Coco Lau

Fifteen Minutes of Fame featuring Coco Lau

Coco Lau is a classical singer who grew up in Hong Kong. Her training in both classical and contemporary music in Austria and Germany makes her a versatile performer, with a repertoire ranging from Baroque to brand-new compositions. Lau’s ability to learn music quickly and her sharp musical instincts have taken her to renowned festivals and stages, including the Schwetzinger Festspiele (2025) in Adam & Eva by Mike Svoboda, Heidelberger Frühling (2025), Osterfestspiele Tirol, and the Münchener Biennale (2024), where she appeared in Die neuen Linien #1 and The Gates Are (Nearly) Open by Du Yun with NOVOFLOT in Berlin. Her curiosity and interest in artistic variety have brought her opportunities to work closely with composers such as Ying Wang (Grey Hair, 2024) and Maximiliano Soto Mayorga (Medea Fragments, 2024).

As an artist who enjoys creative exploration and actively seeks out innovative projects, she launched her first open call for scores in 2025 under the theme of Motherhood, in collaboration with Vox Novus —Fifteen Minutes of Fame.

On the opera stage, Lau portrayed Hilda Mack in Hans Werner Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers (1961) under the baton of Gernot Sahler and director Alexander von Pfeil (2024). She premiered Hans-Joachim Hespos’s POÄM (2023), choreographed by Johannes Schropp at Hellerau, and appeared in Jean-Baptiste Marchand’s chamber opera Im Geheimnis at the Limina Festival with Ensemble œnm (2021). Earlier, she performed the role of Suor Osmina in Opera Hong Kong’s production of Suor Angelica (Puccini) in 2017.

Concert highlights include Ligeti’s Aventures et Nouvelles Aventures and the premiere of Dreiundzwanzig by Johannes X. Schachtner at the aDevantgarde Festival (2023), where she sang with Salome Kammer and Ensemble NAMES. Her interpretation of Aribert Reimann’s Lady Lazarus (1992), directed by Angelika Luz, has been featured in Salzburg, Berlin, and Dresden—including a special performance at the Semperoper as part of the symposium Ein Tag für Aribert Reimann in 2023.

She has worked with composers such as Adriana Hölszky, Carola Bauckholt, Sarah Nemtsov, Caspar Johannes Walter, Sergei Newski, Klaus Lang, Kunsu Shim, Dmitri Kourliandski, Jaime Reis, Eloain Lovis Hübner, and Andreas Bäuml. Lau works regularly with Schola Heidelberg, AuditivVokal Dresden, and the Rheinstimmen Ensemble.

Lau holds two master’s degrees from the Mozarteum University Salzburg: a Master of Arts in Voice with Michèle Crider and a Master of Music in Contemporary Music with Lisa Fornhammar. Her artistic development has been shaped by mentors including Manos Tsangaris, Jörn-Peter Hiekel, and Marino Formenti. She is currently based in Dresden, Germany.

Concert Dates

  • August 7, 2025 - Kowloon, Hong Kong

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

  • And Everything That s In It

    Eliane Aberdam

    This unaccompanied soprano solo sets the final stanza of Kipling’s If— incorporating whistling, sprechgesang, half-voice and whisper. The powerful vocal textures trace the bittersweet achievement of coming of age—where independence is tinged with solitude, and strength emerges not from conquest, but from quiet resilience, restraint, and the cost of separation.

    Eliane Aberdam is a composer and professor at the University of Rhode Island. A graduate of the Rubin Academy, Penn, and UC Berkeley, her internationally performed works often explore social themes. Notable pieces include PaRDeS, Shahrazad, and In Memoriam. She’s currently composing Frontiers of Sand and Sea, her fourth opera.

  • Motherhood

    Donato Attanasio

    A pregnant woman hears a frail voice calling her from inside. It's her baby or something else? Nothing can scare a mother who truly loves her baby. The text is freely inspired and traslated from "Maternità" by Ada Negri (1870-1945)

    Forced to stop his violin career due to a wrist injury, Donato Attanasio (2000) has found a new way to make music even with an harmed wrist. He has recently started his journey in composing contemporary music, studying in Naples. His music has been performed in Naples,Livorno and Tallinn.

  • In 100,000

    Isaac Bolan

    In 100,000 is a piece based on U.S. data on childbirths, highlighting the tragedy of the dangers of childbirth. For every “died” in the respective portion of the text, it represents 20 infant deaths per 100,000 live births, and 1 maternal death.

    Isaac Bolan is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and jazz musician living in State College, PA. As a fan and practitioner of a wide variety of music, he seeks to find unique musical ideas in the exploration and synthesis of these interests. Bolan always believes that expression is his final goal.

  • A TRAVELLER'S SONG

    Erik Branch

    The subject immediately called to mind Meng Jiao’s famous poem — its restraint, and depiction of the mother’s love through sewing and worrying about her son’s lateness is very moving. My setting is less restrained — an intense cantilena that takes the soprano through her full musical and emotional range.

    ERIK BRANCH is a native of New York City, and received a BA and MA in Music (Composition) from Hunter College. He lives near Orlando, Florida, where he is active as a pianist, musical director, composer/arranger, operatic tenor, and actor on stage and screen.

  • Xīnshēng

    Sarah Clevely

    Xīnshēng means 'new life' in Chinese. Inspired by the poem, 'A night on the labour ward', which describes the pain, fear and drama of giving birth, the piece reflects this atmosphere by using a range of vocal techniques, pitches - including microtones - and fast-paced dynamic changes.

    Sarah is a composer of choral and instrumental music spanning many styles and genres, and she enjoys experimenting with unusual instrumental combinations. Her music has been published and performed in the UK and US. Sarah enjoys music theory, and she sings, plays the piano, organ, trumpet and ukulele.

