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The Irish conductor, harsichordist and music teacher, Michael Joseph Ryan, was a long-time resident of Hong Kong and has been active as a keyboard player, singer, lecturer and conductor, particularly of choral music. He was a prominent musician and a devoted educator. He was Assistant Professor at the Department of Music & Fine Arts, Faculty of Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University. During his 32-year tenure teaching at Hong Kong Baptist University, he has made significant contributions in taking up crucial responsibilities as the Programme Coordinator of Postgraduate Studies, the Director of the Baptist University Choir and the Voice Coordinator, among many others. He has also conducted other prestigious groups in Hong Kong, Europe and the USA. Since his retirement in 2005, he continued to teach in various programmes, including the Associate Degree Programme, and the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes (BA Music, BA Music Studies, BMus Creative Industries, and MA Music) until early 2021. For years, his inspiring teaching has touched and reshaped the lives of many students. In 2003, he received the President's Award for Outstanding Performance in Service from Hong Kong Baptist University.
His own research focused on Portuguese polyphony in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, but he continued to investigate and publish on a broad range of topics. He has supervised numerous research projects at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has presented the findings of his research in Music History in publications including the new edition of The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Online, and at conferences in Hong Kong, Oxford, and Lisbon. |
