A renowned huqin performer, Ngai Kwun Wa is a gaohu and banhu virtuoso with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. He also teaches at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Ngai became a disciple of the late huqin master, Liu Mingyuan at the age of nine. He has become a true exponent of his mentor’s art after having benefitted from the latter’s tutelage for more than a decade. He graduated from the China Conservatory (now the China Conservatory of Music) in 1985, where he trained in Chinese music. It was followed by another course of study at the Department of Composition of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1986.
Major awards include: in 1988, his original composition Pastorale for soprano won the Silver Award at the Art Song of the 80’s Contest in China; in 1982, he won the Outstanding Performance Award presented by the Ministry of Culture of China at the First Folk Instrumental Competition.
Ngai has given many notable performances. In 2017, he gave an impressive performance of the banhu classic, Hua-Bang-Zi at the ‘Debut Revisited – HKCO 40th Anniversary Concert’. In 2010, Ngai gave the Hong Kong premiere of Theatrical Colours, composed by Maestro Liu Wenjin, at ‘The Great Wall Capriccio’ concert featuring the works of the Maestro, in a jinghu solo performance. Later that year, he gave the Taiwan premiere of the work at the invitation of the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan, in a concert featuring music selected by the renowned conductor, Yan Huichang, and held at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. His concert in 2006, ‘The Huqin World of Ngai Kwun-wa’, presented by the HKCO at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, was a phenomenal success, and its recording is now available as CDs and DVDs. In 2004, he premiered the symphonic suite, The Lady Warriors of the Yang Family for jinghu, erhu and orchestra at the HKCO’s ‘Five Huqins in Concert’.
Ngai has also arranged and composed several works for the HKCO, among them The Horse Race – New Version and A Night in Beijing for suona, pipa, jinghu and orchestra have been taken on tour to the Mainland and other parts of the world. His 2018 composition of the huqin suite, Songs of the Earth, made its world premiere at the HKCO concert, ‘Strings to Remember – String Stories III’ and won both critical and popular acclaim.