  • And I Will Sing

    Maria Collings

    My aria, 'And I will Sing', for solo soprano is a lullaby which sets the first verse of Thomas Dekker's (c.1572 - c.1632) poem, 'Golden Slumbers'. I have chosen this poem to represent a mother singing to her young children as they sleep.

    After many years as primary school teacher, Advanced Skills Teacher and a headteacher, Maria has returned to her first interest in composition. 'In a Wide Place', for string orchestra, was premiered in 2023. Her aria 'Camellia' was premiered by Mary Hubbell. Maria is currently studying for a MMus in Composition.

  • Where Is Mama?

    Douglas DaSilva

    A little girl cannot find her Mama. The setting could be nightmarish netherworld or a sunny day at the park. Either way, the emotion is the same. The girl has lost her Mama and calls her name in a panic. In the end, Mama finds her safe.

    Douglas DaSilva spends his days teaching music & martial arts to very young children in NYC. He feeds off the positive life-energy of children. Every day he questions whether the relationship is symbiotic or if the souls of the young will wither away prematurely as he recharges parasitically.

  • I know a baby

    Kirsten Johnson

    Using text by Christina Rossetti (1839 - 1894), a musical picture is painted of a loving mother adoring her little baby. "I know a baby" opens with the soprano in full voice, with various extended techniques used to express the emotion and relationship musically.

    Kirsten Johnson is a composer and pianist. Her works have been performed around the world, including in London, Oxford, Brussels, Milan, New York City and Boston. Expressions: Piano Music by Kirsten Johnson was released in 2024 (CRC 4095), followed by a second disc, Journeys, in 2025. www.kirstenjohnsonpiano.com/compositions.

  • Mama never forgets her birds

    Cecilia Muylaert

    Set to Emily Dickinson’s eponymous poem, “Mama never forgets her birds” is a musical meditation on the bittersweet experience of a mother watching her children grow and leave the nest. It is a reminder of the enduring presence of maternal love, no matter how far her children may roam.

    Cecilia Muylaert is a Paris-based Brazilian composer. She graduated in Music and Musicology from Paris-Sorbonne before turning to composition following her studies at the University of Leeds, UK. Her concert music has been performed in the United States, England, Scotland, Germany, Mexico and Brazil by various soloists

  • Nami

    Gaetano Nenna

    Nami is a short unaccompanied soprano piece based on a Palestinian lullaby. It imagines a mother singing to her child lost in genocide. The repeated word Nami hovers between tenderness and despair. Rooted in Gaza’s pain, it’s a silent scream against violence and injustice.

    Gaetano Nenna is a composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist based in Reggio Emilia. He collaborates with TeatrO dell’Orsa and directs the Coro Interculturale di Reggio Emilia. His music has been performed internationally, and he studied composition with Manzoni, Corghi, Hesketh, and Fujikura. He teaches at the Conservatorio di Reggio Emilia, Italy.

  • Dulzura

    Vicente Olave

    Based on the eponymous poem by Gabriela Mistral, Dulzura embraces the straightforward love that a child has for their mother, in a way that express its utmost tenderness and intensity. As a sometimes-overlooked topic that we usually take for granted, my intention is to enhance these pure feelings, treating them as if they were almost sacred.

    Coming from Chile, Vicente is a composer who seeks variety both in his works and in the challenges he faces. Developing his career nowadays in Germany, his works have been premiered in several countries by ensembles such as Mivos Quartet, MotoContrario, Ensamble f(r)actura, Trío Siqueiros and the Saviet/Houston Duo.

  • Genealogy

    Keri Lee Pierson

    For me, one of the most interesting themes to explore is what we inherit from our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and ancestors we never will know. For this piece I titled Genealogy, the singer is asked to think about what is shared, gained and lost through generations, physically, mentally and spiritually.

    Keri Lee Pierson is a contemporary classical singer, collaborator and music educator. She currently teaches at Northern Michigan University while maintaining an active performance career.

  • Geht leise!

    Friedemann Schmidt-Mechau

    “Geht leise” is a short miniature for soprano solo. It is dedicated to Coco Lau's mother and uses a poem by Paula Dehmel, a German writer, who speaks here as a mother and asks everyone else to walk quietly out of consideration for the newborn.

    Friedemann Schmidt-Mechau, born in Frankfurt/Germany in 1955, initially trained as a carpenter and worked in this profession for 15 years before studying composition, piano and musicology in Oldenburg and Bremen. He has conducted various choirs and mainly composes chamber music for professional musicians, but also enjoys working with amateurs.

  • On Motherhood

    Juan María Solare

    On Motherhood, a one-minute vocal piece dedicated to Michelle To, written for a call by her daughter, Coco Lau. Built through motivic accumulation and intervallic inversion, it offers a reverent bow to the Eternal Mother. It ends bocca chiusa, on /m/, the near-universal initial sound of the word “mother.”

    Juan María Solare (1966, Argentina), works in Germany as composer, pianist, and teaching at the University of Bremen. His music has been performed across five continents, earned 11 composition prizes and received 30 million streams in Spotify. Over 33 CDs of different performers feature music by him. https://www.JuanMariaSolare.com

  • What does it take to be a mother?

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza

    This song for Coco Lau and her appearance for Vox Novus’ Fifteen – Minutes – of – Fame on text by the composer, questions and contemplates on what it takes to be a mother, employing a spectrum of vocal effects including glissandi, sprechstimme , straightforward speech and singing, encouraging the listener to reflect.

    José Jesus de Azevedo Souza studied in England at the Purcell School with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He then studied at the Trinity College of Music and the University of Sheffield. His music has since been performed in Europe, Asia, North and South America and the Pacific.