Yip Wing-sie
Music Director Emeritus

A highly respected and influential figure in Asia’s orchestral music scene, Yip Wing-sie shifted from being the Music Director of Hong Kong Sinfonietta – a position which she had held since 2002 – to Music Director Emeritus in May 2020. Other positions she had previously held include Principal Conductor and later Music Director of Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Resident Conductor of Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

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, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Mozart Players, the symphony orchestras of Sapporo, Yomiuri, 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 Capitole de Toulouse and the Chambre Orchestre de Besançon in France, Warsaw Philharmonic in Poland and Spain’s Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. 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 collaborated with such renowned artists as Augustin Dumay, Fou Ts’ong, Shlomo Mintz, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. Operas she has conducted include Guo Wen-jin’s Poet Li Bai and the world premières of Pierangelo Valtinoni’s opera for children Alice in Wonderland, and La Peintre with Taiwan Philharmonic.

As Music Director of Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Yip has taken the orchestra on tour in recent years to France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Lithuania, Canada, the USA, Japan, Korea, Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, and in South America in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

Born in Guangzhou and brought up in Hong Kong, Yip graduated from the Royal College of Music in London and 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 also attended 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.

Accolades Yip has received internationally include “Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite” bestowed by the French Government (2015), “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the Ministry of Culture and Communication of France, Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM), and she was also named the Ong Teng Cheong Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. In Hong Kong, she received an Honorary Fellowship from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (2022), the “Hong Kong Women of Excellence in the Six Arts Award” from the Hong Kong Federation of Women and the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) from the Hong Kong Government (2013), and was University Artist at The University of Hong Kong (2011-2012).

 

Concerts conducted by Yip Wing-sie in the 2023/2024 Season

15.4.2023 (Sat)
DOUBLE ACTs
Great Clarinet Concertos: Raphaël Sévère Plays Copland

 

22.4.2023 (Sat)
DOUBLE ACTs
Double Concertos!

 

29.4-7.5.2023
Hong Kong Sinfonietta in Germany & Austria

 

17.6.2023 (Sat)
French May Arts Festival
Great Piano Concertos: Julien Libeer Plays Poulenc

 

22-24.7.2023 (Sat-Mon)
Festival International de Piano La Roque d’Anthéron, France

 

28.7.2023 (Fri)
Marvão International Music Festival (Spain)

 

10.11.2023 (Fri)
The Lian Hua Shan Glades Music Festival, Shenzhen

 

13.1.2024 (Sat)
DOUBLE ACTs
Double Trumpet Concerto by Fazıl Say

 

23.3.2024 (Sat)
Fly LIVE!

 

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