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YAP LING (Professional Certificate (HONS) ARAM, LRAM, ARCM, LRSM) is a versatile musician who performs, teaches, conducts and arranges music. After obtaining his LRSM in 1986, he secured a Yayasan Sarawak Student’s loan which enabled him to enter the Royal Academy of Music, London (RAM). He was later awarded the Sarawak Foundation Scholarship and the RAM’s Alec Templeton Scholarship. At the RAM, Yap Ling studied under Clarence Myerscough (violin), Adrain Leaper & Denise Ham (Conducting) and Roger Steptoe (Orchetration/composition). Before he went to London, he has participated in consultation lessons, masterclasses, music camps and workshops in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. While in London , he became a member of the Chelsea Symphony Orchestra (concertmaster 1988), the Chelsea String Quartet, the London Chinese Ensemble and the PianoTrio. Since then, Yap Ling has been to Germany, Italy, France, New Zealand, Australia, Moscow (Russia), USA and China for upgrading and performances.

In 1990, he participated in the first World Youth Music Camp in Kuala Lumpur and the first Pacific Music Festival in Japan where he played under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. He was selected to represent Malaysia as a violin tutor in the 1991 ASEAN Youth Music Workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. He was a string tutor at UNIMAS. He lead and founded the Panggau Libau Strings and the Sibu Strings. Because of his contributions towards developing the music standard in this part of the world, he was conferred the Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 1997. He was the Artistic Director for the 1st and the 2^nd Sarawak Music Camp in Kuching and Sibu respectively for 1999 and 2001. He has played the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto with the Monash Sinfonia of the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia in 2000.

The most recent appearance as soloist was with the Penang Symphony Orchestra on 2 June 2002. Before he moved to Kota Kinabalu this year, he was the conductor of Orkestera Dewan Suarah Sibu (ODSS), the Sibu Hwai Ang Methodist Church Symphony Orchestra, the Wong Nai Siong School Concert Band, the Masland Methodist Church Band and the Hwai Ang Methodist Church Young Adult Fellowship Choir. Presently he is the leader of the Virtuoso Players and conductor of the Virtuoso Ensemble and the Shern En Methodist Church Youth Choir.

GRACE LEE SUI LIN obtained her Bachelor of Music degree from Auckland University, where she studied piano under Tamas Vesmas. She also had conducting lessons with Uwe Groud and Karen Grill. While there, Grace conducted the Auckland Chinese Choir and served as pianist for several choirs. Besides giving solo performances she is also accompanying several prominent musicians and choirs.

As the pianist for the Virtuoso Players, she also plays a lot of chamber music and serves as an orchestra pianist. These have taken her to England, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Kuala Lumpur, Johore, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tawau, Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu, Miri, Kapit and Limbang. In order to upgrade herself, she also took up consultation lessons abroad with professors, which include Geoffrey Pratley and Tamara Smolyar. In 2000, she has attended the Professional Development Program for Music Teacher conducted by the AMEB in September in Melbourne. And during that time she also attended a special short-term upgrading program at the Monash University. She is currently the conductor of the Shern En Methodist Church Youth Choir. She also teaches and gives masterclasses in Bintulu and Kota Kinabalu.

PROGRAMME

A. Dvorak
Humoreske

Chen Gang / He Zhan-Hao
The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto

Interval

Alexander Glasunow
Meditation

H. Wieniawski
Legende, Op17

George Gershwin
(Transcribed by J.Heifetz)
From "porgy and Bess"
i) Bess, You Is My Woman Now
ii) It Ain't Necessarily So

N.Paganini
"MOSES" Fantasia

Scott Joplin
(Transcribed by Itzhak Perlman)
The Ragtime Dance

Rachmaninov
Vocalise

Kreisler
Schon Rosmarin

It was a husband and wife performance on the violin and piano at the Hilton Kuching on 30th July 2002.

Yap Ling and Grace Lee, formerly of Sarawak and now based in Kota Kinabalu, performed a largely Romantic programme for the concert organized by the Sarawak Music Society in association with the Kuching Hilton.

There were the perennial favourites of the violinist’s repertoire Dvorak’s Humoreske, Glasunoz’s Meditation, Weniawski’s Legende, Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, and Kreisler’s Schon Rosmarin.

The biggest work of the evening was a Violin Concerto originally meant for solo violin and orchestra The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, composed by Chinese composers Ho Zhan Hao and Chen Kang. This is the story of the tragic love affair between Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai, with melodies taken from the regional operas of the Zheijiang area.

There were also some light rag-time pieces by Scott Joplin as well as two pieces by the American George Gershwin “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”.

The concert was well attended. Yap Ling dedicated the recital to three of his late mentors Chan Hui Ling, Clarence Myerscough and Datin Julia Chong.

Jane Lim, the newly elected Chairman of the Sarawak Music Society, also presented some taped excerpts of a dinner and show by musician-pianist-comedian David Scheel that will be held October 18^th 2002.