Described by The Independent as a composer with “a distinctive voice”, Fung Lam has enjoyed a multifaceted career as one of the foremost Asian composers of his generation. His music has been performed at the BBC Proms, and in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Konzerthaus Berlin, Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall and South Bank Centre in London. Performers of his music have included the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil), London Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fung Lam holds the distinction of being the first Hong Kong composer ever commissioned by the BBC. He has to date written over ten orchestral works, including three commissions for the BBC (Unlocking, BE and Endless Forms) and two commissions for the HK Phil (Rong and Quintessence).
The world première of Endless Forms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in 2012 received critical acclaims, taking his music to a global audience. An excerpt from Evening Standard's review reads, “… Lam, working with a carefully constructed minimum of material, shapes his musical world with dreamy individuality.”
Fung Lam served as the HK Phil’s The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Composer-in-Residence in 2013-14. Quintessence, which was composed to celebrate the orchestra’s 40th anniversary, has been performed, under Jaap van Zweden, in Hong Kong and on three separate tours in 12 major cities in Europe (2015), China (2016) and Asia/Australia (2017).
Besides concert music, his output also includes music for dance and theatre, and interdisciplinary works.
These include the multi-media crossover concert entitled Hong Kong Episodes (2015), for which he is one of two co-composers and its conductor. Since its premiere in Hong Kong, this production has toured to London, Taipei as well as no less than six cities in Mainland China.
Recent major productions include Dance of Strings (2019), an original string music theatre work for the Hong Kong Dance Company, Yet Another Dream (2021), his portrait concert in collaboration with visual communicator anothermountainman, Nocturnes (2022), a music and film collaboration with photographer/director Wing Shya, Hyperreality (2023), an installation-concert co-created with media artist Keith Lam and premiered at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and reCONNECT 2024: NEW CANVAS (2023-24), an immersive multi-media performance at the National Taichung Theater in Taiwan in collaboration also with Keith Lam.
In recent years, he has also been creating soundscape compositions, multi-media installations, as well as visual artworks. These include Round (2016-24), which has been exhibited in different countries including the Hong Kong House at Echigo-Tsumari Art Field 2023 in Japan, Literary Walk (2020), a collaboration with designer Kay Chan at The Mills, Before a Passage (2021), a collaboratively-created interdisciplinary experiential installation at the North Point (East) Pier, Dreamscape Music Chair and Dreamscape Music Space (2021), soundscape installations exhibited at the Central Pier 9 and Form Society respectively, an interactive soundscape for Toolbox Percussion’s Double Listen exhibition at ArtisTree (2023), as well as his screenprinted artwork Scintillating Hearts (2022) which has been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London, UK. Most recently, he was featured at the “encounters: oi! oi! oi!” exhibition, curated by Toolbox Percussion, at the Oil Street Art Space as the lead artist, showcasing three installation works Four Symbols (2024), Round (2016-24) and Listening Room (2024).
Fung Lam was the Director of Artistic Planning with the HK Phil in 2017-19. In addition to delivering two seasons of programmes (2018/19 and 2019/20) that have been described by the media as “widely praised” and “struck a fine balance between tradition and innovation”, he also established the orchestra’s first ticketed chamber music series (HK Phil x Tai Kwun) and the orchestra’s first education platform for emerging composers (The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Composers Scheme). He was responsible for introducing more than 40 world and regional premières, often alongside core classical repertoire, to the Hong Kong audiences, and for presenting debut collaborations with artists such as Hiromi and Max Richter.
Born in Hong Kong in 1979, Fung Lam studied composition with Martin Butler, Michael Finnissy and Michael Zev Gordon at the Universities of Southampton and Sussex, and was awarded a doctorate degree in composition from the latter in 2012. In the same year he received the Young Artist Award 2011 from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
He currently serves as an arts advisor (music) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and has previously served as as a member of the Performing Arts Committee at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.