Academy Jazz Ensemble Concert

演藝爵士樂隊音樂會

The Academy Jazz Ensemble introduces staff and students to the creative challenge of improvisation in the major jazz styles. The Ensemble performs around four times during the year in different venues within the Academy, and is often featured in community outreach concerts at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The Ensemble is led by local veteran jazz performer Timothy Wilson.

About the leader

Timothy Wilson

Flutist Timothy Wilson was trained at the Paris Conservatoire Nationale Supérieure de Musique with Gaston Crunelle and Regis Calle, and at the Manhattan School of Music with Harold Bennett and Harvey Solberger in New York City where he was born. Before coming to Hong Kong, he was active as a freelance performer and as a member of The Group for Contemporary Music in New York City. Being the principal flutist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, he often appeared as soloist and recorded with it on many occasions.

He is on the faculties of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed throughout the Eastern United States, France, Netherlands and throughout East Asia. He has often been featured in recordings of Hong Kong Composer’s work, among others. His students from Hong Kong have distinguished themselves pursuing further studies abroad in the US, Canada, Australia, England, France and Austria, and often receiving scholarships. Former pupils currently hold professional positions in the US, Canada, China and Mexico as well as prominent positions in Hong Kong.

Timothy Wilson also has a parallel career in Jazz as a flutist/saxophonist having received guidance from James Moody and Ernie Watts, among other luminaries. With the Asian-Fusion trio Han Shan, he has given many performances, including several in New York City. They have also produced a number of CDs and recorded for broadcast. He is currently tenor saxophone soloist with the Saturday Night Jazz Orchestra, and leads his own small group Jazz Straight Up, performing in all jazz venues in Hong Kong. He teaches Jazz Studies at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Hong Kong Baptist University.

Recent activities include performances together with the renowned international soloists Robert Aiken and Paul Edmond Davis as well as rising Chinese star Ni Yi-Zhen. His previous solo recital in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts was highly successful, equally were his appearances in Beijing and Shanghai with his Chinese/Jazz Fusion Ensemble and with Saturday Night Jazz Orchestra at Shanghai Expo 2010, “Swing for All” in the City Festival of Hong Kong, and in “Let’s Swing Taipei” 2012.