Meet our faculty

Hong Kong pianist Gabriel Kwok has led Keyboard Studies at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts since 1989 and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. A sought-after pedagogue, he gives masterclasses worldwide, serves on the faculties of major international festivals, and frequently adjudicates leading piano competitions. A Steinway Artist, he has collaborated with many distinguished performers and received Hong Kong’s Medal of Honour for his contributions to piano education.

American pianist Andrew Tyson, hailed by BBC Radio 3 as “a real poet of the piano,” won First Prize, the Mozart Prize, and Audience Prize at the 2015 Géza Anda Competition and is a laureate of the Leeds Competition. He appears with major orchestras across Europe, North America, and Asia and in recital at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Zürich Tonhalle. His acclaimed Alpha Classics recordings highlight his coloristic, imaginative playing.

Chinese pianist Xiaoqin Pan entered the Central Conservatory of Music’s Piano Department in 1999 and quickly gained recognition, winning top prizes at competitions in Taipei, China, Kazakhstan, and the United States. In 2007 he represented the Conservatory at the Juilliard International Master Class celebrating Hong Kong’s handover anniversary, receiving high praise from Yoheved Kaplinsky. The same year he joined the Central Conservatory faculty, continuing an active career as performer and educator.

Chinese pianist Junhui Chen is acclaimed for his refined artistry and wide-ranging concerto and recital appearances. He has performed with orchestras including the Rochester Philharmonic and China National Symphony, and at festivals in Paris, Perugia, Orford, Fontainebleau, and Shanghai. A graduate of Curtis, Juilliard, and the École Normale de Musique de Paris, he is currently pursuing his doctorate at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music under Zhe Tang.

Pianist and educator Qitu Feng, a graduate of the China Conservatory of Music, is Artistic Director and founder of Beijing Yingrui Cultural Development and a board member of the Austrian Society for Music and Music Education (Beijing). Over decades of teaching, he has guided many students into China’s top conservatories and to major prizes at leading national and international piano competitions, and is frequently honored as an outstanding teacher, adjudicator, and contributor to piano education.

USA based HK-born pianist Hin-Sing (James) Au studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Antonio Pompa-Baldi before beginning his Doctor of Music at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under Arnaldo Cohen, where he also teaches piano. Praised by Maria João Pires for his “exquisite artistry,” he has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia, won numerous international competition prizes, and appeared as concerto soloist with the IU Jacobs orchestra and other ensembles.