Stephen Lee (M0)
Stephen Lee is a Hong Kong native who grew up in Seattle, Washington, USA. He began playing flute at age 14 and was being honored with numerous awards from his high school years. He was privileged to have live performances broadcasted at the KING FM classical radio station in Seattle and later received scholarships from the University of Washington to study with world-renowned wooden flute expert, Felix Skowronek and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Flute Performance in 2000. Stephen was awarded the Trinity Guildhall LTCL Flute Recital Diploma in 2010.
Relocated back to Hong Kong in 2007, Stephen has been busy teaching and performing. Not only that he is the principal flutist of the Hong Kong Symphonia and the Gustav Mahler Orchestra, but he also frequently collaborates with many chamber music ensembles. With his multi-talents, Stephen is much sought-after in the pop music field too. Recent collaborations include “Anita Mui 10th Anniversary Concert” in 2014; concerts with a Vancouver-based rock band, “BearWithUs”; as well as Hong Kong TV drama’s original soundtrack recordings include “Every Step You Take” 「陪著你走」, “The No No Girl” 「全職沒女」, “Heart and Greed 3” 「溏心風暴3」, the upcoming “OMG, Your Honour“ 「是咁的，法官閣下」and 「解決師」.
As a composer, Stephen composed both Cantopop and Classical music. He composed and arranged music for solo flute with piano, flute ensembles, and flute choir. His flute trio piece, “Tango for Three”, was one of the final listed works in the Flute View’s Contest for Composers 2015, where the piece was world-premiered by the Flute View Trio. In 2017, Stephen was the assistant music director and music arranger of the Hong Kong original musical drama, “Mencius Sings Around The World” 「孟子與虎媽唱遊大世界」.
One of Stephen’s pedagogic mottos is to introduce the Western flute culture to his students. He led his students to the National Flute Association Convention in the US, one of the largest in the World, in Las Vegas (2012), Washington DC (2015), Minneapolis (2017), and Salt Lake City (2019). Stephen is already planning next year’s NFA Convention tour in San Antonio (2024).
Stephen founded three chamber music groups, namely “Hong Kong Chamber Flutes”, “Project M0Ch3” and “Trio IS2” to promote flute choir, contemporary music, and classical flute-violin-piano trio music. Stephen is the founder, artistic director, and chief conductor of the flute choir in the latter group Stephen teamed up with pianist Christine Cheng, with both of them wishing to promote Contemporary Classical Music to Hong Kong's audiences. He also teamed up with violinist Stephen Lam and pianist Irene Chan to promote classical-style trio music for flute, violin, and piano.
Christine Cheng (Ch3)
Christine received her piano training at the age of nine and was awarded the LTCL diploma from the Trinity College (London) when she was 16. Her previous teachers include Yeung Sud-On, Leung Mei, and Tino Maxwell. She graduated from the Department of Music and Fine Arts in Hong Kong Baptist University, where she studied first under Hung Chong and later with Raymond Young. Upon graduation, she was invited to perform and be interviewed in the “Young Music Makers” on RTHK4, as well as the guest pianists in the Christmas concert of the Hong Kong Bach’s Choir.
Then she furthers her study at the Texas State University-San Marcos and graduated as Master of Music (Piano Performance) in 2005. At TSU she was awarded the Genevieve B. Hawkins Piano Accompanying Scholarship for her excellent achievement as a vocal/ opera accompanist. After returning to her home city, she remains active in teaching and performing, especially in accompanying that she is seen in vocal and instrumental concerts in the major performing venues.
Christine never stops to improve herself and to keep up with the new developments in piano playing. She took a big step in 2015, quitting her job and enrolling into Royal College of Music for the Master degree course of Contemporary Piano Performance under Professor Andrew Ball the former head of keyboard department. At RCM Christine concentrates on performing the latest piano works that include extended techniques, multimedia collaborations, and electronic music. During the RCM day she was privileged to be selected as the keyboardist of the RCM symphonic orchestra in the annual concert taken place at the Royal Festival Hall.
After returning to her home town, Christine actively appears in numerous concerts as instrumental accompanists and contemporary piano music soloist. Recent engagement include 'Two Flutes in Recital' series with flutist Alecx Chung (Hong Kong), Caterina Stocchi (Italy) and Christina Han (USA).
She is also one of the founding member of the 8-hands piano quartet group '8ight' and the group has just finished their debut concert in 2018 January, Taipei. She wrote two 8-hands pieces for the ensemble and both are to be premiered in 2018.
In 2018, Christine co-founded 'Project M0Ch3' with flutist Stephen Lee, together they launched three instalments of 'Contemporary Sound' recital series which aim to promote new music from around the world to Hong Kong audiences.