Kelvin Wan is a Hong Kong-based conductor and musicologist whose work connects orchestral performance, curatorial practice, education, and cultural research. He is the founder, Music Director, and Conductor of Amicis Sinfonia, and currently serves as Principal Conductor of the Millennium Academy Orchestra.

Trained as a violinist and percussionist, Wan brings to the podium a broad understanding of orchestral colour, ensemble communication, and rhythmic structure. His artistic work is closely linked to his musicological interests, particularly in public musicology, audience development, cross-cultural programming, and the social role of orchestral music in contemporary Hong Kong.

Kelvin Wan founded Amicis Sinfonia in 2022 and serves as its Music Director, Conductor, and Chairperson of the Board. In this role, he oversees the orchestra’s artistic direction, repertoire planning, rehearsal development, and curatorial vision.

His work with Amicis Sinfonia focuses on building a serious and collaborative orchestral platform for young musicians in Hong Kong. Through concert programming, international touring, education projects, and community engagement, he seeks to connect orchestral performance with wider cultural and social contexts.

Under his leadership, Amicis Sinfonia has developed an active profile in Hong Kong and abroad. The orchestra received a Hong Kong Arts Development Council Project Grant for its 2024 European tour, won First Prize in the Symphony Orchestra category at the 2024 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, and toured Tuscany, Italy in 2025.

Wan’s work with Amicis reflects his broader artistic and research interests: how repertoire, audience, place, and cultural identity shape the meaning of orchestral performance today.

In 2025, Amicis Sinfonia and Millennium Youth Orchestra jointly formed the Millennium Academy Orchestra (MAO), a collaborative youth training orchestra for students across Hong Kong.

As Principal Conductor of MAO, Kelvin Wan works alongside Music Director Dr. Jennifer Ho to support the orchestra’s artistic training, rehearsal development, and international performance preparation. His work with MAO focuses on developing young musicians as performers, ensemble players, teammates, and future cultural leaders.

Wan also serves as Tour Conductor for MAO’s 2026 Vienna–Prague Tour, which includes performance and exchange opportunities at major European venues including MuTh Concert Hall, the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and Smetana Hall.

Kelvin Wan made his conducting debut at the 2021 HKU Inauguration Ceremony, leading both the HKU Orchestra and Choir. His subsequent conducting engagements include a joint performance with musicians from HKU, HKUST, and PolyU, conducting Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1, Classical.

In addition to his role at Amicis Sinfonia and MAO, Wan currently serves as Conductor of the HKU Philharmonic Orchestra and as conductors of Secondary Schools across Hong Kong, where he works closely with young musicians in rehearsal, performance, and ensemble training.

Wan completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering with a Minor in Music at The University of Hong Kong (2019–2025), where he developed his conducting practice under Mr. Angus Lee and studied percussion under Dr. Deborah Waugh. He has studied orchestral conducting with Dr. Jennifer Ho since 2021, and began violin study under Miss Marvel Wong. He has also participated as an active participant in conducting masterclasses with Zahia Ziouani, Yip Wing-sie, and Philippe Fournier.

His repertoire interests centre on the Classical and Romantic symphonic tradition, with particular attention to late-Romantic and early twentieth-century orchestral repertoire, symphonic poems, and works with strong narrative or cultural dimensions. He is also interested in programming that places East Asian works in dialogue with the European symphonic canon.

Kelvin Wan is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Music at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he is a recipient of the CUHK MA Music Fellowship. His research is supervised by Prof. Li Ka Chi Edwin.

His musicological work explores the relationship between scholarship, performance, and public culture. In particular, he is interested in how orchestral music is programmed, framed, received, and made meaningful in contemporary Hong Kong. His research questions are closely connected to his work as a conductor and curator, especially through Amicis Sinfonia’s programming and community-facing projects.

Research interests include:

• Public musicology and the social role of orchestral institutions
• Audience development, accessibility, and cultural policy in Hong Kong
• Cultural-equity discourse and its transferability between Anglo-American and Hong Kong contexts
• Cross-cultural programming and the curation of East Asian works within the European symphonic tradition
• Narrativity and storytelling in late-Romantic symphonic and tone-poem repertoire
• Music, wellbeing, and community engagement in school, hospital, elderly, and hospice-care settings
• Youth orchestras as sites of pedagogical, social, and artistic formation

Conference presentation:

“Missing Audiences: Rethinking Public Musicology’s Anglo-American Racial Frameworks from Hong Kong” — Presented at the 2nd Interdisciplinary TPg Student Conference on Arts and Humanities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, April 2026.