Profile
NG Cheuk-yin
Ng Cheuk-yin is a renowned composer, sheng performer and a cappella singer in Hong Kong. His music flows seamlessly through the East and West, past and present while melting down borders between genres, representing the special culture of Hong Kong.
Yin is Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s first Artist Associate, the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s first resident composer, music director of the fusion group SIU2 and the co-artistic director of the a cappella theatre company Yat Po Singers. He is also the founder of the music label Flower Music and the publishing company for Hong Kong Composers – Apple Tree Music. After receiving a post-graduate degree from the Music Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he went on to study Japanese at the International Christian University in Tokyo and Jazz Music at Codarts in the Netherlands.
In 2012, Yin received Award for Best Artist from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In 2009, Yin received the Best Serious Composition in CASH Golden Sail Music Awards for a theatrical choral concert Rock Hard. And this work was performed as the opening show of Hong Kong’s cultural program in Shanghai EXPO 2010. His double sheng concerto Before the City Collapses (2013 Hong Kong Arts Festival/ Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Loo Sze-wang & Ng Cheuk-yin) was also being awarded the Best Serious Composition in CASH Golden Sail Music Awards 2012 and the next year his choral work Singing Voices of the World was awarded the CASH most performed work award 2013 (serious music). In 2011, Yin released his solo a cappella album “Single Singers” which became a hot topic for this art form in Hong Kong.
Listed among TimeOut HK Magazine’s Top 20 Musicians 2008, he also won the 2008 Canto-pop Top 10 from Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation (Commercial Radio), the Best Broadcast Rate Award (MetroRadio Broadcast) and the 31st Top 10 Canton Pop Award (Radio Television Hong Kong) for his work Under the Sakura Tree which was composed for Pop Singer Hins Cheung.
Yin’s works range from chamber and orchestral works to electronic music; from rock music to musicals; from choral works to pop songs and music for crossover bands and ensembles. He has collaborated with various art groups and pop singers, including Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Dance Company, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Children’s Choir, Hong Kong Ballet, Nancy Loo, Mary Wu, Laurens de Boer, Andy Lau, Joey Yung, Tsai Chin, Eason Chan, Alan Tam, Hacken Lee, Sandy Lam, Hins Cheung etc. His works have been performing by different artists and groups all over the world.
Yin’s major orchestral works include the double sheng concerto Before the City Collapses (2013 Hong Kong Arts Festival/ Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Loo Sze-wang & Ng Cheuk-yin), sheng concerto for Chinese orchestra The Seventh Month (2012 Hong Kong Arts Festival/ Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra & Ng Cheuk-yin), drumset concerto Fly (2007 Hong Kong Arts Festival/Hong Kong Sinfonietta & Jun Kung), concerto for four percussionists and Chinese orchestra Journey (the 30th Season Opening Concert/Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra & Four Gig Heads), Chinese percussion concerto White (2004 Saint-Riquier Festival and the Les Flâneries Musicales d'Été de Reims in France/Hong Kong Sinfonietta) and Static Days (2003 ISCM Slovenia/ Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra) etc.
Other works include film score for Mcdull Pork of Music, east-west fusion concert Collision by SIU2 and HKCO4U, music arrangements in Paul Wong’s Rockestra Hong Kong Coliseum Concerts in 2012, the theme song Fly Me to the Moonlight of the 2011 International Choral Jazz Festival; theme song Singing Voices of the World for the Global Outstanding Children and Youth Chinese Singing Festival; Jolly Mcdull on the Ferry, Pearl of the Orient Overture and Moving to City Tempo in the Grand Variety Show in Celebration of 10th Anniversary of the Reunification; music for Hong Kong – Equestrian Capital (commissioned for the opening ceremony of 2008 Beijing Olympics); Sheng It Up (Hong Kong Arts Festival 2008); Laughing Mama of the Actor's Family (The International Arts Carnival 2009) etc.
Moreover, Yin has arranged more than 100 pieces for orchestras and he is the guest lecturer of Orchestral Technique and Chinese Music Orchestration of the Music Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Yin is also a Sheng Performer. He performed as a soloist in the Sheng concertos with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2013 and Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 2012. And as the leader of the fusion group SIU2, Yin’s performance is highly acclaimed by audience, media and critics all over the world.