Kevin Thompson, founding master of the University of Macau (UM) Moon Chun Memorial College, has been elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) for his outstanding contributions in promoting arts, cultural exchange, the development of creative industries and the international business community, as well as music and administrative management.
25 individuals from China, including Prof Thompson, within a mainland population of 1.435 billion, have made the list throughout the history of the EASA, which was founded on 7 March 1990. Because of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus), a Festive Ceremony, the formal bestowal of the membership upon Prof Thompson, will be held in the March of 2021. After the ceremony, Prof Thompson will pay a reciprocal visit to the Mozarteum, whose vice president, Sarah Wedl-Wilson, visited MCMC in 2016. In May 2019, Sarah Wedl-Wilson was elected as the new rector of the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin, Germany.
The EASA is a prestigious global academic society. Members of the academy are leaders in related fields, with outstanding contributions in promoting creative research, interdisciplinarity, international collaborations, and academic exchange. Among them 32 are Nobel laureates.
Prof Thompson is a fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, decreed by Birmingham City University in January 2020. He was conferred an honorary doctorate in arts by the University of Plymouth in July 2007. He was elected a fellow and associate in Cambridge by the governing body of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, in May 2019. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Musicians, and the Royal Geographical Society. He is also a Churchill Fellow, and an Associate in Cambridge, University of Cambridge, and Clare Hall 1966 Foundation Society.
He was the adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s High Level Strategy Group on International Students & Education in the United Kingdom. He has worked extensively with the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He worked with the Vienna Philharmonic during his Hong Kong years, and with the Vienna Boys’ Choir in 2014 when the choir visited Macao. On a yearly basis, he actively supports the Vienna Boys’ Academy through his AustroCham rôle, Austrian cable car company Doppelmayr, with yearly MCMC undergraduate visits to its Doppelmayr’s Macao installation at Wynn Palace, Riedel Austrian glass manufacturers, and Swarovski, Austria jewellers. He worked for the new arts academy SIVA (Shangahi, Institute of Visual Arts) and at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron officially announced a decree to bestow upon Prof Thompson the title and rank of Knight of the National Order of Légion of Honour (Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur). The bestowal was held in the presence of French Consul General M Éric Berti. In the same year, he was elected president of the Macau European Chamber of Commerce by all seven European chambers in Macao, a further demonstration of the respect and recognition of his peers. In October 2019, he was elected vice president of the supervisory board of the Macau European Chamber of Commerce.
Before joining UM, Prof Thompson was the chairman of the Royal West of England Academy in 2012; president of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 2004 to 2012; president of the Dartington College of Arts from 1993 to 2004; and founding president of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 1988. In addition, Prof Thompson received the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Her Majesty The Queen, New Year's Honours List 2011; French Knighthood (Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) from the French Republic on the nomination of the Minister of Culture and Communication, Frédéric Mitterrand, in 2012. He received the Macao European Award for Euro Excellence in Innovation, from the Macau European Chamber of Commerce in May 2016, and the Gold Award from the Business Awards of Macao for Leadership by Example in November 2016.
