Elliot Leung

Elliot Ho Yat Leung is a composer from Hong Kong who broke into Hollywood in 2023. He was a recipient of the Huabiao Award in 2023, becoming the youngest winner for music in the history of the awards. His works have been premiered by orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Leung has collaborated with many notable conductors, namely Daniel Harding, Yu Long and Gerard Salonga. He is best known for his symphonic works, most notably his film scores for Operation Red Sea and The Battle at Lake Changjin as well as his Symphony No. 1 "The Metaverse". He was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2022. As of November 2023, his films have grossed $2.2 billion USD worldwide.

Early life
Leung was born and raised in British Hong Kong, the eldest of two children to a father who had dreams to be a visual artist and a mother who wanted to pursue a musical career. His mother plays piano and was first chorale soprano, then a choir conductor. At age 5, he was a gifted child case study in The Oxford Handbook of Children's Musical Cultures. He received early music education in St. Paul's Co-educational College and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and transferred to International Christian School in his secondary years. He later furthered his studies in Wheaton Conservatory of Music for Music Composition. He studied under professor emeritus Howard Whitaker, pupil of Darius Mihaud.

When Leung was two years old, his mother began teaching him how to play the piano. When he turned five, his swift musical growth was quickly identified by teachers of St. Paul's Co-educational College. The next year, Leung was sent to study music and the cello with former Principal Cellist of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Laurent Perrin. When he was fifteen, Leung made his debut appearance on CCTV's "Asian Art Festival · Charming China (亞洲藝術盛典 · 魅力中國)" show. As a child, Leung aspired to be an orchestra conductor until encountering the music from Halo: Combat Evolved during his teens, driving him to pursue another career that revolves around symphonic music.

Leung was mentored by Martin O'Donnell when he traveled to the United States to further his musical pursuits. O'Donnell's modal music from Halo was a musical influence throughout Leung's upbringing. In an interview, Leung commented that his original post-college intentions were to follow O'Donnell's footsteps and pursue graduate studies in music at the University of Southern California until he was scouted and named the composer of Operation Red Sea. The two share a close relationship, as O'Donnell was seen attending the premiere of Leung's Symphony No. 1 in Hong Kong in 2023.

2014 to 2017: Beginnings in Hong Kong
Leung's first job in the film industry was working as a composer assistant on the film "Insanity" in 2014. In 2015, he started writing music for various kinds of projects while continuing to work as an orchestrator. During this time, his choral music was highly praised by Bernard Chan of the Hong Kong Executive Council. He also composed RTHK radio 1's new station jingle. His arrangement of "Descendants of the Dragon" (龍的傳人) was also performed in "同心耀中華 — 紫荊花開," held in Shenzhen as the concert finale as a part of the Hong Kong SAR's 20th Anniversary celebrations.

Leung's breakthrough came in 2017, when Dante Lam sought him out to compose the score of Operation Red Sea (紅海行動). The film was selected to represent Hong Kong in the best foreign-language film category at the 91st Academy Awards.

2017 – 2021: Breakthrough and Acclaim in the Chinese Film Industry
Leung's work on Operation Red Sea was highly acclaimed and was broadly praised by critics for elevating Chinese film music to a world class standard. Alex Lines from Film Inquiry called it "a score that invigorates life" while Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK wrote a positive review. Leung was invited to write for "The Rescue," and was involved in the production since pre-production. After numerous delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the soundtrack album was finally released internationally by Milan Records on December 18, 2020. Many of Leung's pieces from these films, such as "The Valiant Flight" and "Operation Red Sea Concert Suite" have been performed on numerous occasions, such as the 8th Beijing International Film Festival and the 1st Foshan Film Festival. A much longer suite, titled "Operation Red Sea Concert Suite II" was commissioned by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra premiered in the New Year Concert of 2024 to a full house audience.

Leung has also produced music for the video game industry. Tencent Games invited him to compose for Honor of Kings, and ByteDance invited him to compose for Dragonheir: Silent Gods and Moonton Games invited him to compose for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

In 2021, Leung composed the theme and the score for The Battle at Lake Changjin, the second-highest-grossing film of 2021; the highest-grossing film in Chinese cinema history; and the highest-grossing non-English film of all time. Leung was invited to return for the sequel, The Battle at Lake Changjin II. The score was highly successful. It was nominated for a Golden Rooster Award and won a Huabiao Award for best original score. Vinyls of the Soundtrack (Collector's Edition) was released a year later.

2022-Present: Hollywood and Symphony No. 1
In 2022, Leung was listed on the Forbes' 2022 30 under 30. After writing for Disney+ series Anita, Leung decided to return to his classical roots and began a yearlong journey composing his Symphony No. 1 "The Metaverse" while relocating to Los Angeles in a bid to break into Hollywood. The symphony was commissioned by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Asia Society as the world's first symphony work to be premiered both in a concert hall and in the Sandbox. In early 2022, Leung signed with Kraft-Engel Management. Shortly after, he was announced as the composer of Six Days in Fallujah by Victura and Highwire Games and Freelance by Pierre Morel, making him the first from Hong Kong to break into Hollywood as a lead composer. The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra premiered Symphony No. 1 "The Metaverse" and "Through the Fog, Into the Darkness," an overture to the video game Six Days in Fallujah on May 5th, 2023 under the baton of conductor Gerard Salonga in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre concert hall with a full house audience. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra later performed the work in July 2023. Following the premiere, classical music critic Tina Fu of the South China Morning Post wrote:"Symphony No. 1, 'The Metaverse' celebrates different technological advancements and have different characters from each other in the four movements. Citing traditional influences such as Jean Sibelius, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leung's music has flair and romance, and the players were impressive with their sensitive treatment of the materials. The second movement, with a title of 'Fibre Optics: An Homage to Sir Charles Kao', was stunning. Leung wrote two solo passages for the cello and the viola. Bamping was again at his best, with good sound and intonation that made the elegant piece sing. Principal violist Andrew Ling, accompanied by pianist Linda Yim, provided the most moving passage of all. The development section packed a punch from percussion and brass sections, and Salonga conducted with firmness and clarity. The balance of the orchestra's sound in the triumphant coda was nicely controlled, and bar some uneven harmonics among the violins in the ending, Salonga and the players interpreted the colourful piece with deep feeling."The symphony was released on October 27, 2023 by Sony Classical.

In September 2023, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra commissioned Leung to write a new piece for their 23-24 season. Leung composed "Aureate Skylines," capturing the vibrancy of the Greater Bay Region. The premiere was conducted by Daniel Harding on January 28th, 2024 in Xinghai Concert Hall. The piece was then toured and performed in Shenzhen Concert Hall and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. In November 2023, the New York Philharmonic announced the world premiere of Leung's Lunar Overture.