Hollywood films, Studio Ghibli, opera and… clothes? Conductor on leading young musicians while working in the family garment business

Philip Chu, director of Hong Kong-based music ensemble Cantabile, talks about how he defied his parents’ expectations to make music a liveable career

Chu, who recorded a whole Hollywood film score over one recent weekend, helps run his family’s garment business – it is tough but he would have it no other way

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Philip Chu, an Australian-trained conductor and director of Viva Knitwear, will conduct Cantabile, a chamber choir and an orchestra made up of young local musicians in Hong Kong, to perform The Fairy Queen on March 18 in the city. Photo: Cantabile

Kwak Yeon-soo

Published: 4:15pm, 27 Feb 2024

To say that Philip Chu Chun-hei packs a lot into his life is an understatement.

The director of his family’s Hong Kong garment business, Chu also founded the music ensemble Cantabile in 2016. He not only has a coming concert in March, he also recorded an entire Hollywood film score over one recent weekend in Australia.

For that little weekend getaway, as he calls it, he took an overnight flight from Hong Kong to Australia on a Friday, stayed in the recording studio the whole weekend, arrived back in Hong Kong at 6am on the Monday and went directly to work.

He would do it all over again, the 43-year-old says. “I’d just be doing something I enjoy doing. There’d be no stress at all,” he says.

Chu conducts his music ensemble, Cantabile. Photo: Cantabile

Chu, who was born and raised in Hong Kong, went to Australia in 1996 to study. The plan was for him to stay there for two years before returning to pursue a business degree at a university in Hong Kong.