Ms. Michelle Yip (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

Michelle Yip, Pianist, has been featured in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Asia. She has an eclectic chamber and collaborative repertoire ranging from early to contemporary music. Recipient of the prestigious 2005-2006 Fulbright Award, Ms. Yip moved to Beijing, where she currently lives, to explore, perform, research, and collaborate with leading contemporary Chinese composers on their works for chamber music.

An avid performer of contemporary chamber music, Ms. Yip co-founded the Beijing New Music Ensemble (BNME) in 2005. She collaborated with distinguished Chinese composers Chou Wen-Chung, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Gao Weijie, and Zhang Shouwang; individually has worked with leading American composers Eli Marshall, Eliott Sharp, Mark Engebretson, Cynthia Folio, notable English opera composer Julian Grant, and leading Korean composers Cecilia Kim and Young-Ja Lee. She has been invited to perform at the 2007-2008 Macau International Music Festival, the 2008 BBC Radio 3 live broadcast in Beijing of Chinese contemporary composers, Korean Woman Composer’s League Concert Series at the Seoul Arts Center, and on a NAXOS CD featuring the chamber music of Zhou Long and Chen Yi. In the 2009 Season, BNME gave over 20 concerts that featured contemporary chamber music combined with dance, calligraphy, and electronic mediums. These concerts highlighted collaborations with renowned Chinese Mingyue artists Li Congnong, Min Xiaofeng to name a few, and the Beijing Modern Dance Company. Ms. Yip represented BNME in concert for the reception of Chinese Artist Bo Yun at the German Ambassador’s Residence and most recently, produced “Not Just Jazz” concert of Black American Composers’ Chamber works performed by BNME musicians sponsored by the Beijing US Embassy Public Affairs Office, the first to do so in China specifically for a Chinese audience.

Ms. Yip is a vivacious collaborator of standard chamber music globally and locally. She has collaborated with Soprano Esther Heideman, who was a New York Metropolitan Opera finalist, Violinist Gao Can, and Clarinetist He Yi at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing. Ms. Yip, a Banff Chamber Music Program fellowship winner, completed a piano-violin duo tour of South Africa, and has past collaborated with renowned musicians Dora Schwarzberg, Joseph Alessi, Muneko Otani, Michiko Oshima, Nicole Johnson, Susan Fancher, and Scott McIntyre. Most recently, with Pianist Mary Anne Huntsman, Ms. Yip was invited to perform for former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Beijing US Ambassador’s Residence. She also recurrently has been invited to give chamber music in Chongqing, Tianjin, and Beijing with professors and musicians from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory of Music, and has also given numerous chamber music concerts at local cutting-edge venues such as Peng-Hao theatre as well as 798 Art District Ullens Center for Contemporary Arts (UCCA) to make chamber music more accessible to the Chinese audience.

Currently, Ms. Yip is the “Pianist in Residence” at the Western Academy of Music in Beijing. She has guest lectured at ReMin

University in Beijing, the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, and was on the Hartwick College Music Festival piano faculty from 2006-2008. She received her Masters of Music (MM) in piano performance from University of Michigan and Doctoral of Musical Arts (DMA) from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with a cognate in chamber music. Her mentors include Anton Nel, Frank Weinstock, and the late Professor Yang Jun.