co-founded PROJECT21st with Sharon Chan in 2019, where he serves as co-director, masterminding multiple translocal and transdisciplinary artistic initiatives over the years. Since 2018, he has been an affiliated faculty member at the University of Hong Kong’s Music Department, where he currently teaches and mentors postgraduate modules in composition and sound art. Currently he splits his time between Zurich and Hong Kong.
作曲家鄺展維來自香港，將音樂視為既在聆聽與聲音之內、亦延伸至其之外的集體體驗處境，創作涵蓋管弦樂、與不同音樂文化背景的演奏家之合作、脫離音樂會範式的場域特定與跨領域創作、以及對電子聲音合成之表演性的探索。儀式、虛構性、混沌系統、非人類時間性、表演中的社會秩序建構，以及衍生自古典形式的互文性與憑在論，都是貫徹於他在各種媒介之創作過程中的核心關懷。
鄺展維的音樂作品曾於瑞士琉森前瞻音樂節、柏林超聲波當代音樂節、日本武生國際音樂節、瑞士提契諾音樂節、法國拉羅克－昂迪榮國際鋼琴音樂節、葡萄牙馬爾旺國際音樂節、ManiFeste，以及其他世界各地多個藝術節與音樂節中演出。近年委約者包括琉森音樂節、武生國際音樂節、香港小交響樂團、德國Ensemble Recherche、大館當代美術館、香港創樂團及香港藝術節等。其他曾演出其作品的著名樂團及音樂家包括倫敦愛樂樂團、Ensemble intercontemporain、法國電台愛樂、琉森音樂節當代樂團、斯圖加特創聲獨唱團、Divertimento Ensemble、Ensemble Offspring、大提琴家 Francesco Dillon、長笛家 Mario Caroli、小提琴家 Jeanne-Marie Conquer、尺八大師田嶋直士、直笛演奏家鈴木俊哉、鋼琴家李嘉齡，指揮家 Edward Gardner、Clemens Schuldt、葉詠詩、Christoph Poppen、Pierre-André Valade 與Sandro Gorli 等。
鄺展維自2014年起與香港小交響樂團多次合作，於2020至2022年兩個樂季間擔任駐團藝術家，多首委約作品由樂團屢於本地及國際間海外巡演中發表。此外，亦自2015年起亦擔任香港小交響樂團的當代音樂研究，參與當代曲目與委約的策劃。他於2018年與2025年兩度擔任武生國際音樂節的獲邀作曲家，2024年為 Initiative Freie Musikszene Zürich 駐留藝術家，並於2020年先後參與蘇黎世藝術大學跨領域研究學系與大館當代美術館的駐留計劃。
近年創作包括：2025年應琉森音樂節委約，為紀念作曲家布列茲百歲誕辰創作管弦樂新作；2023年為香港小交響樂團與鋼琴家李嘉齡創作鋼琴協奏曲《是時風雨過》；同年與聲音藝術家何子洋於香港歌德學院合作創作表演性聲音裝置作品《再生頻道》；2022年獲琉森音樂節委約創作場地特定作品《Elsewhere》，於琉森文化和會議中心音樂廳首演，獲《琉森報》讚譽為「為音樂廳施下魔法」；同年為慶祝香港大會堂六十周年，獲委約為倫敦愛樂樂團及指揮 Edward Gardner 創作管弦樂作品《緣起》；2020至2022年間受 Ensemble Recherche 邀請，參與其以士紳化為主題的創作計劃 The New Recherche，並創作室樂作品《Migrating Tracks》。早於2016年，Ensemble intercontemporain 於其1976年成立以來首次在港演出中，演奏了鄺展維的六重奏作品《樹猶如此》。
鄺展維曾於香港構思並領導了數個探討場域特定性的跨界製作。2018至2019年他為香港創樂團策劃「聽得見的城市」，並為此計劃創作了一系列共六首於非音樂會場地演出的場域特定音樂作品《亞特拉斯》。及後兩年他繼續發展出另外兩部場域特定作品，分別為2020年由香港創樂團委約於香港動植物公園演出的《栩栩如生》，以及2021年由大館當代美術館委約的《安魂曲》。
作為表演者，鄺展維近年曾於蘇黎世Walcheturm藝術空間（2025）、瑞士吕姆林根新音樂節（2024）、西九自由空間耳震盪實驗音樂節（2024）、西九自由爵士音樂節（2023）以及西九聲無邊際（2023、2022）中亮相演出。
鄺展維1985年生於香港，早年分別於香港中文大學及倫敦大學國王學院修讀音樂，後於英國約克大學於Thomas Simaku指導下鑽研作曲，並於2013年獲頒博士學位。他的藝術發展亦從細川俊夫、Isabel Mundry、Francesco Filidei、Mauro Lanza 與 Oscar Bianchi 等作曲家的指導中獲重要啟迪。
鄺展維於2019年與陳楚珊共同創辦藝術創作及協作平台「廿一檔」，自創立以來擔任其聯合總監，策劃了多個跨地域和領域的藝術計劃。自2018年起，他亦於香港大學音樂系擔任兼職講師，現主要教授和啟導碩士課程的作曲與聲音藝術創作科目。現居於香港與蘇黎世兩地。