Music
Zoë Baxter
DJ/Radio presenter
Arts. Culture. Film, TV & Radio. Music.
Zoë started Djing at parties in 2000 and progressed to Internet radio and then community radio. She has always had a keen interest in East Asian cinema and cuisine and this lead her to investigate East Asian music. Now she is a collector of vinyl with a specialist interest in 1960’s ‘Asia Beat’.
In 2005 Zoë presented and produced Ni Hao Chinatown parts 1 & 2 for the London community arts radio station Resonance FM focusing on the Save Chinatown Campaign and the history of Chinese immigration in London.
Following on from this Zoë presented and produced a weekly one hour radio show for Resonance FM from October 2005 - June 2006 called Lucky Cat. With a focus on Chinese and East Asian culture the magazine style programme featured guests, music, film and art reviews and topical issues (e.g. the Takeaway Racism Campaign).
The series included 2 programmes on the Chinese contribution to Reggae music and also a programme featuring a live performance by Korean punk band Crying Nut.
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Leonard Ng
Solicitor and MusicianLaw. Music.
Leonard Ng was born and raised in Singapore. He studied law at the National University of Singapore and qualified as a lawyer in Singapore in 1996. He then obtained a LL.M degree at the University of Chicago Law School in the United States in 1997. Leonard went on to join the London office of Sidley Austin LLP and is currently a partner in the International Finance Group of the firm in London. Sidley Austin is one of the world’s largest law firms, with over 1,800 lawyers practising in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Leonard specialises in UK and EU financial services regulation and structured finance. He advises banks, investment firms, hedge funds and other entities on a wide range of regulatory issues. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences on regulation and structured finance.
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Chinese contemporary and classic music
Sun Zhuo
PhD in Ethnomusicology at School of Oriental and African Studies University of LondonCulture. Music.
Sun Zhuo - zheng (Chinese zither) performer, top graduate from the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, where she gained her BA and MA from, both was majoring in zheng performance. She is now continuing her PhD studies in London. She is in high demand as a guzheng player both in China and abroad, most recently working on new compositions and contemporary styles.
Sun was born and brought up in Xi'an, the ancient walled capital of Imperial China. Started from the age of 5, taught by her mother Qu Yun, a well-known zheng master with deep understanding of the core and essence the zheng. From there, and after winning a string of prizes and accolades and appearing on the cover of Music Life and Music Weekly, she embarked upon a distinguished career as a zither soloist.
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Vanessa Mae at The Pearl Awards, Royal Festival Hall, November 2007
Vanessa Mae
British pop and classical musicianEntertainment. Music.
Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson (born October 27, 1978), known professionally as Vanessa-Mae, is an internationally known Singaporean-born British pop and classical musician, especially noted for her violin skills. Her music style is self-described as "violin techno-acoustic fusion", as several of her albums prominently feature the techno style.
Vanessa-Mae was born in Singapore to a Thai father and a Chinese mother. After her parents separated, her mother married Englishman Graham Nicholson, and the family moved to England when Vanessa-Mae was four years old. She grew up in London and is a British citizen.
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Benjamin Chan MSc MBCS FRSA
Keyboardist, Information Library ProfessionalInformation Technology. Music.
Benjamin Chan, MSc MBCS FRSA, is a versatile keyboardist and high profile Information Library Professional.
His Bigyellowband has been featured on the BBC website and released a single in 2006 on Apple i-Tunes and Top Hat Band, one of Bride magazine's best wedding bands in the UK in 2007. Ben showed early promise in music at his jesuit St. Ignatius preparatory school in San Francisco performing for Nobel Prize winners for the California Academy of Sciences earning the school's music award and the prestigious Bank of America Music Achievement Award in 1992 and subsequently also gained lifetime membership of the California Scholarship Federation.
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Photo by Tomas De Matteis
Wu Yanmei (MeiMei)
Actress, dancer & musicianDance. Music. Theatre.
Trained in dance and music from an early age, MeiMei (WU Yanmei) is an actress, dancer, singer and Chinese zither player who has since gone on to perform to international acclaim. Originally from Jiangsu province, China, MeiMei’s dance performances have been broadcast both on China Central Television (CCTV) and the BBC. In 2006 she gained her MMus in (East Asian) Music Performance from SOAS, University of London and was also selected by Theatre-Rites, to receive a bursary for black and minority ethnic artists.
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Photo courtesy of Dr. Kimho Ip
Dr. Kimho Ip
Composer, creative producer, conductorCommunity. Culture. Music.
Kimho Ip works in the UK as composer, director, producer and Yangchin performer. He studied in Germany and Scotland and received his PhD in 2004 at the University of Edinburgh with the support of the Composers & Authors Society of Hong Kong, Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.
His orchestral and chamber music works have been performed at the Gaudeamus International Music Week, Amsterdam (2006) and ISCM World New Music Days (2002/ 2007), by ensembles such as the Paragon ensemble, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.
Commissioned by Cinema China 2007, he composed a soundtrack plus live music performance for the historical Chinese silent film, “The Goddess”. In April 2008 he will compose and perform “Song of the Fishermen” in the Five Circles series at ROH2, London.
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Eric Lau
Music ProducerMusic.
Eric Lau is a London-based producer who has been busy making musical waves for others. He may well be a producer you’ve heard, but not heard of, by way of his productions for the likes of Lupe Fiasco, Dudley Perkins, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Guilty Simpson, Wildchild, Tanya Morgan, Hil St Soul, and a family of up n’coming artists who feature on New Territories, his debut solo album.
His slick and edgy productions have turned the ears of Gilles Peterson (Lau appeared on his Brownswood Bubblers release of October 2006) and Fat City Records who released Eric Lau presents Dudley & Friends in January 2007. Tastemakers and peers like Benji B (BBC Radio 1Xtra) called Lau’s soulful street sounds “Heavy!”, Phonte (of Little Brother) added that Lau is “One of the illest beatmakers”, Dudley Perkins (Stones Throw) said “His music did something to me,” and Dego (of 4Hero) asked “Who the f$%k is Eric Lau!?”
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Liz Chi Yen Liew
Musician / ComposerMusic.
LIZ CHI YEN LIEW performs and composes as one half of British Chinese group Chi2 (see below) and plays the violin, piano and organ.
She studied the piano and violin at the junior Royal Academy of Music, gained A's in practical and theoretical Music A levels, won an organ scholarship, then completed a Bachelor of Science Music degree at City University in London whilst also completing her Licentiate of Guildhall School of Music performance diploma. After her rigorous classical music training she ventured into the world of pop music and has since toured/performed/ recorded with Moby, Gnarls Barkley, Nelly Furtado, Lamb, Boy George, KLF/Orb, Barry Adamson amongst others.
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K H Li
Youth Orchestra LeaderCommunity. Music.
Mr K H Li is leader of the Youth Orchestra at the Pagoda Chinese Community Centre in Liverpool, which he established in 1980, having spent time in China and Hong Kong involved in various types of Cantonese music performances and composition. Over 200 young people aged 4-18 have learnt how to play Chinese instruments under his tutelage in Liverpool.
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