BIOGRAPHIES | Ryan Ho

EDUCATION
British-born Chinese Ryan Ho enjoys an active career as a violinist and conductor. He is serving as teaching assistant at the Takako Nishizaki Violin Studio and Music Director of the St. John’s Cathedral Youth Choir in Hong Kong. He is also a faculty member of the Hong Kong Music Institute and a violinist in Quartet360 - a professional string quartet based in Hong Kong.

Mr. Ho began his musical studies at the age of six in Hong Kong with piano studies followed by violin six months later. He attended at the Royal Academy of Music (Junior Department) in London between 1994 and 2000, and was the winner of the J.A. Violin Competition, North London Violin Competition as well as the Frederick Phelps Award.

He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Simon Fischer, graduated with a Master of Music degree and a Postgraduate Diploma. He has toured extensively throughout the UK, Europe as well as China, as both soloist and orchestral player and was a member of the Amadeus Orchestra, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, Royal Orchestral Society as well as the National Musician’s Symphony Orchestra in the UK. Throughout his career, Mr. Ho participated in numerous masterclasses with such figures as Masao Kawasaki, Sally Thomas, Mateja Marinkovic, Sophie Langdon and Rainer Kuchl (Concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic). Mr. Ho completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from the University of Southampton in 2003.

PERSONAL INFORMATION
As a conductor, Mr. Ho has worked with numerous orchestras, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Hebrides Ensemble, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orquestra da Camera Chihuahua (Mexico), Sinfonia Tamesa (UK), Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Academy Orchestra and Guildhall Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted the St. Magnus Festival Chorus and Hong Kong Voices. Mr. Ho has been a regular conductor for the I-Maestri Orchestra in London since 2007 and has performed in numerous concerts at St. John’s Smith Square. In 2008, Mr. Ho served as Associate Conductor for the London Opera Vocal, where he conducted a performance of Wagner’s Die Walkure at the National Opera Studio.

In 2006, Mr. Ho was invited as a conducting fellow to attend the prestigious American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, where he studied with David Zinman, having participated in the Aspen Music Festival and School the previous year as a violinist. It was in Aspen where Mr. Ho made his opera debut, conducting scenes from Puccini’s La Boheme at the Wheeler Opera House. This past summer, Mr. Ho was privileged to be one of eight conductors invited to the Orkney Conducting Course, as part of the St. Magnus Festival in Scotland. His participation was generously supported by the Musicians Benevolent Fund in the UK. Mr. Ho has participated in masterclasses with Gustav Meier, Murry Sidlin and James Conlon. He has been and continues to be mentored by Sian Edwards in the UK.

Mr. Ho graduated with a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) as a full scholarship recipient, studying with Mark Gibson. While in Cincinnati, Mr. Ho served as assistant conductor and orchestra manager for both CCM’s Philharmonia and Concert Orchestras, leading performances at the Corbett Auditorium as well as the Patricia Corbett Theater.