BIO

Gilbert Sak started learning the violin from Mr. Ngai Ho Chau at the age of 8.  After finishing secondary school in Hong Kong, he furthered his studies at Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Hamburg and at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, before he received his Bachelor of Music from Manhattan School of Music in New York.  He was then granted full graduate assistantship to study at Ball State University and the University of South Carolina where he earned his Master’s and Doctoral degrees respectively.  Over the years, Gilbert has studied under the tutelage of a number of world-famous violinists and pedagogues including Michael Goldstein, Albert Markov, Petru Munteanu, Yfrah Neaman, and Dr. John Bauer.  He has participated in master classes with Werner Scholz, Stefan Georghiu and David Kim, and has received coaching from members of the Guarneri Quartet, Orion String Quartet and American String Quartet.  Gilbert is the first Hong Kong native to receive a doctorate in violin performance.

Dr. Sak has held principal positions in a number of orchestras in the U.S.A., including Kalamazoo Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Augusta Symphony and Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestras.  His participation in international music festivals and concert tours has brought him to countries like China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland and the Switzerland.  He has performed under the batons of such maestros as Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Yan-Pascal Tortelier and Myung-Whun Chung, just to name a few.  After he returned to Hong Kong in 2000, he had been sought after and active as a chamber musician, giving recitals frequently in various chamber ensembles, performing on both the violin and viola.  From 2001 to 2014, he held the position of 2nd Violin Principal and subsequently Co-Leader with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong.

As a teacher, Dr. Sak has taught violin, viola, string pedagogy, performance studies and chamber music at the Hong Kong Baptist University, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Hong Kong University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Institute of Education.  Many of his violin and viola students are holders of diplomas granted by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and Trinity College London.  Some of them became graduates of such institutions as the Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, Royal Northern College of Music, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.  He was invited frequently by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to give lectures and pre-concert talks on string music. In 2009, he was appointed as Hong Kong Consultant in Strings by Trinity Guildhall of London.  He was an orchestral advisor of the Hong Kong Scout Performing Arts Committee from 2004 to 2019. 

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