Leon Ko

Leon Ko Sai-tseung (Chinese: 高世たかせ章あきら; pinyin: Gāo Shìzhāng) is a composer for musical theatre and films. He won a Richard Rodgers Development Award, a Golden Horse Award and numerous musical awards. His mother, Lucilla You Min (尤ゆう敏さとし), was a famous actress in post-war Hong Kong Mandarin cinema and won "Best Actress" at the 1st Annual Golden Horse Awards and two consecutive Asian Film Festivals. His grandfather, Bak Yuk Tong (白はく玉堂きょくどう), was a famous Cantonese opera artist, known as one of the Four Super Stars (四よん大だい天王てんのう).

Leon Ko Sai-tseung
高世たかせ章あきら
Alma mater	Northwestern University, New York University
Occupation	Composer

Personal life

Ko received a master’s in Musical Theatre Writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. His musical Heading East, with book and lyrics by Robert Lee, won the 2001 Richard Rodgers Development Award and was restaged in New York in 2010 in the form of a concert presentation. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, as well as on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), where he wrote songs for the children series The Puzzle Place.

Career

Ko won ten Best Score awards for his Cantonese musicals The Good Person of Szechwan (四川しせん好こう人ひと), The Legend of the White Snake (白蛇しろへび新しん傳つて), Field of Dreams (頂いただき頭あたま鎚づち), The Passage Beyond (一いち屋や寶貝ほうがい), Sing Out (奮青樂らく與路よろ), The Woman in Kenzo (穿ほじKenzo的てき女人にょにん) and The Impossible Trial (大だい狀じょう王おう) as well as his a cappella theatre piece Our Immortal Cantata (大だい殉情じゅんじょう) in the 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2023 Hong Kong Drama Awards. For the movie Perhaps Love (如果·愛あい), he received a Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Song, a CASH Golden Sail Music Award for Best Alternative Composition as well as a Hong Kong Film Award, an Asia-Pacific Film Festival Award and a Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Film Score. In 2013, he received a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Film Song for the movie The Last Tycoon (大だい上海しゃんはい). He was nominated for a Golden Horse Award and a Hong Kong Film Award in 2008 for the movie The Warlords (投とう名狀めいじょう).

He was the musical director of Hong Kong pop legend Jacky Cheung’s 2004 musical revival world tour of Snow.Wolf.Lake (雪ゆき狼おおかみ湖こ). He worked with Jacky again on The Year of Jacky Cheung World Tour 07, penning a 30-minute musical for the concert. In 2009, he wrote an opening number and a mini-musical finale for Liza Wang's musical Liza the Diva (真しん係がかり阿おもね姐あね─汪ひろし明あきら荃).

He also took part in the revitalisation of Cantonese opera. In 2006, he wrote a new opening song and incidental music for Princess Changping (帝みかど女おんな花はな) presented by Yam Kim Fai & Pak Suet Sin Charitable Foundation (任にん白しろ慈善じぜん基金ききん) and performed by Chor Fung Ming Troupe (雛ひな鳳おおとり鳴な劇團げきだん). In 2012, he wrote an opening number for Dream of the Red Chamber (紅べに樓ろう夢ゆめ) performed by Connie Chan and Jian Wen Duan. In 2014, he wrote incidental music for Reincarnation of the Red Plum Blossoms (再さい世よ紅梅こうばい記き) presented by Yam Pak Foundation. In 2017, he wrote a new opening song and incidental music for Shade of Butterfly and Red Pear Blossom (蝶ちょう影かげ紅べに梨なし記き) presented by Yam Pak Foundation.

Other works include the scores to:

• the movies Monster Hunt 2 (捉妖記き2), Shed Skin Papa (脫皮だっぴ爸爸), Monster Hunt (捉妖記き), Insanity (暴瘋語ご), Dearest (親愛しんあい的てき), That Demon Within (魔ま警), The Great Magician (大だい魔術まじゅつ師し) and Mr. Cinema (老ろう港みなと正傳せいでん);
• the stage musicals Sing High (我わが要よう高だか8度ど) for Macao Cultural Centre’s 15th Anniversary celebrations and Angel Falls (夢ゆめ傳說でんせつ) for Hong Kong Dance;
• the stage plays Tonnochy (杜もり老ろう誌し) for Emperor Entertainment and Cross-mopolitan (咖喱盆ぼん菜さい釀薯條じょう) for Chung Ying Theatre;
• the transcultural music theatre The Liaisons (情話じょうわ紫むらさき釵) for the 2010 Hong Kong Arts Festival and Hong Kong's participation in Expo 2010 Shanghai; and
• the stage adaptation of the movie Please Don't Eat the Daisies for the New York stage.

In 2011, his first London musical Takeaway (also the first major British Chinese musical) premiered at Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Ko has also performed in public himself. In 2009, he orchestrated and performed a medley of five songs from some of his own musicals/plays at the 2009 Hong Kong Drama Awards in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies. Later that year, he orchestrated and performed a medley of two songs (one of which was tailor-made for the poem Looking up at the Starry Sky (仰望ぎょうぼう星空ほしぞら) written by the PRC Premier Wen Jiabao) at the Cultural Show in Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China (香港ほんこん同胞どうほう慶祝けいしゅく中華人民共和國ちゅうかじんみんきょうわこく成立せいりつ六ろく十じゅう週しゅう年ねん文藝ぶんげい晚ばん會かい) together with Jacky Cheung, Yao Jue and Yang Peiyi. Since 2010, he has co-hosted The Shaw Prize Award Presentation Ceremony with Dodo Cheng. In 2018, he staged a concert titled "The Amazing Filmphony" with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. The concert consisted of his film scores and songs, of which he sang three of them on stage.

Aside from music, Ko held an antique perfume bottle exhibition entitled Time in a Bottle (尋ひろ香が記き) at IFC Mall in 2012. To give the exhibition a theatrical context, he divided it into 13 "scenes" using his collection of perfume bottles to tell the story of a search for true love.

Ko was a council member of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 2015 to 2021 and was a council member of Hong Kong Arts Development Council from 2011 to 2016.

External links

• Leon Ko at IMDb
• Leon Ko official website
• Chinese Hell - Website of Robert Lee *Leon Ko
• Heading East - A Musical