One of the inaugural Dudamel Conducting Fellows at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, PERRY SO received the first and special prizes at the Fifth International Prokofiev Conducting Competition (held in St Petersburg) in 2008, only the third time the top prize has been awarded.

The 2010/11 season sees his debuts with the London, Japan, Zagreb and Cape Town Philharmonic orchestras, the Milwaukee, New Zealand, Tasmanian and Asturias Symphony orchestras and the Australian Youth Orchestra, as well as return visits to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Noord Nederlands Orkest.

As Assistant Conductor in Hong Kong he redesigned and spearheaded the orchestra’s outreach and educational programmes. He maintains a close relationship with the State Hermitage Orchestra of Russia with whom he performs annually during the spring and summer festivals in St Petersburg. Other orchestras he has worked with include the St Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra (Moscow), the Queensland Orchestra and Staatskapelle Weimar.

Born in Hong Kong in 1982, he graduated from Yale University in Comparative Literature, where he studied with noted literary scholar Michael Holquist. As an undergraduate at Yale, he was Music Director of the Saybrook Orchestra and the Opera Theater of Yale College, leading productions of Die Zauberflöte, Cosí fan tutte, Giulio Cesare and Turn of the Screw. He also developed an abiding interest for music of the Renaissance and the Baroque, regularly leading the Yale Collegium Musicum from the harpsichord. He subsequently studied conducting under Swiss pedagogue Gustav Meier at the Peabody Institute. He was also a prize-winner at the Mitropoulos Competition in Athens and received a commendation from the Hong Kong Home Affairs Bureau for his international musical accomplishments. His current mentors include Edo de Waart and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Perry So founded and directs the Huangshan International Music Festival, set in the mountains of central China.