The Illinois Symphony Orchestra has chosen its new music director. He is Ken Lam, currently the director of the symphony in Charleston, South Carolina.
Lam grew up in Hong Kong, went to college at 15 in England. He studied economics and law at Cambridge and embarked on a legal career in international finance. Lam said he wanted to be a violinist when he was a kid, though his elders discouraged the idea out of economic concerns. He played all through his school years and beyond. He was in the London Lawyers Orchestra and a variety of other community orchestras. Lam said one day, a conductor was absent because of the birth of a child and he filled in. He never looked back.
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