A highly respected and influential figure in Asia’s orchestral music scene, Yip Wing-sie has been the Music Director of Hong Kong Sinfonietta since 2002 and is also the Principal Guest Conductor of Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and one of the University Artists at The University of Hong Kong. Positions she has previously held include the Ong Teng Cheong Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore (2005–2006), Principal Conductor and later Music Director of Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra (1997–2003) and Resident Conductor of Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (1986–2000).

Winner of the First Prize as well as “LYRE d’OR” in the 35th Concours International de Jeunes Chefs d’Orchestre de Besançon, France in 1985 and a prizewinner in the 8th Tokyo International Conducting Competition in 1988, Yip is in great demand as a guest conductor in Asia. Orchestras she has conducted include the Central Philharmonic Orchestra of China, China National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Inchon City Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Mozart Players, the symphony orchestras of Sapporo, Hiroshima, Shinsei Nihon, Yomiuri, Kyushu, Taiwan, Tasmania, Melbourne and Queensland as well as the Auckland Philharmonia of New Zealand. In Europe, Yip’s engagements have included concerts with the Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse and the Chambre Orchestre de Besançon in France, Warsaw Philharmonic in Poland, Spain’s Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and the Czech State Orchestra of Košice. She has also conducted at prestigious venues and festivals such as the Vienna Musikverein (Grossersaal), Beijing Music Festival, Fukuoka’s Asian Month Festival in Japan, Hong Kong Arts Festival and Macao International Music Festival. Yip has also collaborated with such renowned artists as Augustin Dumay, Fou Ts’ong, Shlomo Mintz, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. Operas she has conducted include La Peintre (Philharmonia Taiwan) and Guo Wen-jin’s Poet Li Bai.

As Music Director of Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Yip has taken the orchestra on tour in recent years to Japan (La Folle Journée in Tokyo), Italy (Festival Pianistico Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Brescia and Bergamo and Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza), France (Les Flâneries Musicales d’Été in Reims and Saint-Riquier Festival), Poland (National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw), festivals in Lithuania and Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. Tours with Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2010 include performances in Beijing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, in Shanghai at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival (Expo 2010 Shanghai), in Tokyo again at La Folle Journée and in South America in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Montevideo.

Born in Guangzhou and brought up in Hong Kong, Yip studied at the Royal College of Music in London before going on to the Indiana University at Bloomington, USA, where she obtained her Master’s Degree in violin performance and conducting. As the winner of the Koussevitsky Scholarship and the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship Award, Yip spent the summers of 1986 and 1992 attending the conducting seminar and fellowship programmes at the Tanglewood Music Center. Her mentors included great maestros such as Norman Del Mar, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier and David Atherton. In 1990, Yip was named one of Hong Kong’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University of Hong Kong and was bestowed “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the Ministry of Culture and Communication of France in 2007. In 2010, she was conferred as a Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM).