American Prize Gold Medalist Cheung Chau is Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras at Utah Valley University. He is Music Director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony in Orem, Utah, Music Director of Sinfonietta Polonia in Poznań, Poland, Principal Guest Conductor of the Changsha Symphony in Hunan, China, and conductor and faculty of the International Musicians’ Academy with the Sinfonietta Vidin in Vidin, Bulgaria.  

 

Cheung inspires audiences through his powerful performances, diverse programming, collaborations with community artistic institutions, and engaging beloved and exciting artists. Conducting over 760 concerts in 16 countries worldwide, Chau is a nationally and internationally recognized musician and conductor. In addition to winning first prize of the internationally acclaimed American Prize as professional orchestra conductor in 2024, Chau is a USA National Arts Associate with Sigma Alpha Iota, amongst distinguished musicians including Semyon Bychkov, Sir Neville Marriner, Andre Watts and Pinchas Zukerman. Chau won the ASTA’s Teacher of the Year Award in 2018. His 2017 world premiere recording of Snow Queen with Sinfonietta Polonia on leading Polish label, Acte Préalable, received a Global Music Awards Silver Medal. 

 

As Music Director of Sinfonietta Polonia, Chau initiated a New Year Concert series which reached over two hundred thousand live audience members since its inception in 2007. In addition to winning a silver medal from Global Music Awards, Sinfonietta Polonia toured throughout Europe and China, including winning the World’s Best Gala-Event in 2017 performing at the Federico Fellini Gala at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, Italy. 

 

As director of orchestras at UVU, Chau collaborated with artists and ensembles including Jason Alexander, Kathryn Eberle, Colin Carr, Hans Euler, distinguished UVU music faculty members, the UVU Opera, UVU Choirs, the UVU Center for Constitutional Studies, the UVU Office for Global Engagement, the UVU College of Science, the UVU Theatre, Dance and Visual Arts departments, the Wasatch Chorale, the Mapleton Chorale, the Southern Utah University Opus Chamber Choir, amongst others. The UVU premiere of Mahler’s Second Symphony, “Resurrection”, at the Noorda Center in April of 2024 became one of the best-selling concerts at UVU and the only sold out concert at the Noorda Center in its 2023 – 2024 season. In the 2024 – 2025 season, the UVU Symphony and Chamber Orchestra present Massenet’s Werther with the UVU Opera, Cabaret—an evening of Gershwin’s music with the UVU Theatre Department, and performances of Tango music with the UVU Contemporary Dance Ensemble. The UVU Symphony will also feature violinist Aubree Oliverson in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in a tribute to Sibelius at his 160th birth anniversary.  

 

As a conductor of professional orchestras, Chau served as assitant conductor to Edo de Waart at the Hong Kong Philharmonic conducting the orcheatra in over 80 concerts including the 2007 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong Handover, amongst audience members including Chinese President Hu Jintao. He served as the Resident Conductor of the Changsha Symphony in Hunan, China, of which he is currently principal guest conductor, with nationally televised concerts reaching millions of audience members. Since 2004 Chau served as music director of Sinfonietta Polonia, performing over 300 concerts reaching over 300,000 live audience members. He served as the principal guest conductor of the Lublin Philharmonic in Poland and is currently conductor of the Sinfonietta Vidin at the International Musicians Academy in Vidin, Bulgaria. 

 

As conductor of youth ensembles, in addition to serving as the music director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony since 2013, awarded Best Youth Organization of Provo in 2022, Chau was three times guest conductor of the International Association of Southeast Asian Schools in Jakarta, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. He was conductor of Utah All State Orchestra and Education Ambassador for the Hong Kong Philharmonic, conducting the orchestra in educational concerts and visiting with hundreds of middle and high school students each year. Chau also conducted youth ensembles in Utah including the Sandy Youth Symphony, The Weber School District Honors Orchestra, and the Bridgerland Honors Orchestra in Logan.  

 

Chau was music director of regional orchestras including the Central Pennsylvania Symphony, the Bloomington Symphony and the Manchester Symphony, performing music ranging from Broadway, film and popular music, including music of the Beatles, to ballet, to classical standards including music of Copland, Sibelius, Bruckner, Bernstein, Holst, Brahms, amongst many others. In Pennsylvania he initiated a performance of “Dancing with the PA Stars”, a project in collaboration with the Pennsylvania legislature which raised thousands of dollars for the Pennsylvania Alzheimers’ Association. 

