Structure

During the last 30 years, the Artistic Department has expanded from 50 musicians to the present 88. It now includes an Artistic Director/ Principal Conductor, an Associate Conductor, a Research Fellow, a Research Development Officer (Musical Instrument), a Concertmaster and Assistant Conductor, a Deputy Concertmaster and Principal, Section Leader and Principals (2), Principals (12), Assistant Principals (9) and musicians (59). The Orchestra has four sections: bowed-strings, plucked-strings, wind and percussion, which incorporate traditional and modernized Chinese instruments as well as suitable western instruments.

Chew Hee-chiat Associate Conductor

Currently Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Chew Hee-chiat was able to play many types of Chinese musical instruments when he was in secondary school, and received composition lessons from Saw Boon Kiat of Malaysia and renowned composer Qian Zhaoxi of China. He went to the United States in 1990 to take up a double degree programme at the Southeast Missouri State University in computer science and music (with a cello major). He went on to read a postgraduate course at the University of South Carolina under Dr Donald Portnoy, and was awarded a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting in 1996.

Chew was appointed Music Director of the Professional Cultural Centre Orchestra (PCCO) of Malaysia in 1996, a position that involved not only conducting but also orchestral development. In 1999, he conducted the Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra in Singapore and the Hong Kong Music Lover Chinese Orchestra in Hong Kong in two critically acclaimed concerts. In July 2000, he collaborated with Maestro Yan Huichang in two sold-out concerts at the Istana Budaya (National Theatre), and held a joint master class for conducting in Malaysia in which many young and promising Chinese orchestra conductors participated.

In April and June 2002, Chew was invited by the HKCO to guest conduct two concert series, Cook up Some Music and Music from the Heart II - Join up with the World. Soon after joining the HKCO in June the same year, he was actively engaged in conducting, arranging and orchestration work for the many concerts of the orchestra. In March 2004, he guest conducted the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in a highly successful concert, A Nanyang Musical Voyage II. More recently, Chew conducted the Opening Rally of the Hong Kong Dizi and Xiao Festival organised by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 2005. More than 500 players performed his work A Celebration of Dizi under his baton. The event made the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of people playing the dizi at the same time.

Conducting aside, Chew is also an active composer. His works have characteristic features that demonstrate his Southeast Asian cultural heritage. They include Orchestra Suite No.1 and Orchestra Suite No.2 which won him the second runner-up prize in the International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Compositions 2000 organized by HKCO; The Third, which won him the Outstanding Composition Award in the Chinese Music Competition 2002 organized by the Council for Cultural Affairs in Taiwan; Fantasy Dance (a Hong Kong premiere); Tradition? for bangdi and small orchestra (a Singapore premiere); Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra and his arrangements of the Malaysian folk song, Ulek Mayang, and Bizet/ Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy for dizi and orchestra; and Western Film Classics Suite.

Yuen Shi-chun was born into a family of architects. He joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1974 and was appointed Liuqin Principal of the Orchestra in 1987.  Currently he is the Research Development Officer (Musical Instrument).

In 1993, Yuen was appointed a member of the “Experts of Chinese musical instrument improvement?and the “Technology Advancement Award Adjudication Committee?of the Ministry of Culture.

For the past two decades, Yuen has consistently worked on the improvement and design of Chinese plucked instruments. He has designed models of liuqin with double resonators and ruanxian. In 1992 and 1996 Yuen won the Technology Advancement Award from the Chinese Ministry of Culture for his liuqin and ruanxian respectively. In 1998, he was given the same award for the consort of ruanxian he made.

In 2003, Yuen received the Award for Arts Achievement by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

Yim Hok-man is a renowned percussionist with more than forty years of performing experience. Accomplished in percussion instruments of both east and west, Yim has won popular and critical acclaim in various parts of the world.

Yim began learning to drum when he was ten. At 14, he was admitted to the Music School affiliated to the Central Philharmonic Orchestra of China to study western percussion music for five years. After graduating with distinction, he joined the Central Philharmonic Orchestra as a percussionist and stayed with it for 20 years. During that period, he also learned Peking Opera percussion music as well as Zhoushan Gong and Drum Music under virtuosi in the two performing art forms.

During the 1970s, he was on tour with the China Arts Troupe to Japan and the US, where his performance of Zhoushan Gong and Drum Music was warmly received.  In the 1980s, he diligently studied the art of Xian Drum Music and Chaozhou Gongs and Drums.  In July 1989, he was soloist in the concert series The Art of Chinese Percussion in Hong Kong. 

