Tisa Ho, the force behind Hong Kong Arts Festival

Tisa Ho was hooked on the arts after her debut performance in a show at kindergarten. Later on, her school, St Paul's Convent, launched an inspiring arts series that featured the whole spectrum of music, dance, drama and debates, and Ho spent most of her time involved with these programmes.

"I had wonderful, inspiring teachers ... I got to act, I got to do make-up, I got to climb up and rig lights ... and I just had the greatest fun," says Ho, who is executive director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF).

"The choir was wonderful. I played the piano, I'd accompany people. We just mucked in and did it all. And I found this to be a wonderful, vibrant, alive world - a place you like more intensely than any other space in your life."

While studying literature of the Middle Ages at university in France, her friends told her about an arts management course in London. "It was probably one of the first-ever arts management courses that anybody ever did, and this was at the City University in London," says Ho, who enrolled in the course and, since graduating, has made a career out of the thing she loves most - the arts.

"I am extremely thankful for it every day," she says.

Ho is in her eighth year at the helm of the HKAF - the highlight of the city's cultural calendar - having overseen seven festivals already.

In that time, the festival has grown by 50 per cent, selling 95 per cent of seats available, "which is pretty remarkable for any arts event", she says. "Especially for one that does not compromise in terms of populism.

"With this festival, it's very much a question of balance, so we have the headliners and names and stars - we love having them - but then we do the more cutting-edge, avant-garde stuff too. It's about present and future heritage. We take great traditions, and we present them and we honour them. And then we try and build for the future."

She credits the growth and achievements of the HKAF to her team. "This is a phenomenal team, so anything I do is done because of and with this team. They are amazing people.

"One of the things I love about this festival is that it's so diverse, it is so deep and varied. It has the glamorous operas, orchestras ... and then we have the smaller esoteric special interest things and ... then we have [the] avant garde - really out there, really pushing the limits - and sometimes these performances can be in your face."

She compares the diversity to a snapshot of Hong Kong society.