Elliot Leung

Elliot Ho Yat Leung (; born August 3, 1995) is a Hong Kong composer. Leung is known for his symphonic works, most notably his film scores for Operation Red Sea, The Battle at Lake Changjin, and The Furious, as well as his orchestral concert works The Metaverse, Wuxia, and Chinese Kitchen: A Feast of Flavours.

Early life and education Leung was born and raised in British Hong Kong, the eldest of two children to a father who had dreams to be a visual artist and a mother who wanted to pursue a musical career. His mother plays piano and was first chorale soprano, then a choir conductor. At age 5, he was a gifted child case study in The Oxford Handbook of Children's Musical Cultures. He received early music education in St. Paul's Co-educational College and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and transferred to International Christian School in his secondary years.

When Leung was two years old, his mother began teaching him how to play the piano. When he turned five, his swift musical growth was quickly identified by teachers of St. Paul's Co-educational College. The next year, Leung was sent to study music and the cello with Laurent Perrin. When he was fifteen, Leung made his debut appearance on CCTV's "Asian Art Festival · Charming China (亞洲藝術盛典 · 魅力中國)" show. As a child, Leung aspired to be a conductor until encountering the music from Halo: Combat Evolved during his teens, driving him to pursue another career that revolves around symphonic music.

Martin O'Donnell's modal music from the Halo franchise was a large musical influence throughout Leung's upbringing which lead him to study music composition at his alma mater Wheaton Conservatory. The two met during Leung's time as a student and since then was mentored by O'Donnell during his years in the United States. In an interview, Leung commented that his original post-college intentions were to follow O'Donnell's footsteps and pursue graduate studies in music at the University of Southern California until he was scouted and hired as the composer for Operation Red Sea.

Career

2014 to 2017: Beginnings in Hong Kong Leung's first job in the film industry was working as a music assistant on the film "Insanity" in 2014. In 2015, he started writing music for various kinds of projects while continuing to work as an orchestrator. During this time, his choral music was highly praised by Bernard Chan of the Hong Kong Executive Council. He also composed RTHK radio 1's new station jingle. His arrangement of "Descendants of the Dragon" was also performed in Shenzhen as the concert finale celebrating the Hong Kong SAR's 20th Anniversary.

Leung's breakthrough came in 2017, when Dante Lam sought him out to compose the score of Operation Red Sea. The film was selected to represent Hong Kong in the best foreign-language film category at the 91st Academy Awards.

2017–2021: Breakthrough in the Chinese film industry Leung's work on Operation Red Sea was highly acclaimed and was broadly praised by critics for elevating Chinese film music to a world class standard. Alex Lines from Film Inquiry called it "a score that invigorates life" while Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK wrote a positive review. Leung was invited to write for The Rescue, and was involved in the production since pre-production. After numerous delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the soundtrack album was finally released internationally by Milan Records on December 18, 2020. Many of Leung's pieces from these films, such as "The Valiant Flight" and "Operation Red Sea Concert Suite" have been performed on numerous occasions, such as the 8th Beijing International Film Festival and the 1st Foshan Film Festival. A much longer suite, titled "Operation Red Sea Concert Suite II" was commissioned by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and premiered in the New Year Concert of 2024 to a full house audience.

Leung has also produced music for the video game industry. Tencent Games invited him to compose for Honor of Kings, and ByteDance invited him to compose for Dragonheir: Silent Gods After writing for Disney+ series Anita, Leung decided to return to his classical roots and began a yearlong journey composing his Symphony No. 1 "The Metaverse" while relocating to Los Angeles in a bid to break into Hollywood. The symphony was commissioned by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Asia Society as the world's first symphony work to be premiered both in a concert hall and in the Sandbox. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra later performed the work in July 2023.

The symphony was released on October 27, 2023 by Sony Classical.

2024–present: Return to classical music In September 2023, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra commissioned Leung to write a new piece for their 23-24 season. Leung composed "Aureate Skylines." The premiere was conducted by Daniel Harding on January 28th, 2024 in Xinghai Concert Hall. The piece was then toured and performed in Shenzhen Concert Hall and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. In November 2023, the New York Philharmonic announced the world premiere of Leung's Lunar Overture. The piece broke the 12 year-long (1 Lunar New Year Cycle) Lunar New Year concert tradition of opening with Spring Festival Overture to a full house at David Geffen Hall. Lunar Overture had its premiere in Asia on December 31, 2024 with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit.

On July 15th, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra premiered "Wuxia - Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Jin Yong ," to an in-house and online audience of 40,000 people. The piece was co-commissioned by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chengdu Symphony Orchestra.

"Your Intentions, My Affections," commissioned by the United States Department of State was also premiered and toured by mezzo-soprano Carla Dirlikov Canales in July and August 2024. The text from the piece is from 《土楼回响》and served as the United States Arts Envoy piece.

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra premiered of "Chinese Kitchen," a 10-movement piece celebrating the 10th anniversary of Jaguar Symphony Concert Hall and also the 145th anniversary of the Orchestra on November 26, 2024 and was praised as a fun, humorous composition with rich emotions. The piece was toured by the orchestra to the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Town Hall, Auckland Arts Festival and Singapore Esplanade in March 2026.

China Records released Vinyls of both "Wuxia" and Chinese Kitchen in November 2025.

In February 2026, he signed general management to Askonas Holt.

Discography

Film Year Title Director(s) Studio(s) Notes 2018 Operation Red Sea Dante Lam Bona Film Group Emperor Motion Pictures

Polybona Films

Chen Kaige

Hark TsuiBona Film Group August First Film Studio

Emperor Motion Pictures

Chen Kaige

Hark TsuiBona Film Group August First Film Studio

Emperor Motion Pictures

Sentient Entertainment

Relativity MediaHollywood Debut, Fosun Pictures

Huaxia Film Distribution Edko Films

XYZ Films

Concert music

Video games TiMi Studio Group

ByteDance

Victura

Television series Disney+

Huaxia Film Distribution

One Cool Film Production

Awards and nominations G.A.N.G. Award for Best Audio in a Casual or Social GameHonor of Kings