 

As conductor of collegiate orchestras, Chau was director of orchestras at Haverford College and University of Connecticut. He received full professorship from UVU in 2024 and took the UVU Symphony to the semi-finals at the American Prize in 2018. 

 

As guest conductor Chau conducted the Moscow Symphony in Russia, the Nordhausen Philharmonic and the Nuremburg Symphony in Germany, the Filharmonica Marchigiana in Italy, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in Sweden, the Vassa Symphony in Finland, the Williamsport Symphony, the Charlottesville Symphony, and the Ballet West Orchestra in the United States, the Białystok Philharmonic, the Kielce Philharmonic, the Lublin Philharmonic, the Sudecka Philharmonic, and the Olsztyn Philharmonic Orchestras in Poland. In China, he conducted the China National Symphony, the Tianjin Philharmonic, the Wuhan Philharmonic, the Xiamen Philharmonic, and became the permanent guest conductor of the Inner Mongolia Orchestra in 2007.  

 

As ballet conductor Chau conducted productions of Giselle and Nutcracker with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and the Ballet West at the Harrisburg Whitaker Center and the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City. He was guest conductor at the Grand Opera and Ballet Theater in Poznań, Poland, where he conducted the world premiere of Alice in Wonderland in 2014. Chau led the world premiere performance of Snow Queen in March of 2016 at the Grand Theater in Poznań. Since then, Chau led Alice in Wonderland and Snow Queen regularly in Poznań and at the prestigious Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland. 

 

As opera conductor Chau collaborated with the UVU Opera, the Royal Stockholm Academy Opera and the Georgia Southern Opera, conducting Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Massenet’s Werther, Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, and others. 

 

Artists Chau collaborated as conductor include Stephanie Chase, Monte Belknap, Kathryn Eberle, Barnabás Kelemen, Stefan Tarara, Colin Carr, Jeffrey Solow, Matt Holland, Rebecca Corruccini, Jason Alexander, Leticia Oaks Strong, Ning An, Ulrich Knörzer, Bob Evans, Maria Masycheva, Nathan Hughes, Barbara Kubiak, Anna Maria Staśkiewicz, amongst many other nationally and internationally renowned soloists and personalities in the USA, Germany, Poland and China. Chau also collaborates regularly in concert with non-traditional concert artists including Bulgarian folk dancer masters, Romani folk artists, dancers (ballet, modern, ballroom) narrators, visual artists, amongst other. 

 

As cellist Chau performed as soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Macao Symphony, the Changsha Symphony, the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, the Timpanogos Symphony, the UVU Symphony, Sinfonietta Polonia, and Sinfonietta Vidin, and will perform the UVU premiere of Gulda’s Cello Concerto in collaboration with the UVU Wind Symphony in March of 2025.

 

Chau received the first double doctorate from the New England Conservatory in wind ensemble conducting and cello performance, studying conducting with Frank Battisti and cello with Colin Carr. He was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Conducting Academy studying with David Zinman and Alan Gilbert. He studied orchestral conducting with Jorma Panula at the Royal Conservatory of Sweden and was mentored by Edo de Waart and Charles Dutoit.  

 

 “Cheung Chau led an impressive symphony concert in Sondershausen…and showed a powerful rendition of his skill…A musical firework unfolded before the audience, between the sinking softness and the euphoric feeling of youth. This interpretation made the greatness of the work (Schubert “Great” Symphony) understood instantly.”  

—Ronald Urlig, Thueringer Allgemeine, Erfurt, Germany

 

“The tableaux (in Lithuanian Rhapsody by Karlowicz) are doubtlessly difficult to interpret, as they are emotionally dense, complex. However, the orchestra under Chau’s baton painted them in dark hues so very desirable in the first tableau, brightening the color spectrum accordingly in the subsequent episodes—in the subtle Andante tranquillo, dance-like Allegretto giocoso, all until the return of the initial nostalgia.  One found great satisfaction and pleasure in listening to the “Lithuanian Rhapsody” precisely thanks to Chau’s consistent construction and progression of moods, apt graduation of emotions and logical narration.”

—Dorota Gonet, Gazeta.Wyborcza, Lublin, Poland