Cheung Chau began cello lessons at age seven and soon received top prizes at the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, including first prize at the Commercial Radio Prize Competition at age twelve – the youngest musician ever to receive this prize.  At fourteen, he was invited to perform as soloist, playing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The Sing Dao Daily described him as “a rare gem in the musical field”.  Mr. Chau was a full scholarship recipient from the R. D. Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, the Harid Conservatory and the Yale School of Music.  He won the first prize in the "Artist of Tomorrow" competition in Los Angeles, among others.  He holds the first double doctorate awarded from the New England Conservatory in Boston in wind ensemble conducting and cello performance.  His cello teachers include Colin Carr, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Aldo Parisot and Johanne Perrron.  He also played in master classes for Yo Yo Ma, Ralph Kirshbaum and Lawrence Lesser.

Mr. Chau performs as a soloist and chamber musician in USA, Hong Kong, Macao, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Finland.  He performed as a soloist with Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Macao Chamber Orchestra, Hemet Symphony Orchestra, Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra and recorded for Irish Radios, Hong Kong Radio and Television Corporation and was heard on Polish Radio Merkury.  He is a member of Atma Piano Trio (www.atmatrio.org), with pianist Slawomir Dobrzanski and violinist  Blanka Bednarz.  The ensemble performed in Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, China,  many times in the US, and toured extensively in Poland.  Their concerts merited high critical acclaim and broke several audience attendance records.  Mr. Chau received invitation to premiere Nowowiejski’s Cello Concerto with the Olsztyn Philharmonic in Poland in 2009.  Chau can be heard both as cellist and conductor on a recently released CD on the leading Polish label Acte Prealable (APO181) in works by Roman Palester and Paul Kletzki, as well as on CD with Atma Trio, APO 172, Acte Prealable.  Chau has premiered numerous new works as cellist and conductor.

Presently Dr. Chau devotes most of his time to conducting, as music director of Georgia Southern Symphony in USA and general and artistic director of Sinfonietta Polonia in Poland (www.sinfoniettapolonia.pl).  He is also assistant professor at Georgia Southern University.  The Polish Gazeta Wyborcza praised Chau for his “air of freshness and uniqueness” and for “his ability to create pastel landscapes of sound with very dynamic, poignant gestures”.  His interpretations of Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture and Mozart’s Prague Symphony were “most convincing, persuasive”, and the Xiamen Business News wrote that “[Chau] performed with strong resolution and courage.  He was full of enthusiasm, confidence, and determination, expressed his feelings and led the orchestra very efficiently, dedicating to the audience an exquisite performance”.

Maestro Chau conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in a televised celebration concert of the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China--amongst audience members was the Chinese President Hu Jintao.  Mr. Chau opened the 2007-08 concert season leading the Lublin Philharmonic in Poland in a concert featuring Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra. He returns to lead the Lublin Philharmonic in March 2009 presenting Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony.  He guest conducted the Williamsport Symphony in USA and the Theater Nordhausen/Loh-Orchester  in Germany in fall 2007.  His other past guest conducting appearances have included the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kielce, Suddetic and Bialystok Philharmonic Orchestras in Poland as well as orchestras in Sweden and Finland including, among others, the Gavle Symphony Orchestra, the Vaasa City Orchestra and the Sibelius Academy Orchestra.  Mr. Chau worked under the guidance of Maestro Edo de Waart with the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2004 and conducted the Philharmonic in numerous educational and outreach concerts. In Georgia, Mr. Chau appears regularly as guest conductor of strings program orchestras throughout the state, especially in the Atlanta Metro area.  He has guest conducted the Fulton County Honors Orchestra, served as guest conductor and cello clinician for the Centennial High School Summer Orchestra Camp, and serve as a judge for the Cobb County Orchestra Festival. He also coached sectionals for the GBYSO in Boston. He taught master classes throughout US, among others at Lawrence Conservatory, NE Preparatory Division (where he also taught chamber music) and in China. Mr. Chau’s principal conducting teachers include Jorma Panula and Frank Battisti.  He also studied under Edo de Waart, David Zinman (at Aspen), Alan Gilbert and Esa-Pekka Salonen.