Music Director and Founder of the Vancouver Pops, Tom Kuo is a Vancouver-raised violinist, violist, music educator and conductor. After finishing music school and working as a full time instructor, it wasn't long before he began to wonder whether he was in the right field. He noticed that most students didn't enjoy learning classical music, they didn't enjoy practicing, and they didn't enjoy performing by themselves. 

Sympathetic to the toils of his students studying solo classical music, he decided to set out to create something different that his students might enjoy and appreciate more. It was a three-fold solution. Being in ensembles took away the nervousness of being on stage alone. And playing popular music gave meaning and nostalgia to what they were practicing. Loving a piece of music that you hear, drives you to want to practice and improve. It was then that something really struck a chord. Music can be fun, and challenging, and yet highly rewarding at the same time, if it's with the right music, right instrument, and the right people.

In 2010 it was just a handful of high school students playing the violin together to the tune of "All I Want For Christmas is You". Now in 2025, we have over a hundred musicians, winds, brass, percussion, strings, and singers all coming together to recreate the greatest movie soundtracks and Broadway show tunes of all time for you today. Over the past 15 years, Tom has led the VPOPS Orchestra and Choir through dozens of concerts in the lower mainland, plus two tours to New York City, one tour to Tokyo, Japan, and one to London, UK.

Grateful for all the performing members, his amazing team, and all the support the organization has received, Tom makes sure that new and returning members are welcomed to Vancouver Pops with warmth and enthusiasm.

In his spare time, Tom enjoys being active through tennis and volleyball. He also enjoys being outdoors on a hike or going camping. He dabbles in the kitchen regularly and occasionally will attempt a DIY woodworking or home improvement project.

Tonight’s “Adventures” concert marks the beginning of Gilbert’s 4th season with the Vancouver Pops Orchestra. Praised by the Kharkov Times as being "accurate and precise", Gilbert Sak is an active Canadian musician, educator and conductor. He has guest conducted the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Berlin Sinfonietta, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, and the Kharkov Philharmonic. He has collaborated with such artists as Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway, Paul Champion and Iskander Widjaja, and pop singers as the Grasshopper, Hacken Lee, Angela Zhang and Vincy Chan. After premiering compositions written by twelve Chinese female composers, he was praised by Takung Pao (Hong Kong) as a "conductor who can command the whole stage.”

Gilbert founded the Hong Kong Civic Youth Orchestra and served as the Music Director for 10 years. He was the Principal Conductor of Hong Kong Metropolitan Pop Orchestra from 2016 to 2019, and he has worked with various choral groups in Hong Kong. While serving as an adjunct lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist University, he conducted the University's String Ensemble, Repertory Orchestra and Women’s Choir. From 2017 to 2019, he was the conductor and presenter of "Orchestrate" in Hong Kong, a challenging team building program developed by Catalyst Team Building.

Gilbert studied conducting with Glen Cortese and Leonard Atherton, and participated in masterclasses by Michail Jurowski, Vladimir Ponkin and Colin Metters.  He is the first Hong Kong native to receive a doctorate in violin performance. He has studied in Germany, England and in the USA under the tutelage of world-famous violinists and pedagogues including Michael Goldstein, Albert Markov, Yfrah Neaman, Petru Munteanu and Dr. John Bauer. As a violinist/violist, he has held principal positions in orchestras and has toured to China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland. He joined the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong in 2001 as Principal 2nd Violin and subsequently became a Co-leader. Currently, he is on the faculty of the Richmond Music School where he teaches violin, viola and chamber music. He is also the founding music director of the newly established Burnaby Harmonious Sinfonia, the only community orchestra in Burnaby.

Besides teaching and making music, Gilbert enjoys distance running and playing table tennis. He is also a member of Mensa Canada.