Lau Yuek-lam is currently Daruan Principal of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. She hails from Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
She began learning the
liuqin under Ho Li-Hsiang as a member of the school Chinese orchestra when she was studying in the Kaohsiung Chung Cheng 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 National University of the Arts, majoring in
liuqin under Professor Chen I-Chien. Upon entering the University, she changed her major to
ruanxian 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 National University of the Arts, the Taipei Liuqin Ensemble and the Chai Found Music Workshop of Taiwan. Through this she was able to garner technical knowledge of blending the musicality and technicality of the
ruanxian.
Lau joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra as a full-time musician in 2007. It marked the beginning of her professional career, and since then she has performed concerto pieces in many of the Orchestra’s concerts. She premiered
Formosa Concerto for Zhongruan and Orchestra. 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
ruanxian music on the contemporary music front.
