Huang Ruo

Composer Huang Ruo has been lauded by The New York Times for having “a distinctive style.” His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, experimental, noise, natural and processed sound, rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls “Dimensionalism.” His music has been premiered and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, National Polish Radio Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera. His opera An American Soldier has recently received its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in June 2018, and was named one of the best classical music events in 2018 by The New York Times. His recent new opera M. Butterfly received its world premiere with the Santa Fe Opera in 2022. His future opera commissions will be for the Met Opera and the San Francisco Opera. He served as the first composer-in-residence for Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Huang Ruo is a composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music in NY, and is the artistic director and conductor of Ensemble FIRE. He was selected as a Young Leader Fellow by the National Committee on United States–China Relations in 2006. Huang Ruo’s music is administered exclusively by European American Music Distributors Company (ASCAP). For more information about the composer and his music, please visit: (www.huangruo.com)

Phil Chan

Co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface and President of the Gold Standard Arts Foundation, Phil Chan is a graduate of Carleton College and an alumnus of the Ailey School. He has held fellowships with Dance/USA, Drexel University, Jacob’s Pillow, Harvard University, the Manhattan School of Music, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York University and the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris. He is the author of Final Bow for Yellowface: Dancing between Intention and Impact and Banishing Orientalism and has served as Executive Editor for FLATT Magazine. A contributor to Dance Europe Magazine, Dance Magazine, Dance Australia and the Huffington Post, he currently serves on the Advisory Board of Dance Magazine. He served multiple years on the National Endowment for the Arts dance panel and the Jadin Wong Award panel presented by the Asian American Arts Alliance. He was a Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of Dance at Carleton College, and was named a Next 50 Arts Leader by the Kennedy Center. Recent projects include directing Madama Butterfly for Boston Lyric Opera (garnering “Best of 2023” in the Washington Post, Boston Globe and Broadway World), and staging a newly reimagined La Bayadere for Indiana University. His dances are currently in the repertory at Ballet West and Oakland Ballet, where he serves as Resident Choreographer.

Photo Credit: Eli Schmidt

Janet Wong

Janet Wong is the Associate Artistic Director of New York Live Arts and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. She has been working closely with artist Bill T. Jones since 1996 on the company’s multi-disciplinary work. Since 2006, she has also created projection design for many of the company’s works. In her capacity as curator, she is responsible for the presenting, commissioning and residency programming. She co-curates the Live Ideas and Live Artery Festivals (focusing on Arts x Humanities and Contemporary performance x Industry respectively). Janet was born in Hong Kong and trained in classical ballet in Hong Kong and London. She danced professionally in Berlin before moving to New York.

New York Live Arts

New York Live Arts is an internationally recognised destination for contemporary performance and humanities programming, offering audiences access to art and ideas by creatives notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with current sociopolitical and cultural currents. Led by world-renowned artist Bill T. Jones, New York Live Arts supports artists at all stages of their careers through residencies, commissions and artist services. It also serves as home base for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, which has been creating groundbreaking work for more than 40 years.

Er Gao

He Qi-wo (a.k.a. ErGao) is a dancer, choreographer, director and curator from Yangjiang, Guangdong. A graduate of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, he won a full scholarship from Singapore [CP] 3 for further studies in contemporary performing arts criticism in 2021. Since founding ErGao Dance Production Group (EGDP) in 2007, his works have constantly seen the body as the core of artistic investigation and the primary medium, using diverse strategies to illuminate social and cultural identities, sex, gender and other topics in the mainland in absurd and grave ways. His recent works focus on the mobility of new urban migrants in Chinese society and issues regarding the public nature of dance. His representative works include the Kung Hei Fat Choy series, Disco-Teca, This Is a Chicken Coop, Super Tight and Everyday Dance Movement.

ErGao Dance Production Group

Ergao Dance Production Group (EDPG) was founded by dancer/choreographer ErGao (He Qi-wo) in Guangzhou and Shunde, China, in 2007. Its productions prioritise dance theatre, dance film and community art; at its ‘core’, the body is the site of artistic investigation and the primary medium of EDPG’s work, employing diverse strategies to explore Chinese social and cultural identities, sex, gender and other topics. EDPG focuses on the participation and creative processes of non-professional dancers, providing them with the opportunity to explore movement in different social and cultural sites, creating a self-determined community and dance space. Among its representative works are Butterfly Island, Disco-Teca, the Kung Hei Fat Choy series, This Is a Chicken Coop and the community dance project Southern Dance House.

Lio Kuok Man

Currently serving as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Macao Orchestra, Chief Conductor of RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Programme Director of the Macao International Music Festival and Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Lio Kuok Man has been praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a startling conducting talent.” He was the second prize winner of the 3rd Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Paris, also winning the audience prize and orchestra prize. He was the first Chinese Assistant Conductor to serve with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Lio has collaborated with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony, Orchestra National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Latvian National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan, and Kyoto Symphony. Educated at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory, Lio is a founding member and President of the Macao Chamber Music Association. His contributions to arts and culture have received a Certificate of Commendation and Medal of Cultural Merit from the governments of Hong Kong and Macao. In 2021 he was among Hong Kong’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons and in 2022 was awarded Artist of the Year (Music) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

Jordan Cheng

Jordan Cheng is a professional musical theatre performer, playwright and creator. He received his Master’s degree in Musical Theatre from the Guildford School of Acting in the UK and trained extensively under the mentorship of Mohamed Drissi. Cheng won the 31st Hong Kong Drama Awards for Best Leading Actor, the Award for Young Artist in Drama in the 17th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards and the 2017 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actor in a Musical. To date, he has received multiple local and international theatre award nominations.

Cheng won the 31st Hong Kong Drama Awards for Best Leading Actor, the Award for Young Artist in Drama in the 17th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards and the 2017 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actor in a Musical. To date, he has received multiple local and international theatre award nominations.

Having performed in nearly 90 theatre productions in 20 cities worldwide, Cheng has worked with many local theatre companies and artists. He has also graced the stage in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan and Estonia.

He has created several critically-acclaimed Cantonese musicals and translated several international musical hits into Cantonese productions, contributing his work to foster the local musical community. Recent performing credits include I Am What I Am, The Impossible Trial and Hard Times.

Photographer: 小甩