Biography

June 2025

Kalun Leung is a Hong Kong–born, Montreal-based performer-composer and trombonist whose work navigates the intersections of sound, movement, architecture, and space. Drawing on a broad, transdisciplinary practice that includes instrument building, sound sculpture, improvisation, and performative electronics, his projects explore themes of play, migration, and cultural identity through live, site-responsive performance. Leung’s creative process emphasizes group collaboration and unfolding in real time, often treating the stage as a playground for collective exploration.

He began his artistic education at Toronto’s Claude Watson School for the Arts, receiving multidisciplinary performing arts training in violin, mime, dance, and various musical traditions. He later earned a Master of Music from McGill University and a Professional Studies Diploma from The New School in New York, where he also helped establish the Performer-Composer graduate program as Assistant Director of Academic Affairs.

Leung’s work prominently features the mubone, an augmented instrument developed in collaboration with creative technologist Travis West. What began as an extension of the trombone has since evolved into an instrument-agnostic interface for sonic and gestural performance. It anchors Conversations with Space and Architecture, a performance series that treats architecture as an active collaborator, using movement, sound, and spatial listening to explore resonance and embodiment.

He collaborates widely across improvised, contemporary, and experimental music contexts. He co-leads ék, a sound and movement duo with Émilie Fortin; performs in the improvising trio Williwaw with Fortin and Philippe Lauzier; and directs the Ambient Parade, a mobile, site-responsive experimental marching band. He is a contributor to the soloist ensemble Bakarlari, the contemporary music collective No Hay Banda, and performs with the classical-klezmer ensemble Oktopus. Other collaborations include work with Anthony Braxton, Meredith Monk, George Lewis, Bekah Simms, Sarah Davachi, Sandeep Bhagwati, Antoine Corriveau, Alexandre David, Bettina Szabo, François Houle, the Orchestra of the Americas, Martha Graham Dance Company, Ratchet Orchestra, and Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libre de Rimouski (GRILLL).

Leung has appeared at festivals and venues including the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV), Carnegie Hall, Guelph Jazz Festival, Cologne Jazzweek (Germany), GRAM (Gaspésie), La Grande Rencontre des Arts Médiatiques en Gaspésie, the Aldeburgh Festival, Suoni per il popolo, UNHEARD Music Festival (Hong Kong), MATA Festival (New York), and the NYC Winter Jazzfest.

His recorded collaborations span numerous genres and include The Prison with Experiential Orchestra, which received a Grammy Award in 2021, as well as Living Collection by Lesley Mok (German Jazz Prize 2024), Meshes by Billy Martin, Clear Line by Jacob Garchik, For These Streets by Adam O’Farrill, and Gabriela Montero Plays Montero & Ravel with the Orchestra of the Americas.

Leung’s work has been recognized with an Honorable Mention for the Kranichstein Music Prize at Darmstadt and has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Perte de Signal, Orford Musique, CIRMMT, IRCAM, NIME, MOCO, Britten-Pears, and Harvestworks. He has held roles as Composer-in-Residence with the NYU New Music Ensemble and as an Artist Fellow at the Brooklyn Fashion & Design Accelerator. In 2018, he was awarded the New York State Senate’s Prize for Exemplary Service to the Community and State.