Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra conductor on the movie that made him pick up a baton
- Lio Kuokman, resident conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, watched Mr Holland’s Opus as a 15-year-old deciding whether to be a musician
- The 1995 movie ‘really shows what music is all about’ – passion, sharing with people and connecting
Mr Holland’s Opus (1995), directed by Stephen Herek, stars Richard Dreyfuss as an aspiring composer who becomes a high school music teacher, giving up his dreams but inspiring generations of students while navigating his complicated relationships with his wife and profoundly deaf son.
Macau-born Lio Kuokman, resident conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and programme director of the Macao International Music Festival, explains how it changed his life.
I had almost forgotten about this movie. In Hong Kong, I’ve been doing some projects with youths, and that reminded me of it. It’s quite a cliché story, of a musician who wants to write something brilliant but ends up working in a high school, which is not his original dream, but he still ends up changing the world.
It’s why I chose what I do. It came out at a time when I was deciding whether I should be a musician – whether that was the right path for me. I was 15 years old, and I got a scholarship to study at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. I was a piano student.
I rented the VHS from Blockbuster, which was still a big thing then. Me and a friend had heard of this movie about a music teacher, so we went to rent it together.
My top dream was of being a conductor but I had no guidance on how to be a one – or even a musician. It was a path that was very unknown, but I decided to jump onto it, and that was related to this movie. I decided that there was no turning back.