Lau Yuek-lam

Daruan principal of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Lau Yuek-lam joined the HKCO in 2007 and took her current position in 2019. She began learning the liuqin under Ho Li-Hsiang as a member of the school Chinese orchestra in the Elementary School. Then she continued to study music at the St. Dominic Catholic High School. While in senior high, she was admitted to the seven-year undergraduate programme of the Chinese Music Department of the Tainan University of the Arts, majoring in liuqin under Professor Chen I-Chien. Upon entering the University, she changed her major to ruan performance. She first took up percussion as a minor subject under Maestro Li Minxiong, and continued as a specialism under Su Huang-Jen.

During her studies, she had gone on touring performances with the Plucked String Ensemble of the Tainan University of the Arts, the Taipei Liuqin Ensemble and the Chai Found Music Workshop. With these experiences, she garnered technical knowledge of blending the musicality and technicality of the ruan. 

She has performed many concerto pieces in HKCO’s concerts. She premiered Formosa Concerto for zhongruan and orchestra. In 2020, she took the position of programme coordinator and Daruan performer in ‘Plucked String Notes I’. In 2019, she went on tour with the HKCO ensemble to Greece to participate in the ‘Athens & Epidaurus Festival’ where she premiered the daruan solo, Ways. She was one of the three artists in the 2009 CD recording, Three. Since turning professional, Lau has been working towards her vision of new work offerings and crossover music performances to integrate her technical virtuosity fully with music, especially to let the audience hear and see the exotic charm of ruan music on the contemporary music front.