羅乃新女士藝術成就不凡，且多才多藝，既是鋼琴家、電台節目主持人，亦是演員、作家、教育家。她現正任教於香港演藝學院、香港浸會大學、香港中文大學、香港大學，並擔任香港教育大學榮譽駐校藝術家。

羅女士五歲開始跟隨杜蘭夫人習琴，1965年負笈美國茱莉亞音樂學院，師承曼茲和馬蓋斯。在該院考取碩士學位後，她赴歐洲繼續深造，先後在法國和意大利跟隨貝利慕特及阿哥斯堤學習，再於英國皇家北方音樂學院受教於伯格史茲和溫頓。1976年，她在意大利蒙扎舉行的第四屆里娜蕯拉加略國際鋼琴比賽中奪魁，之後更於多個國際賽事中獲獎，包括巴黎馬瑰烈朗格國際鋼琴大賽。

羅女士曾與歐美和亞洲多個樂團合作，包括茱莉亞交響樂團、丹麥電台交響樂團、克羅地亞蕯格拉布電台交響樂團、希臘塞薩洛尼基國家交響樂團、新加坡交響樂團、菲律賓愛樂樂團，亦經常與香港管弦樂團、香港小交響樂團、香港中樂團合作演出。

活躍於香港樂壇的羅女士與本地音樂菁英和不少訪港音樂家均合作無間。除創辦室樂組合「六秀士」，她亦經常在音樂節和音樂會獻藝，如2016年曾應邀參與香港藝術節節目「鋼琴聖詩音樂會」，講解並彈奏多首樂曲。羅女士為促進現代音樂發展，不遺餘力，曾多次參與有關的重要項目，如香港作曲家聯會的「音樂新一代」和「國際現代音樂協會世界音樂日」。

此外，羅女士亦多次應邀參與不同團體的戲劇、音樂劇、歌劇、多媒體製作，如龔志成音樂劇場的《M園》、藝穗會的《三個香港女人的故事》、中英劇團的《廠出樂人谷》、城市當代舞蹈團的《春之祭》和《證言》、非凡美樂的《連隊之花》。

除現場演出外，羅女士亦錄製過不少唱片，包括聖詩選曲集《縈繞心間》、與香港中樂團合作的《十面埋伏》和《春江花月夜》、香港作曲家曲選、與小提琴家梁建楓先生合奏的布拉姆斯21首匈牙利舞曲全集。最近她正進行一連串新錄音製作，包括中國作曲家的聖詩改編曲選、一套為管樂團及鋼琴而寫的協奏曲、荀伯克的《空中花園》。

羅女士素來大力支持香港的音樂教育，經常應邀擔任音樂比賽評判、音樂講座和大師班的講者，如擔任施坦威國際青少年鋼琴比賽（港澳賽區比賽）的評委；另為香港電台第四台主持本港唯一古典音樂兒童節目《親親童樂日》已逾二十年，主持音樂訪談節目《自投羅網》亦已有十年。近年更熱心到訪監獄，以音樂幫助在囚人士更生。

羅女士多年來對社會貢獻良多，早於1978年已獲選為「香港十大傑出青年」。2010年，她獲香港特別行政區政府頒授榮譽勳章；2016年，獲香港藝術發展局頒授「藝術家年獎（音樂）」。

Nancy Loo is one of Hong Kong’s most versatile artists, being pianist, radio programme host, actress, writer, and educator. She currently teaches piano at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of Hong Kong. She is also the Artist in Residence at the Education University of Hong Kong.

Having started to learn the piano at the age of five with Betty Drown, Loo attended the Juilliard School in 1965 under the tutelage of Mieczyslaw Munz and Adele Marcus. After graduating with a Master’s degree, she continued her studies with Vlado Perlemuter in France and Guido Agosti in Italy, as well as Ryszard Bakst and Derek Wyndham at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK. In 1976, she won first prize at the Fourth Rina Sala Gallo International Competition in Monza, and has since won awards in many other international competitions, including the Marguerite Long International Competition in Paris.

Loo has performed in concerts in England, Europe, North America and Asia. She has appeared as a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Radio Symphony Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the National Philharmonic of the Philippines. In Hong Kong, she has played with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.

Loo appears frequently in festivals and events on the local music scene. As the founder of the piano and woodwind sextet Les Six, she has also worked with local and visiting artists in many chamber music concerts. A keen performer of contemporary music, she frequently participates in Musicarama presented by the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild and the ISCM World Music Days Festival. She was the featured artist in Hymns on Piano at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2016.

But Loo’s talents are not limited to concert performance alone: she has participated in various multi-media performances, musicals and operas, such as Kung Chi-shing’s M Garden, and in drama productions, such as The Tale of Three Hong Kong Women with the Hong Kong Fringe Club and The Music Factory with Chung Ying Theatre Company. She has also accompanied with the City Contemporary Dance Company as pianist in The Rite of Spring and Testimony, and for Musica Viva in Donizetti’s opera La fille du régiment.

Loo’s CDs include a solo piano album of Christian music; Ambush from All Sides and Moonlight on Spring River with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra; piano works by local composers; and the Brahms Hungarian Dances with violinist Leung Kin Fung. A series of recording projects are in process, including hymn transcriptions by Chinese composers, a concerto for piano and wind band, and Schoenberg’s song cycle The Book of the Hanging Gardens.

Loo’s engagement with music education in the community is noteworthy; she frequently serves as an adjudicator for piano competitions as well as giving talks and master classes. Her recent contributions include serving on the adjudication panel of the Steinway & Sons International Youth Piano Competition (Hong Kong and Macau Regional Competition). She has been the presenter of RTHK Radio Four’s Cantilena for over ten years and of Children’s Corner, a classical music programme for parents and children, for over twenty years. Recently, she has become actively involved in music ministry in prisons, sharing her passion for music with some of the least advantaged in our society.

Loo’s service to the community through music was first recognised when she became a recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award early in 1978. She received the HKSAR Medal of Honour in 2010, and was honoured as the Artist of the Year (Music) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2016.

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April 2019