Eugene Lai is a clarinetist, bass clarinetist, composer, and curator from Taipei, Taiwan. He holds a Master’s degree in Bass Clarinet Performance from the Prins Claus Conservatorium Groningen (Hanze University of Applied Sciences) and is currently the only Taiwanese musician to have completed this specialization. His artistic lineage traces the Dutch contemporary bass clarinet tradition established by Harry Sparnaay. He studied clarinet with Chih-Ning Kao, Eugenia Jin, and Pei-Yun Lin, and bass clarinet with Ji-Hsi Chang and Fie Schouten.
During his years in Europe, Lai engaged with international artistic networks through collaborations with festival curators, composers, soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians. These experiences—including individual instruction from clarinetists Mate Bekavac, Sauro Berti, Kilian Herold, Olivier Patey, Davide Lattuada, Joost van Rheeden, and Bernhard Röthlisberger—gradually shaped a performance language spanning classical, contemporary, and improvised music, while broadening his perspective on sound, culture, and interdisciplinary artistic practice.
Active across Europe and Asia, Lai has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at international platforms including ClarinetFest®, the European Clarinet Congress, and the Sound of Music Festival (Netherlands). He is also regularly invited to perform with orchestras including the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, and Guiyang Symphony Orchestra in concert and recording projects. Lai is a recipient of the Hsing-Tian-Kong Award (Taiwan), was shortlisted for the Messina International Clarinet Competition (Italy), and was selected as a OneBeat Taiwan Artist-in-Residence in 2024.
In recent years, Lai has expanded his practice into contemporary chamber music curation. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Quintette Les Jeux d’Anches and a member of Ensemble TMAP. Through performance, composition, and curatorial practice, he explores sound as a medium for cultural memory, artistic inquiry, and cross-cultural dialogue.