Prof. Ricky YEUNG Wai-kit
Lecturer
Ricky YEUNG Wai-kit is currently a faculty at the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He is a professor at the School of Music, South China Normal University, supervising postgraduates in dizi performance and ethnomusicology; a postgraduate supervisor at the School of Music, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA); the dizi and xiao instructor of the Department of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is the first doctoral degree holder in dizi performing in China, who holds double master’s degrees in dizi performance and ethnomusicology. He studied under the mentorship of the dizi and xiao maestro Zhang Weiliang.
YEUNG has given more than 10 recitals and has also performed many large-scale dizi works with renowned conductors and orchestras including Zhang Lie, Wang Fujian, Tsung Yeh, Liu Sha, Lin Daye, and Jing Huan, as well as Guangdong National Orchestra, Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra etc. He was also invited to traditional music programmes on China Central Television (CCTV).
Born in Hong Kong (China), YEUNG’s family originates from the Chaozhou-Shantou area in Guangdong province. He has been coached by many dizi virtuosi including Cheung Heung-wah, Li Zhen, Zeng Yongqing, Huang Jincheng, Sun Yongzhi, Jiang Guoji, and Ma Di. YEUNG was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Music) degree with first-class honors from CUHK in 2003, then, with exemption from the entrance exam, he was admitted to the university’s graduate school to study Ethnomusicology with Prof Tsao Pen-yeh, Prof John Lawrence Witzleben, Prof Yi Siu-wah, etc., and gained a Master of Philosophy degree. Subsequently, he completed a Master of Music degree in dizi performance at HKAPA and became the first holder of a master’s degree in dizi performance in Hong Kong. Soon after that, he started teaching modules including History of Chinese Music and Chinese Music Appreciation, and became a supervisor of graduation theses of undergraduate and postgraduate students.
In 2019, YEUNG won the “Outstanding Musician Award” issued by the Hong Kong Music and Dance Community. In the same year, he was introduced to the School of Music, South China Normal University as a “high-level young top talent”, where he lectured on dizi performance, introduction to musicology and instrumental art, and theses writing. Throughout nearly 20 years as a music educationist in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, his dizi and xiao students have achieved numerous accolades in both national and international instrumental competitions.
YEUNG is currently a member of the China Musicians Association, an Honorary Member of the Dizi Professional Committee of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society, an Artistic Consultant of the Hong Kong Gaudeamus Dunhuang Ensemble, and the President and Artistic Director of the Cantonese Music Assembly. He is one of the contributors of the books Listening to Chinese Music and Soundscapes in Chinese Music, and the editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra’s publication Chinese Music Without Bounds – International Composers’ Summit Proceedings and Papers. Since 2017, he has begun curating the Cantonese Music Assembly Series in which he shared the stages with many young musicians from Guangdong, Hong Kong (China), and Macao (China) to give crossover shows of Cantonese music. In recent years, he started his career as a composer and has written Cantonese Bamboo and Poetic Homeland. His 2CD-album Listening to Guangdong: Yeung Wai-kit, Sha Jingshan and Guangdong National Orchestra was released by China Record Group in 2023.
YEUNG’s dizi was custom-made by Wan Qiang, a renowned dizi maker in China.
