Promote Cross-cultural Collaboration of Music Internationally
StoriesJanice Yip
I heard about the Ensemble Training scheme the Musicus Inspires! offered and I shot a video as an audition. Passing the audition was exciting. Playing with an orchestra taught me musicianship and ensembleship. You learn what it takes to be a professional musician. It’s not all about skills but learning the feeling of the music and sharing that mood with the audience. This was the most treasured memory I have of the scheme.
The violin has a very high range - it is very brilliant, this sound. Each instrument I think is special but I like violin the most. I have lots of memories with my violin and it will be part of my future.
Janice Yip is wise to the old adage that mother knows best. Her emerging career as a musician can be traced back to the directions given to her by her mother when she was eight years old, and wondering whether the violin really was the instrument she should be playing.
“At the start I wasn’t very interested in music – I was just learning the violin under pressure from my mother,” Yip explains. “But I built up my foundation at a very young age. I had to practice every day. By the time I made it to Form Three at Tai Po, I played a concert with a friend who plays the piano. With only a short time to practice we did really well. We had such a happy time together I could finally see how special music can be and how much fun playing music can be. My mother was right all along.”
Yip was part of the Musicus Inspires! Ensemble Training program in 2013 and says it fuelled the passion she now has for the violin. “The violin has a very high range – it is very brilliant, this sound,” says Yip. “Each instrument I think is special but I like violin the most. I have lots of memories with my violin and it will be part of my future.
Yip says the support of Musicus Inspires! has been important to her growth as a musician and such experiences are a vital part of any promising young musician’s learning curve. Ensemble Training, she says, showed her what the future might hold.
“My family’s income is not that great so sometimes that has been hard but my mum still supported me all the way – she thinks I have talent,” says Yip. “She doesn’t want me to have any regrets. Support from Musicus Society has been very important too. Every musician needs support and help, and I am grateful for the experiences they have allowed me to have.”