Hu Kun is a legendary violinist, conductor and pedagogue. He has been described already in the 80s as “a great artist.” (Le Monde), as having “Undoubted power” (The Times), as “Hu Kun...Chinese musicians, especially violinist, are establishing an increasingly high profile on the Western concert scene.” (The New York Times / International Herald Tribune), and as “One of the most individual string players to burst onto the scene...the finest of the younger generation of violinist.” (The Strad).
Kun has studied violin with his father Prof. Hu Weimin and Prof. Lin Yaoji, piano with his mother Prof. Peng Shijun and conducting with Prof. Xu Xin.
Kun gained his first soloist post at age of thirteen in the Chinese Radio Symphony. He was the first mainland Chinese violinist ever to establish a solo career on the international stage after winning Fifth Prize at the Sibelius Violin Competition at just seventeen years old in Helsinki 1980, raising Chinese flag on the international violin competition stage. He has toured around world, became the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s only private student for 15 years, winning more international competitions and major recording contracts and performing with world’s leading orchestras at the world’s major culture centre. Kun has taking up conducting under the personal direction of late Sir Colin Davis for 10 years and founded his own orchestra Hu Kun and Friends in London.
Kun currently enjoys touring as a conductor, a Professor/Hon RAM at the Royal Academy of Music, giving masterclass at music festivals, chairing and serving as a jury member at the world’s major violin competitions and building bridges for East and West cultural exchanges. There have also been a number of films and TV documentaries about his pioneering musical career.
