Anonymously sponsored in memory of Wing-sang Sum.

PEISO Concertmaster Hok Kwan was born and raised in Hong Kong and moved with his wife Rachel to the Maritimes in 1992. An accomplished concert violinist, conductor and educator with over 25 years of experience working with orchestras in Asia and North America, Hok has extensive experience in building orchestras and training young musicians. He is a co-founder of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in Hong Kong and a former principal of Symphony New Brunswick and the Saint John String Quartet in Canada. He has held the position of Concertmaster of Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra since the 2004-2005 season.

In the year 2020, Hok was honoured to be selected and invited as one of the ten violinists to collaborate with thirty-five other orchestral musicians from the twenty-eight orchestras across Canada to record and perform the world premiere of a newly-commissioned work by the Juno-award-winning composer Vivian Fung. The recorded performance was conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and was aired on CBC globally and nationally on July 1st, 2020.

Hok was former Music Director and Conductor of Alto Mare Orchestra & Chorus in Saint John for seven consecutive seasons. In 2017, he was appointed Artistic Director and Director for Orchestral Programming of the St. Andrews Arts Council in New Brunswick and he has held that position since then. Hok has also been the Conductor and Artistic Director of Symphonette By the Sea - sur mer, a chamber orchestra based in the Greater Saint John region of New Brunswick since 2019.

Hok graduated in 1989 from the Guildhall School of Music in London, UK, studying under David Takeno. Since the age of 12, Hok has performed as a violin recitalist, chamber music collaborator, and concerto soloist around the world and in the Maritimes, including Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra and Symphony New Brunswick.