Music Director Yip Wing-sie awarded
the Fellowship of the Royal College of Music

Yip Wing-sie, Music Director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta has been conferred as a Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM). The official presentation was made by the President of the College, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales on 11 May 2010 at the Royal College of Music, London.

Each year, the Royal College of Music bestows a number of fellowships on individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to life at the Royal College of Music and distinguished themselves at the forefront of the international music profession.

Notable FRCM recipients in the past include Plácido Domingo, Lorin Maazel, Mstislav Rostropovich, Georg Solti and Arturo Toscanini, among others.

Yip Wing-sie                                             Music Director

A highly respected and influential figure in Asia’s orchestral music scene, Yip Wing-sie has been the Music Director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta since 2002 and is also the Principal Guest Conductor at the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra.  Positions she has previously held include the Ong Teng Cheong Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore (2005–2006), Principal Conductor and later Music Director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra (1997–2003) and Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (1986–2000).

Winner of the First Prize as well as “LYRE d’OR” in the 35th Concours International de Jeunes Chefs d’Orchestre de Besançon, France in 1985 and a prizewinner in the 8th Tokyo International Conducting Competition in 1988, Yip is in great demand as a guest conductor in Asia.  Orchestras she has conducted include the Central Philharmonic Orchestra of China, China National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Inchon City Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Mozart Players, the symphony orchestras of Sapporo, Hiroshima, Shinsei Nihon, Yomiuri, Kyushu, Taiwan, Tasmania, Melbourne and Queensland as well as the Auckland Philharmonia of New Zealand.  In Europe, Yip’s engagements have included concerts with the Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse and the Chambre Orchestre de Besançon in France, Warsaw Philharmonic in Poland, Spain’s Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and the Czech State Orchestra of Košice.  She has also conducted at prestigious venues and festivals such as the Vienna Musikverein (Grossersaal), Beijing Music Festival, Fukuoka’s Asian Month Festival in Japan, Hong Kong Arts Festival and Macao International Music Festival. Yip has also collaborated with such renowned artists as Augustin Dumay, Fou Ts’ong, Shlomo Mintz, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.

As Music Director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Yip has taken the orchestra on tour in recent years to Japan (La Folle Journée in Tokyo), Italy (Festival Pianistico Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Brescia and Bergamo and Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza), France (Les Flâneries Musicales d’Été in Reims and Saint-Riquier Festival), Poland (National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw), festivals in Lithuania and Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. Tours with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2010 include performances in Beijing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, in Shanghai at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival (Expo 2010 Shanghai), in Tokyo again at La Folle Journée and in South America in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Montevideo. 

Born in Guangzhou and brought up in Hong Kong, Yip studied at the Royal College of Music in London before going on to the Indiana University at Bloomington, USA, where she obtained her Master’s Degree in violin performance and conducting.  As the winner of the Koussevitsky Scholarship and the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship Award, Yip spent the summers of 1986 and 1992 attending the conducting seminar and fellowship programmes at the Tanglewood Music Center.  Her mentors included great maestros such as Norman Del Mar, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier and David Atherton. In 1990, Yip was named one of Hong Kong’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University of Hong Kong and was bestowed “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the Ministry of Culture and Communication of France in 2007.

Apart from conducting, Yip also serves on the board of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Council of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and is an advisor on the Music Panel for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Hailed as “one of the world’s great small orchestras”, Hong Kong Sinfonietta is one of Hong Kong’s flagship orchestras founded in 1990 with a mission to bring music closer to the community.  In April 2002, eminent conductor Yip Wing-sie joined as the new Music Director, adding to the orchestra’s vision – “investing in a cultural tomorrow”.  Over the years, the orchestra has collaborated with an illustrious array of international musicians and groups including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Plácido Domingo, Augustin Dumay, Fou Ts’ong, Christopher Hogwood, Luciano Pavarotti, Pinchas Zukerman, The Royal Ballet, Kirov Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and has been a regular guest at festivals at home and abroad. The orchestra has performed at festivals in France, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Shanghai and Warsaw. In 2010, the orchestra has made its début in Beijing in April and made its fourth visit to La Folle Journée in Tokyo in May. The orchestra will also make its début in South America this August and return to Shanghai to perform at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival (Hong Kong SAR Programme for Expo 2010 Shanghai – Hong Kong Week Closing Performance) in October.

The orchestra performs year-round with over 90 performances a year and is the Venue Partner of the Hong Kong City Hall. Apart from standard orchestral repertoire, the orchestra ventures in crossover productions, new commissions and innovative audience development concerts for different age groups. The orchestra’s discography includes CDs of works by Chinese composers on HUGO and two double-CD albums This is Classical Music on DECCA, released in 2008 and 2010.

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