Alan Kwan is a jazz guitarist, composer, and educator who is currently based in New York City. Kwan was born in Hong Kong and started playing guitar at the age of 14; after 4 years of musical training, he decided to devote himself to jazz. He studied with Ted Lo and Eugene Pao and started performing in Hong Kong. Within a few years, he became one of the most active jazz musicians in the city.
In 2009, he moved to the United States to further pursue his study in music. He has studied with Fred Hamilton, Richard McClure, and Noel Johnston at the University of North Texas, where he was the recipient of the College of Music Scholarship, Kris Kolflat Scholarship, and Academic Scholarship. He also studied privately with David Berkman, Paul Bollenback, Stefan Karlsson, Quamon Fowler, Rodney Jones, Nir Felder, Ben Monder, Mike Moreno, Bruce Saunders, John Stowell, Clint Strong, and many other renowned musicians.
Kwan has performed in Hong Kong, Dallas, New York, and Tokyo with various jazz musicians including Dayna Stephens, Fabian Almazan, Paul Bollenback, Orlando Le Fleming, Sean Wayland, David Smith, George Delancey, Curtis Graham Nowosad. He also performed for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York (HKETONY) and the Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Carrie Lam.
In the summer of 2016, Kwan was invited to teach master classes and perform with the Kos Swing Big Band in Taiwan under the direction of Grammy-nominee Dr. Gene Aitken. Kwan was a semi-finalist of the 2016 and 2017 International Songwriting Competition.