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 160 th 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 10 th 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