Sulwyn Lok is a composer and music director whose work has been described as “magical” and filled with “plenty of beautiful sounds to savour” (The Straits Times). Based between New York and Singapore, he moves between orchestras, Chinese instruments, voice, and electronics, often drawing from different musical traditions in the same space.

His work has appeared at Cannes, Busan, and the New York Asian Film Festival, and includes composing the opening performance for Hermès’ On the Wings of Hermès, a live, site-specific work for chamber orchestra that unfolded through movement around the audience. His recent scores include We Can Save the World!!!, an adventure comedy using Chinese traditional instruments and voice for both tension and comic flair; Ana Is Here, a Serbian documentary exploring LGBTQ+ identity under Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, broadcast on Serbia’s national television network; and Spring Love, which won Universal Music’s UCompose competition and was featured in multiple episodes of Tencent’s Breakfast in China.

He was also music director and lead arranger for Journey to Singapura, reimagining classic xinyao songs by Liang Wern Fook in a contemporary musical theatre style for a new generation of audiences, with two sold-out runs in Singapore and a subsequent tour to Hong Kong.

In the concert world, Sulwyn has received commissions from the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the arts councils of both New York and Singapore. He was nominated for the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards in the musical theatre category.

Recent large-scale and commissioned works include Here, Hear, commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), exploring Asian New Yorker identity.

Among them is Harmonies Across the Seas, a concert-length production presented as the closing gala of the Singapore Chinese Music Festival at the Esplanade Concert Hall, created in collaboration with the Asian Civilisations Museum, where Sulwyn served as music director and composer. The work brought together a cross-cultural ensemble of virtuoso soloists with the Singapore Ruan Ensemble, alongside narrator and live visuals.

His multimedia work Morning of the World, commissioned by the National Arts Council during COVID-19, brought together musicians from Singapore, Bali, and Bandung in a cross-cultural collaboration blending Chinese and Indonesian traditions with electronic sound and responsive visuals.

Other works include Waves, Towards the Lands We Call Home, commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra; and his concerto cycle Into the Moonlit Yonder, written for Chinese wind and percussion (吹打乐), which traces themes of longing, sanctuary, and transformation.

Apart from composing, Sulwyn uses music to bring people together. Supported by the Singapore International Foundation, he conducted artistry sessions with Afghan refugees in Indonesia through Project Artitude. He works regularly with The Purple Symphony, Singapore’s largest inclusive orchestra of musicians with and without disabilities, writing parts that empower musicians of different abilities to make music together. He also conducted and taught at the Music Society of Myanmar Festival and Competition, working with participants across cultures and backgrounds.

He is the Creative Director of Loka Lore Music, a boutique studio creating cross-cultural scores for games and guiding the use of Asian instruments in media, and co-founded IKI, which focuses on music for commercials and films.

Sulwyn is also Associate Editor of the Anthology of Singaporean Ruan Compositions and works closely with leading ensembles in Singapore. He holds a Master’s in Screen Scoring from New York University under the Singapore Digital Scholarship and was valedictorian at YST Conservatory of Music.