The Creative Edge Effect

Adrian Fung is the Founder and CEO of both Creative Edge Group and Upgrade Learning LLC. He also serves as the Executive and Artistic Director of Vancouver’s celebrated concert organization, Music In The Morning Concert Society. He has held senior executive roles at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, University of Oklahoma (OU), and The Royal Conservatory. Capturing the rapid democratization of marketing technology has led to great gain in Adrian's professional work. He has brought artistic, social, and economic innovation in his past roles, including international projects reaching audiences of over 14.5 million, 50 orchestral commissions, and over 40 partner orchestras. At OU, he created the arts management and entrepreneurship program and the International Arts Incubator, where his funded research tested and developed cutting edge digital marketing strategies for value- and revenue-driven models. During his tenure as head of The Royal Conservatory’s Learning System, he led 64% growth to teacher-student engagement, oversaw new launches of the Piano and Violin Series, and seven-figure growth in revenues from digital offerings.


Adrian is no stranger to the demands of excellence in the arts. As the founding cellist of the critically acclaimed Afiara Quartet, he is a winner of the Concert Artist Guild International Competition, Young Canadian Musicians Award, 2nd prizes at the Munich ARD and Banff International String Quartet Competitions, and the Szekely Prize for Best Interpretation of Beethoven. Le Devoir praises “their intrinsic class, their panache, and their expressive intensity” and La Presse calls the quartet “a revelation”. A JUNO-nominated artist and producer, his projects have been featured by Forbes and CBC Music in each of their Top 10 Albums of the Year and praised by Toronto Star as “one of the most attention-grabbing shows of the year.” Adrian has performed over 600 performances in extensive tours worldwide including such storied stages as Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, the Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, Munich’s Prinz Regenten Theatre, the Royal Library in Copenhagen, and London’s Wigmore Hall. As a soloist, he has been critically acclaimed for his “virtuosic” playing (San Francisco Classical Voice), his “superb” and “brilliant” performance (New York Concert Review), and as a “consummate interpreter of the composer’s message” (Ontario Arts Review). As a soloist and guest artist, he has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, and DJ Kid Koala.