Eugene Lai

Eugene Lai is a clarinetist, composer, and curator from Taipei, Taiwan. He holds a Master’s degree in bass clarinet from the Prins Claus Conservatorium Groningen, Hanze University of Applied Sciences. He is currently the only Taiwanese musician to have completed this degree program, and his academic lineage follows the Dutch contemporary tradition and ethos established by bass clarinet virtuoso Harry Sparnaay.

During his studies, Lai studied clarinet with Chih-Ning Kao, Eugenia Jin, and Pei-Yun Lin, and bass clarinet with Ji-Hsi Chang and Fie Schouten. His musical language was further shaped during his years of study in Europe through intensive exchange and one-to-one work with international musicians, gradually forming a sound practice that spans classical, contemporary, and improvised contexts. In addition to the clarinet family, he also performs on saxophones and other woodwinds.

Active across classical, contemporary, and cross-cultural music scenes in Europe and Asia, Lai performs and records regularly as a soloist and chamber musician, and serves as a guest musician with several orchestras. His collaborations include the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Philharmonia, and the Philharmonia Moments Musicaux. He has been invited to perform at international platforms such as ClarinetFest®, the European Clarinet Congress, the Sound of Music Festival (Netherlands), and MENA Groningen.

Lai is a recipient of the Hsing-Tian-Kong Award (Taiwan) and was shortlisted for the Messina International Clarinet Competition (Italy). He was also selected as an artist-in-residence for OneBeat Taiwan.

In recent years, Lai has increasingly focused on chamber music curation, approaching musicians as connective nodes linking cultural context, sonic vocabulary, and artistic action. In 2024, he founded the reed quintet Quintette Les Jeux d’Anches and has served as its artistic director since 2025. He is also a member of Ensemble TMAP. His work spans solo, chamber, orchestral, experimental, and  improvised music, engaging sound as a medium for cultural memory and artistic inquiry, while remaining committed to education and the cultivation of emerging musicians.