Kevin Thompson
Prof Kevin Thompson, master of Moon Chun Memorial College, University of Macau (UM), has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a new international honorary member in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of performing arts. With his election, he joins the company of the academy’s notable members – from its founders John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington, to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Maria Mitchell, and Alexander Graham Bell.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honours excellence and convenes leaders in the fields of science, humanities, business administration, political science, and arts to examine new ideas and address issues of importance to the world as expressed in its charter. Its international honorary members have included Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Wislawa Szymborska, Laurence Olivier, Mary Leakey, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Akira Kurosawa, and Nelson Mandela. Its current members represent today’s innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.
Prof Thompson has received multiple honorary awards for cultural leadership: OBE for services to Arts and to UK and Hong Kong cultural exchanges (Queen's New Year's Honours List 2011); Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for Arts, Education and Public Life, in March 2012; and two highest French Knighthoods, namely Légion d’honneur and Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, on the nomination of French President Macron and Minister of Culture and Communication Frédéric Mitterrand.
He also received the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria; an honorary doctorate from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2019, an honorary doctorate from the University of Plymouth and HonDMus from Goldsmiths London. He was also elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2019, a member of the Royal Institute of Philosophy in 2020, as well as an associate in Cambridge by the governing body of Clare Hall of the University of Cambridge in 2019. He has served as president of the Macau European Chamber of Commerce, vice chairman of Britcham Macao, board director of the French Association Culturelle Le French May, board director of the French Macau Chamber of Commerce, inaugural chairman of the council of residential college masters of UM, founding master of Moon Chun Memorial college, and a member of the advisory committee of the Macao Orchestra.
Recognised internationally as one of the most pre-eminent presidents of academies of music and arts, Prof Thompson has served as president of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, chairman of the Royal West of England Academy, chairman of the Pilot Theatre Company, chairman of York Theatre Royal; and a board member of the Arts University Bournemouth (Cabinet Office appointment). He has also held joint events in Macao with many famous musicians and music groups, including William Christie, Michel Dalberto, BBC PO, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Christ Church Cathedral Choir of the University of Oxford, as well as the choirs of various Cambridge colleges, including Girton College, Gonville & Caius College, Robinson College, Clare College, and Clare Hall.