Ting Fan is one of the legendary violinists of Hong Kong.
Fan first picked up the violin at age four, quickly passing the audition for China’s Central Conservatory of Music by age 11. Rejected for admission due to family political background, Fan, just before his 14th birthday, swam to Hong Kong in pursuit of his musical dream. There, renowned violinist and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra music director Lim Kek-Tjiang took him under his wing as his protégé. 4 months later, Fan officially joined the HKPhil as Assistant Concertmaster.

        At age 18, Fan travelled to the States to study with world-class masters at the Curtis Institute of Music. His teachers included Joshua Brodsky, Ivan Galamian, Felix Galimir, and Arnold Steinhardt. He attended conducting master-classes by William Smith and Karl Muller. After Curtis, Fan went to the Juilliard School for his graduate studies, where he pursued chamber music, orchestral technique, and conducting. There, Fan practiced orchestral repertoire with celebrated concertmasters Glenn Dicterow, Norman Carol, and Joseph Silverstein. He learned conducting under the tutelage of Jorge Mester and took master-classes with the great Maestros Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti, and Claudio Abbado.

        After studying abroad, Fan returned to Hong Kong and the HKPhil with renewed passion. Since then, in his 37 seasons of playing for the orchestra, his main roles have alternated between Principal Second Violin, Assistant Concertmaster, and Acting Concertmaster, although he had also performed as soloist on many occasions. At the same time, Fan is well-known in the chamber music scene. With violinist Benedict Cruft, his Tononi String Quartet premiered music composed by Benjamin Britten and Leoš Janáček in China. His New Art Quartet and Canzone Trio has made concert tours to Taiwan, Japan, Canada, Chicago, London, Cremona, and New York, performing at venues including the Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. As a conductor, Fan founded and acted as the first Music Director of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, a now very recognized young people’s orchestras in Asia. Recently, he has also been appointed Board Director and Chief Conductor of the Saigon Philharmonic Orchestra of Vietnam.

        Outside of his performing career, Fan has taught violin, orchestral technique, and chamber music at multiple universities. Among these are the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Baptist University. Moreover, he is recognized as the founding faculty of the Orchestral Technique Class at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

        Fan hopes to bring classical music to children of all backgrounds. He has done many philanthropic work and has established a non-profit funds to hopefully fulfill this dream. In his words, he hopes to “bring the joy of classical musicians to the next generation”.

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