Violin Recitals in Kuching, KK, Miri & Bintulu

Geoffrey Pratley and I will be doing a series of concerts in Sarawak & Sabah:

Date: Sunday, 8 July 2007
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: City Hall Auditorium, MBKS, Jalan Pandungan, Kuching
Organised by Arco Strings Music
(For tickets enquiries - please call 082-252726; 013-8042726; 012-8863588; 016-8862008)
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Date: Saturday, 28 July 2007
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, Likas, Kota Kinabalu
Organised by Prelude Music
(For tickets enquiries - please call 088-722230; 016-8333034; 012-8203733)
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Date: Sunday, 5 August 2007
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Gymkhana Club Miri , Miri
Organised by Prelude Music
(For tickets enquiries - please call 013-8301236; 016-8702875; 016-8790329)
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Date: Saturday, 11 August 2007
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Ming Ong Methodist Church, 2.5km Jalan Sultan Iskandar, Bintulu
Organised by Prelude Academy of Music
(For tickets enquiries - please call 086-316051; 086-331621; 016-8862016)

In fact Geoffrey Pratley and I have collaborated 19 years ago in Kuching where we first met for a performance for the British Council's dinner, Kuching. Details of other concerts will be updated here from time to time. So please come back and check.

Following is a brief write up about us:

Yap Ling is a versatile musician who performs, teaches, conducts, arranges music and organises concerts. He started the violin with Marcus Leong and piano with Chan Hui Ling in Kuching. After obtaining his LRSM in 1986, he went to the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), London and studied with Clarence Myerscough. Later he was awarded the Sarawak Foundation Scholarship & RAM’s Alec Templeton Scholarship. While in London he was the Concertmaster for the Chelsea Symphony Orchestra and violinist for the Chelsea String Quartet, The London Chinese Ensemble and the Piano Trio under the Amadeus Quartet’s tutelage. Upgrading and performances has taken him to Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, France, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Moscow (Russia), China and USA.

In 1990, he participated in the 1^st World Youth Music Camp in KL and the 1^st Pacific Music Festival in Japan (under the baton of Maestro Leonard Bernstein). He represented Malaysia as a violin tutor in the 1991 ASEAN Youth Music Workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. He was a string tutor at UNIMAS & conducted their orchestra. He was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for the 1^st and the 2^nd Sarawak Music Camp in Kuching and Sibu respectively for 1999 and 2001. In 1997 he was conferred the Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in recognition for his contribution towards developing the music standard and promoting music in this part of the world.

Now he is the conductor of Sabah Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO), Kian Kok Youth Orchestra (KKYO), the Tshung Tsin String Orchestra and the Guest Conductor for the Miri Orchestra and Choir (MOC). As a chamber musician, his Duos partnership with Singaporean violinist Foo Say Ming has him performing on the viola too. Yap Ling is also the violinist for the MP3rio (Piano Trio), the Malaysian Ars Nova Ensemble (String Quintet with Piano) and the L’espressivo Trio (Vocal-Violin-Piano) which have performed regularly in various parts of Malaysia.

Besides giving regular recitals with his wife Grace Lee, he has also appeared as soloist with the Monash Simfonia in Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, the Penang Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) from KL playing the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto. He also conducted the Violin Masterclasses for ABRSM in Malaysia and regularly giving violin masterclasses and orchestra workshops throughout the country. Presently he also teaches at UMS.

Geoffrey Pratley has enjoyed a long and illustrious career as one of Britain’s best known accompanists. After studying at the Royal Academy of Music he went on to accompany many world famous singers and instrumentalists in concert worldwide , especially the mezzo soprano Dame Janet Baker, the French cellist Paul Tortelier and the leading British violinist of his time, Ralph Holmes; others include Placido Domingo, Leon Goosen, Jack Brymer, Rita Streich, Takayoshi Wanami and many more. He has also broadcast widely on radio and television; especially notable were his appearances on BBC2TV as accompanist to Tortelier’s famous Cello Masterclasses.

He taught Piano Accompaniment and coached singers at the Royal Academy of Music from 1965 till June 2005, and he has taught at Trinity College of Music since 1990. His publications from Kevin Mayhew Ltd include “Great Operatic Melodies” arranged for piano duet, “Great Orchestral Melodies for Violin” (1 book) and for Cello (2 books), all arranged with piano accompaniment, “Six Irish Folksongs” and “Six English Folksongs,” most of which were written for Dame Janet Baker’s recitals. Other publishers include OUP, Faber Music, and Stainer and Bell.

He has performed and taught in many countries, especially the Far East. His two-piano and piano duet partnership with Anne Applin performs a wide range of unusual items as well as more standard duet repertoire: in particular composer’s arrangements of their own works for four hands, mostly 19^th Century items. He has also had a busy schedule as examiners and Festival adjudicator for many years.