Raymond Yiu: The Composers’ Fund
Raymond Yiu is a Hong-Kong born, London-based composer, jazz pianist, conductor and writer on music. He is the winner of a BASCA British Composer Award in 2010 (Northwest Wind), and nominated for the same award in 2004 (Beyond the Glass), 2012 (Les Etoiles au Front) and 2013 (The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured) respectively. Originally trained as an engineer, Yiu was self-taught as a composer until he undertook his DMus under the auspice of Julian Anderson at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2009.
His early work received the advocacy of the American composer-pianist-conductor Lukas Foss. He has worked with ensembles and artists including BBC Singers, BBCSO, Chroma, Concorde Ensemble, Ensemble 10/10, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, London Sinfonietta, Lontano and LSO.
The Original Chinese Conjuror, with a libretto by Lee Warren, was commissioned for the 2006 Aldeburgh Almeida Opera; it received its Austrian premiere at the Musikverein in April 2013, presented by Teatro Barroco of Vienna. Maomao Yü, a quintet for piano and traditional Chinese instruments was commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra for Lang Lang and the Silk String Quartet.
His ‘hugely impressive’ (The Guardian) Symphony was commissioned by the BBC, and premiered by countertenor Andrew Watts, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner during the BBC Proms 2015.
2017 sees the world premieres of his flute concerto Butorflēoge in March, the Asian premiere of The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured with Hong Kong Philharmonic in April, and the first performance of The World Was Once All Miracle, commissioned to celebrate the centenary of Anthony Burgess’ birth, for Roderick Williams and BBC Philharmonic in July as part of the Manchester International Festival. The last mentioned work will receive its London premiere with the same soloist, BBC Symphony under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis in April 2018.
The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured, Symphony and The World Was Once All Miracle helped Raymond to gain wider recognition both in the UK and internationally. The Composer’s Fund will help to obtain the rights to recordings of these works by the BBC Symphony for a commercial release.