Artists / Faculties
Clarinet: Martin Choy
Choy Kwok Tin started the clarinet at the age of 12, under the guidance of Norman Foster. He later entered the Hong Kong Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Daniel Silver. In 1985 he furthered his pursuit of music at the Royal College of Music under John McCaw, the principal Clarinet of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.
After returning from England he was engaged as clarinetist in the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for the season 1987/88. Choy is now teaching Clarinet and Saxophone at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Baptist University and the Hong Kong Music Institute. Besides, he is the Vice-Chairman of the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble Association. He is also the founding member of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in which he was the Principal Clarinet from 1990 to 2006. From 2007 to now, he is the music director and conductor of Parsons Wind Orchestra.
He performed with the Hong Kong local famous singer, Miss Ivana Wong and the prize winner of the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition, Miss Colleen Lee a charity concert for Ronald McDonald House Charities in February 2011 and performed as soloist with different orchestras such as Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Macau Chamber Orchestra. Since 1996, he has been invited several times to hold master classes in Macau and Guangzhou Conservatory and as an adjudicator for the Macau Youth Music Competition. He is one of the founding member of "Les Six" and overseas consultant of Macau Youth Symphony Orchestra. Besides, he is very active as a chamber musician and soloist of numerous festivals, from both local and overseas such as the Musicarama Contemporary Music Festival and the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) World Music Days. He has been very active in the concert halls of Hong Kong as well as in Macau, Japan, France, Poland and Lithuania.
Choy is also an active band director for Alliance Primary School, Kowloon Tong and Pui Ching Middle School. For the past few years, he has been putting efforts in the cooperation with local composers to write new works for school band training.