Chromatic harmonica
A cross-genre chromatic harmonica virtuoso, composer, and singer-songwriter from Hong Kong, Cy Leo received classical harmonica training from Lee Sheung-ching and Watani Yasuo, and has since achieved international recognition and success.
Influenced by his father PC Ho, Founder of the Hong Kong Harmonica Association and the world-renowned King’s Harmonica Quintet, Cy Leo became a consummate performer and won his first international award as a harmonica soloist at the age of 10 at the Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival. By the age of 19, he had accumulated 17 international titles including two Solo World Champion titles at the World Harmonica Festival in 2009 and 2013.
Cy Leo has appeared as a guest performer and adjudicator at numerous internationally recognized harmonica events including the Seoul International Harmonica Festival and the Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival. He was invited to compose the Test Piece for the Solo Category of the 2017 World Harmonica Festival, where he also served as an adjudicator. He has toured over 40 cities as a headline harmonica soloist and has performed as a representative of Hong Kong in more than 20 cities, under the invitation of the Hong Kong Government. Outside of harmonica events, in September 2023, Cy Leo headlined at the Montreux Jazz Festival China with his own Jazz Quintet. He later appeared at the Seoul International Jazz Festival 2024 as a guest performer at Cory Wong's set of music and performed in front of thousands of audiences. In October 2023, he was invited to perform a concerto with the Hartford Symphony. In 2022, he performed at one of the world’s biggest stages – the New York Times Square Ball Drop Show, which was broadcast to billions of audiences across the globe.
Closer to home, Cy Leo has collaborated with A-list Hong Kong artists including Joey Yung, Sandy Lam, Hacken Lee, Leo Ku, Louis Koo, and legendary musician Lowell Lo who lauded him as “the best harmonica player in the world” in a concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum with over 10,000 in attendance. Widely recognized as one of Hong Kong’s foremost musical talents, Cy Leo appeared at the 32nd Hong Kong Arts Festival and Clockenflap in 2016 and has appeared on regional media including CCTV 1, TVB, Ming Pao Daily News, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Metro Pop, and RMM Journal. He has also attracted unprecedented collaborations with commercial brands including Krug, Bose, ETRO, INITIAL Fashion, Shell, Fortune Pharmacal, etc. In 2024, Krug Champagne commissioned him to write original music for the brand, and he was invited by Louis Vuitton to curate a music event at their new season showcase.
To promote original instrumental music in Hong Kong, Cy Leo co-founded the instrumental music label Ginger Muse in 2018, marking the start of his entrepreneurial voyage. Within two years and following a series of successful crowdfunding campaigns, they released the albums Lost In Time, Angel & Demon, and Free Dimension. His début concert production Lost In Time received an overwhelmingly positive response and achieved a box office of over 1,000 paid audience members. He later received the Award for Young Artist at the 14th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards in 2020, and in the same year, he was awarded a full scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund to study at New York University for a master’s program in Jazz Performance. In June 2024, Cy Leo organized a full-house concert titled The Aromas of Tango at the Hong Kong City Hall that was met with great acclaim.
Cy Leo was featured in numerous movie tracks including This Is Not What I Expected starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chasing the Dragon starring Donnie Yen, Hollywood movie The Croods: A New Age and many more. Moreover, Cy Leo has collaborated with renowned Japanese artists including Ichika Nito, Cateen Hayato Sumino, and Tomoaki Baba, as well as New York artist Sarah Kang. He has also worked with top jazz musicians including Troy Robert, Manuel Valera, Janek Gwizdala, Gil Goldstein, Blaque Dynamite, and Maurice Brown. He is now the Co-Artistic Director of Music Lab.
