Stephen Yip was born in Hong Kong and now lives in the U.S. He received his doctor of musical arts at Rice University and bachelor of fine arts at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He has attended major music festivals including: Wellesley Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival, International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, Asian Composers’ League, ISCM World Music Days, Chinese Composers’ Festival, Music X, June in Buffalo, IMPULS Ensemble Akademie, California E.A.R. Unit Composer Seminar, the 13th International Summer Program, Czech Republic, International Composers’ Workshop, the International Summer Course for New Music, and Wellesley Composers’ Conference. Residencies include: the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts , Yaddo, and MacDowell.
Yip’s works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Israel, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Philippines. He has received several composition prizes, included Earplay, Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award, Taiwan Music Center International Composition Prize, the Robert Avalon International Prize, Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Orchestra, Haifa International Composition Prize, First International EPICMUSIC Composition Prize, the International Biennial composition competition, the Debussy Trio Music Foundation, Molinari Quartet’s Third International Composition Competition, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Emerging, the ALEA III composition Competition, the fourth NACUSA Texas Composition Competition, the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition 2010, and the 2010 Alvarez Chamber Orchestra Freestyle Composition Competition in London, England.
His works have been performed by major ensembles and players such as Alarm Will Sound, Earplay New Music, Mivos String Quartet, New York New Music Ensemble, Great Noise Ensemble, North South Consonance, Brno Philharmonc Orchestra, inFLUX Duo, Windpipe Chinese Orchestra, Little Giant Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, St. Paul Chambr Orchestra, Curious Chamber Players, TIMF Ensemble, Ensemble El Perro Andaluz, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Avanti, Ensemble Kochi, Moscow New Music Ensemble, etc.
Yip’s works are recorded in the ERM-Media, PARMA, Capstone, North South recording, Ablaze records, ATMA Classique, and Beauport Classical labels. Yip is a member of the SCI, NACUSA, and ASCAP. Currently, he is on the music faculty at Houston Community College and works as a freelance composer. In residence at MacDowell, he composed a piece for a symphonic wind band inspired by The Fifth Luminous Mystery of the Bible and the five Chinese elements: water, earth, metal, wood, and fire.
