South China Morning Post review of Hong Kong Sinfonietta June 2015

"Lam, now music director of the Charleston Symphony in the United States, brought out the best in the Sinfonietta which played with natural flow and clean texture in one go. The transition to the final dash was compelling, bringing a relief after the explosive ending."

Read full SCMP review here

South China Morning Post review of Hong Kong Sinfonietta November 2014

"Lam's reading, passionate but not indulgent, drew excellent playing from the orchestra."

Read full SCMP review here

New York Times and Wall Street Journal reviews of Feng Yi Ting

"In the orchestra, under the expert direction of Ken Lam, the slides of the bowed erhu, the tremolos of the pipa, and the distinctively breathy and reedy sounds of the Chinese flute and mouth organ were picked up, mimicked and expanded on by the Western orchestral instruments until it was hard to tell where the breaks were."

Read full WSJ review here

"Ken Lam led members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra and a small contingent of Chinese musicians playing traditional instruments in a beautifully balanced, bracing performance."

Read full NYT review here

Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestras to become Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras on September 1, 2012

Lam said the the creation of the BSYO means that “our students will now have ties to a world-class music organization led by a visionary conductor in Marin Alsop [the BSO's music director], access to more sizable resources, and be in a better position to recruit the very best talent from across the State of Maryland.”

                                                                                                       -- Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun

Read full article here

Conducting competition winners prove their talent - Top three finishers lead the Memphis Symphony Orchestra

"The Hong Kong-born conductor gave the grand composition a stately interpretation, especially attentive to detail and purpose. But Lam was not so serious as to lose any excitement in the piece. He rocked, stomped and jumped on the podium to bring this portrait of America to a rousing conclusion."

                                                                                            -- Jon W. Sparks, GoMemphis

Ken Lam conducts Brevard Sinfonia in Triumphant Finale

"Ken Lam, who is Resident Conductor at the [Brevard Music] Center, is one of the most exciting conductors I’ve seen. He is both elegantly poised and sophisticated and viscerally connected to the music, clearly communicating elements of style as well as cues. It must be thrilling to perform under his direction... This crowd couldn’t get enough, the ovation calling Lam to return to the stage four times. Bravi tutti, especially all wind and brass players. What a performance!"

                                                                                                -- Laura McDowell, CVNC

Read full review here

Ken Lam wins the Memphis Symphony Orchestra International Conducting Competition

Read report from Apple Daily (in Chinese, subscribers only)

Ken Lam conducting the Memphis Symphony Orchestra at the Memphis Symphony Orchestra International Competition in May 2011 (photo: Julienne Kopel)

CSO/CSYO Joint Concert May 11, 2011 Music Hall, Cincinnati

"The concert opened with “Finlandia.” With the full CSO and CSYO, it was a powerful and deeply moving reading that Lam made his own. There was nothing cliché about it, just majesty and dignity."

                                                                            -- Mary Ellyn Hutton, Music in Cincinnati

Read full review here

Massenet Manon with Peabody Opera and Peabody Symphony Orchestra
November 18-21, 2010

"Ken Lam conducted with a telling sweep, but allowed the gentlest side of the music to shimmer... All in all, I'd rank this among the best Peabody Opera ventures, overall, of the past decade."

                                                                                     --- Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun

Read full review here

J Strauss II Die Fledermaus with Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center
June 8-9, 2010

"Especially noteworthy was Lam’s grasp of the performance style of this most Viennese of music. His rubati and other subtleties of tempo modification were sophisticated and so musical — in them one could easily hear Straussian echos of the annual New Year’s Day broadcast from Vienna’s famous Musikverein hall."

                                                               --- Laura McDowell, Classical Voice of North Carolina
Read full review here