During the 1990s, Yim took part in many music and arts festivals, including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Macau International Arts Festival, the International Music Festival, the 1998 World Expo at Lisbon, the Taipei International Percussion Festival, the National Drum Competition for the 24 Solar Terms held in Malaysia, the Cannes Film Festival in France.  Yim has given many touring performances as a member of a delegation or orchestra, etc.  The places he has visited include the US, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Holland, Portugal, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Macau and many cities in China. 

His solo albums Master of Chinese Percussion - Yim Hok-man (1) and Master of Chinese Percussion - Yim Hok-man (2) are considered quintessential representation of Yim's knowledge of percussion.  Released for international distribution in 1998 and 1999, they were highly acclaimed in the music and acoustics milieux, and are selling very well in every part of the world.

Yim is currently a member of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society, an honorary member of the Percussion Society under the auspices of the Chinese Musicians' Association, an honorary executive committee member of the Professional Percussionists Council of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society and the Shaanxi Percussion Society of China. He joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1984, and is currently Deputy Concertmaster cum Percussion Principal. He is also a part-time lecturer in percussion at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Yim was named "Artist of the Year 1999" by the Hong Kong Artists' Guild.

Gaohu

Hsin Hsiao-ling Acting Section Leader (Bowed-strings) / Principal		Chu Yung		Cheng Yuting		Ng Kwok-kwong		He Tao
Zhou Yi		Ngai Kwun-wa

Erhu

Hsin Hsiao-hung (Principal)		Ching Sau-wing(Assistant Principal)		To Shek-chor		Wong Yung		Sze Poon-chong
Xu Hui		Tong Koon-yan		Lu Yunxia		Wong lok-ting		Zhang Chongxue
Zhao Lei		Siu Sau-han		So Shun-yin

Zhonghu

Liu Yang (Principal)		Hui Yin (Assistant Principal)		Mao Qinghua		Wong Chi-wah		Chang Hung-chung
Pang Yui-sing		Siu Sau-lan		Han Jingna

Gehu

Tung Hiu-lo (Principal)		Lo Chun-wo(Assistant Principal)		He Wei		Li Hung-kwan		Tng Kin-seng
Cheung King-mui		Wan Man-leung		Ngai Hon-yip

Bass Gehu

Chan Kung-ki (Principal)		Lee Pak-wai		Vonghemrat Pichan		Qi Hongwei		Li Wei

Born into a musical family, Wong Chi Ching entered the China Broadcast Chinese Orchestra in 1976 and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1987. Currently, she is the Section Leader of Plucked-strings and Pipa Principal of the Orchestra. Since 1995, she has been learning Peking Opera under Bao Youdie.

Wong is a versatile pipa artiste with a rich repertoire that comprises works by different composers, in different styles and at different times. Noted for her pure tone colour and artistic appeal, she is praised by critics as “musical, also artistically and technically proficient? Wong is a much sought-after soloist, having collaborated with the Philippines Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Municipal Chinese Orchestra, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Central Folk Orchestra of China.

Wong is also a keen supporter of modern music. In October 1995, at the ISCM World Music Days Festival held in Hong Kong, Wong performed two new works by local composer, Law Wing-fai, Shake n’Roll and Ink Spirit for pipa and strings quartet with great success. Then in April 1996, she participated in an innovative performance that integrated music with dance entitled Zi Lian Kuang. In her performance of King Chu Doffs His Armour with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, she added a cadenza where she sang with her own accompaniment on the pipa.

In January 1997, Wong performed at the Composers Seminar organized by the Taipei Municipal Chinese Orchestra in Taiwan. In March of the same year, she performed a zhongruan concerto Remembrance of Yunnan with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 1997, she performed a symphonic piece When Mountains Roar for Chinese-Western orchestra with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. After receiving critical acclaim in the 2000 Hong Kong Arts Festival programme “Pipa Images? she gave a highly successful performance with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta at Saint-Riquier Festival in France next year.

Sun Yongzhi entered the Xian Conservatory of Music in 1977 where he was trained by Yuan Xiuhe and dizi maestro Zhao Songting.   After graduating with distinction in 1982, he stayed on at the Conservatory to teach.  He was appointed Dizi Principal of Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1997, and is currently also the Section Leader (Wind).  Sun also teaches dizi at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Apart from teaching, Sun is a recording artiste, having recorded for many productions in film and television and studio work.  He was the lead player in the film soundtrack music Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker and The True Hearted by Zhao Jiping, the famous composer in film music.  He has also won in many dizi competitions in China.

Sun has been on many overseas tours as a member of the delegations of China Youth Arts Troupe, the Shaanxi Cultural Exchange Group, the Xian Musicians Ensemble and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.  The countries he has visited include the United States, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, the Middle East and Japan.

Percussion

Wang Dong (Assistant Principal)		Ronald Chin (Assistant Principal)		Gao Shan		Chan San		Liao Yi-ping