Praised by the Kharkov Times for being “accurate and
precise” and by Takung Pao as a “conductor who can command
the whole stage”, Gilbert Sak is a versatile musician and
conductor. He has guest conducted the City Chamber Orchestra
of Hong Kong, Berlin Sinfonietta, the Lithuanian State Symphony
Orchestra, and the Kharkov Philharmonic (Ukraine).   He has
collaborated with such artists as Sir James Galway and Iskander
Widjaja, and pop singers as the Grasshopper, Hacken Lee,
Angela Zhang and Vincy Chan. He was the Music Director of
the Hong Kong Civic Youth Orchestra which he founded in 2005,
and was the Principal Conductor of Hong Kong Metropolitan Pop
Orchestra from 2016 to 2019.  As a choral conductor he has
worked with the Hong Kong Youth Choir, the St. Paul’s Co-educational College Alumni Choir
and the choir of the Hong Kong Church of the Livingstone.  As an adjunct lecturer at the
Hong Kong Baptist University, he has conducted the University’s String Ensemble,
Repertory Orchestra and Women’s Choir. From 2017 to 2019, he was the conductor and
presenter of Orchestrate in Hong Kong, a challenging team building program developed by
Catalyst Team Building.
Gilbert Sak studied conducting with Glen Cortese and Leonard Atherton and has
participated in masterclasses by Michail Jurowski, Vladimir Ponkin and Colin Metters.  He is
the first person from Hong Kong to receive a doctorate in violin performance. He has
studied in Germany, England and in the USA under the tutelage of a world famous violinists
and pedagogues including Michael Goldstein, Albert Markov, Yfrah Neaman, Petru
Munteanu and Dr. John Bauer.  As a violinist/violist he has held principal positions in major
orchestras in the USA and has toured to China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia,
Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland.  Gilbert Sak returned to Hong Kong in
2000, and in 2001 joined the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong as Principal 2nd Violin
and subsequently Co-Leader. Throughout his orchestral career he has worked under the
baton of famous conductors including Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Yan-
Pascal Tortelier and Myung-Whun Chung.
In addition to his conducting duties and performances, Gilbert Sak was a highly sought-
after string pedagogue in Hong Kong.  He has taught violin, viola, string pedagogy and
chamber music at the Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Hong Kong, the
Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Education University and the Hong Kong
Academy for Performing Arts.  In 2009, he was appointed as the Hong Kong consultant for
Strings by the Trinity Guildhall of London.  He was an orchestral advisor of the Hong Kong
Scout Performing Arts Committee for 15 years until he relocated to Vancouver, Canada.
Besides his musical merit, Dr. Sak was a member of the Hong Kong Mensa and is an
alumnus of the Open University of Hong Kong where he earned a Master of Education
degree.