Described by The Independent as a composer with “a distinctive voice”, Fung Lam has enjoyed a multifaceted career as one of the foremost Asian composers of his generation. His music has been performed at the BBC Proms, and in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Konzerthaus Berlin, Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall and South Bank Centre in London. Performers of his music have included the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil), London Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fung Lam holds the distinction of being the first Hong Kong composer ever commissioned by the BBC. He has to date written over ten orchestral works, including three commissions for the BBC (Unlocking, BE and Endless Forms) and two commissions for the HK Phil (Rong and Quintessence).
The world première of Endless Forms at the BBC Proms in 2012 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra received critical acclaims, taking his music to a global audience. An excerpt from Evening Standard's review reads, “… Lam, working with a carefully constructed minimum of material, shapes his musical world with dreamy individuality.”
Fung Lam served as the HK Phil’s Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Composer-in-Residence in 2013-14. Quintessence, which was composed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the HK Phil, has been performed, under Jaap van Zweden, in Hong Kong and on tours in 12 major cities in Europe (2015), China (2016) and Asia/Australia (2017).
A milestone portrait concert featuring works from his extensive catalogue took place in 2021. He conducted from the piano and keyboard in a production directed by visual artist anothermountainman.
Besides concert music, with a focus primarily on orchestral composition, he has also composed for dance, theatre, multi-media works and sound installations. These include the multi-media crossover concert entitled Hong Kong Episodes (2015), for which he is one of two co-composers and its conductor. Since its premiere in Hong Kong, this production has toured to London, Taipei as well as no less than six cities in Mainland China.
He collaborated with the Hong Kong Dance Company in an evening-long original string music dance theatre work entitled Dance of Strings (2019), as well as produced a site-specific sound installation work at The Mills in Hong Kong in January 2020. Recently, in September 2022, Fung Lam collaborated with Wing Shya in the production entitled Nocturnes, which is a cross-media creation featuring original music and art movies.
Fung Lam was the Director of Artistic Planning with the HK Phil in 2017-19. In addition to delivering two seasons of programmes (2018/19 and 2019/20) that have been described by the media as “widely praised” and “struck a fine balance between tradition and innovation”, he also established the orchestra’s first ticketed chamber music series (HK Phil x Tai Kwun) and the orchestra’s first education platform for emerging composers (The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Composers Scheme). He was responsible for introducing more than 40 world and regional premières, often alongside core classical repertoire, to the Hong Kong audiences, and for presenting debut collaborations with artists such as Hiromi and Max Richter.
Born in Hong Kong in 1979, Fung Lam studied composition with Martin Butler, Michael Finnissy and Michael Zev Gordon at the Universities of Southampton and Sussex, and was awarded a doctorate degree in composition from the latter in 2012. In the same year he received the Young Artist Award 2011 from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
He currently serves as a member of the Performing Arts Committee at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and as an arts advisor (music) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.