Elliot Leung

Leung's first job in the film industry was working as a composer 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.[9] He also composed RTHK radio 1's new station jingle. His arrangement of "Descendants of the Dragon" (龍的傳人) was also performed in "同心耀中華 — 紫荊花開," held in Shenzhen as the concert finale as a part of the Hong Kong SAR's 20th Anniversary celebrations.[10][11][12]

Leung's breakthrough came in 2017, when Dante Lam asked him to compose the score of Operation Red Sea (紅海行動). The film was selected to represent Hong Kong in the best foreign-language film category at the 91st Academy Awards.[13]

Leung's work on Operation Red Sea was highly acclaimed. Alex Lines from Film Inquiry called it "a score that invigorates life" [3] while Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK wrote:

The score is by the very talented young Hong Kong-based composer Elliot Leung; this is the first score of his I have heard, but on this evidence I'm very impressed. What I like about Leung's writing is how much energy and inventiveness it has. It uses a full orchestra and a whole host of throbbing, pulsating electronic loops and beats, but despite the fact that it sits firmly within a now familiar sonic world, Leung does so much with it, rhythmically and thematically. [The writing is] outstanding, full of interesting and unexpectedly creative string ostinatos, unique-sounding electronic elements, and regular outbursts of brass-led power. The main reason I enjoy Operation Red Sea so much is because I want people like Lorne Balfe and Tom Holkenborg to write for their contemporary action movies, and why I'm so disappointed when those big names so often show such a lack of creativity and musical ambition. Bravo to Elliot Leung for proving that you <I>can</I> write music in that style, but still do it with flair and panache.[4]

Following the success of his breakthrough score, Leung was invited to write for "The Rescue," and was involved in the production since pre-production.[14] After numerous delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the soundtrack album was finally released internationally by Milan Records and Sony Classical on December 18, 2020.[15] 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.

Leung's prowess was quickly discovered by the video game industry. After Tencent Games invited him to compose for Honor of Kings, the highest-grossing mobile game of all-time, ByteDance invited him to compose for Dragonheir: Silent Gods [6] and Moonton Games invited him to compose for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

In 2021, Leung composed the theme and the score for The Battle at Lake Changjin, the second-highest-grossing film of 2021; the highest-grossing film in Chinese cinema history; and the highest-grossing non-English film of all time. Leung was invited to return for the sequel, The Battle at Lake Changjin II. The score was highly successful. It was nominated for a Golden Rooster Award and won a Huabiao Award for best original score. Vinyls of the Soundtrack (Collector's Edition) was released a year later.

In 2022, Leung was listed on the Forbes' 2022 30 under 30.[5] 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.[7] In early 2022, Leung signed with Kraft-Engel Management.[8] Shortly after, he was announced as the composer of Six Days in Fallujah by Victura and Highwire Games and Freelance by Pierre Morel,[9] making him the first from Hong Kong to break into Hollywood as a lead composer.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra premiered Symphony No. 1 "The Metaverse" and "Through the Fog, Into the Darkness," an overture to the video game Six Days in Fallujah on May 5th, 2023 under the baton of conductor Gerard Salonga in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre concert hall with a full house audience. The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra later performed the work in July 2023. Following the premiere, classical music critic Tina Fu of the South China Morning Post wrote:

The two new works belong to the category of "programme music", each presenting a specific image or theme. The shorter Through the Fog, Into the Darkness is melodic and has plenty of variation in colour, rhythm and tension, suggesting violence and war. Richard Bamping, principal cellist, played beautifully in weeping passages consisting of chromatic, mysterious, musical themes. The development section packed a punch from percussion and brass sections, and Salonga conducted with firmness and clarity. The balance of the orchestra's sound in the triumphant coda was nicely controlled, and bar some uneven harmonics among the violins in the ending, Salonga and the players interpreted the colourful piece with deep feeling. Symphony No. 1, "The Metaverse" celebrates different technological advancements and have different characters from each other in the four movements. Citing traditional influences such as Jean Sibelius, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leung's music has flair and romance, and the players were impressive with their sensitive treatment of the materials. The second movement, with a title of "Fibre Optics: An Homage to Sir Charles Kao", was stunning. Leung wrote two solo passages for the cello and the viola. Bamping was again at his best, with good sound and intonation that made the elegant piece sing. Principal violist Andrew Ling, accompanied by pianist Linda Yim, provided the most moving passage of all.[16]

In September 2023, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra commissioned Leung to write a new piece for their 23-24 season, to be premiered and toured under the baton of Daniel Harding.