Biography

Man-Ching Donald Yu (余文正) (b.1980), Hong Kong born composer and pianist. His recent music is refined by the interweaving of post-minimalist and modernist traits; subtle transformation of various musical parameters in different suspended times and spaces is one of the important underlying principles in his recent works. Fanfare Magazine hails his music as "forming an arresting and personal intermixing of tonal and atonal languages, with the musical colors and gestures of his native country infiltrating the mix." (2012)

As a prolific composer, his nearly two hundred compositions encompass a spectrum from instrumental and vocal works to chamber opera, choral works, and symphonies. Globally recognized, his works have been showcased in more than 20 countries with 50 cities throughout the North and South America, Europe, and Asia, gracing stages at prominent venues and events such as the Musikverein (Wien), 2022 Contrasts International Contemporary Music Festival, the International Review of Composers (Serbia), the EurAsia International Music Festival (Yekaternburg Russia), the International Festival of Modern Art: Two Days and Two Nights of New Music, the International Kiev Music Fest, the International Spring Orchestra Festival (Malta), the 2015 Expo Milano (Italy), and many others; Esteemd ensembles like Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Gloria Chamber Choir, Lugansk Philharmonic, Chernivtsi Philharmonic, Uzhgorod Philharmonic with chorus, Opera Hong Kong Chorus with Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, Icarus Ensemble (Italy), Orlando Contemporary Music Orchestra have performed and recorded his pieces. His scores are exclusively published by Donemus (Netherland) and Universal Edition (Wien), other publishers include Babelscores (France), Edizioni Sconfinarte (Italy), Da Vinci Edition (Japan), etc; most of his recordings are exclusively available at Donemus Records, and other labels include Phasma Music, Ablaze, Albany and Zimbel Records as well as Association New Music (Ukraine), etc. Besides his compositional outputs, his theory papers were presented at various international music theory conferences in Serbia, Poland, and UK as well as published in scholarly book and music journals. As an academic staff, he has taught music theory, musicology, and composition in tertiary universities in Hong Kong since 2007. He has also been served as jury of various competitions including the 2018 Osaka International Music Competition and 2024 Fanny Mendelssohn International Online Competition.

Yu received his early formal musical training at early ages and made his concerto debut at age 16, leading him to Baylor University to study piano performance with renowned pianist and artistic-in-residence Krassimira Jordan of the Russian piano school where he completed his Bachelor of Music. Afterwards in 2007, he studied composition with stipendium at the International Summer Academy Mozarteum Salzburg with a diploma in Austria and later in 2010, he earned a Ph.D. in composition and music theory with the support of a full postgraduate research assistantship at Hong Kong Baptist University. He also holds FTCL in composition, LRSM in piano as well as Super Soloist Performance Zertifikat in piano from Wiener Musik Prüfungskommission. Since 2007 he has been the recipients of various awards and honors from different organizations including ASCAPlus Awards, Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship, Gold Diploma from "Muzyczne Orły" International Competition (Poland), Honorable Mentions from Newly Published Music Competition (U.S.) and Classic Pure Vienna International Music Competition, Clouzine International Music Awards, First Great Award of the 5th Vienna International Music Competition, etc. Notably, his orchestral piece "Unravelling" was awarded Gold Medal (Awards of Excellence) in two categories-Best Contemporary Classical and Composition of the 2022 Global Music Awards.

余文正（1980 年生），香港出生作曲家和鋼琴家。他最近音樂作品風格糅合了後極簡主義和現代主義的特質；在不同的懸浮時空中，各種音樂元素在樂曲中包含微妙的轉化。 Fanfare 雜誌描述其音樂 "將調性語言和無調性語言進行了令人驚嘆的個性化混合，融合東方和多元文化之音樂色彩和特質並滲透其中。" (2012)

作為一名多產的作曲家，他的近兩百部作品涵蓋領域包括從器樂和聲樂作品到室內歌劇、合唱作品和交響樂，其作品曾經在北美、南美、歐洲和亞洲的20 多個國家及50 個城市演出，包括維也納音樂協會黃金音樂大樓、2022 Contrasts 國際當代音樂節、國際作曲家評論節（塞爾維亞）、歐亞國際音樂節（俄羅斯葉卡捷琳堡）、兩日兩夜國際現代藝術節等：利沃夫國家愛樂交響樂團、格洛里亞室內合唱團、盧甘斯克愛樂樂團、切爾諾夫策愛樂樂團、烏日哥羅德愛樂樂團與合唱團、香港歌劇院合唱團與香港室內樂團、伊卡洛斯樂團（義大利）、奧蘭多當代音樂樂團等著名樂團都曾演奏及錄製過其作品。他的樂譜由Donemus（荷蘭) 和Universal Edition（維也納）代理出版，其他出版商包括Babelscores（法國）、Edizioni Sconfinarte（義大利）、Da Vinci Edition（日本）等；他作品的大部分錄音由 Donemus Records 獨家發行，其他唱片公司包括Phasma Music、Ablaze、Albany 和 Zimbel Records 及 Association New Music（烏克蘭）等。除作曲領域外，他的音樂理論論文也曾在塞爾維亞、波蘭和英國的國際音樂理論研討會上發表，並在學術書籍和音樂期刊上發表。身為教育工作者，他曾任大學教職；此外，他亦曾被邀請擔任音樂比賽評判包括大阪國際音樂比賽以及芬尼孟德爾頌網上音樂比賽等。

余氏自幼接受正規的音樂訓練，16歲時首次登台演奏協奏曲，其後前往美國貝勒大學師從著名鋼琴家及駐校藝術家鋼琴教授克拉西米拉·喬丹習鋼琴演奏，並於2004年獲取音樂學士學位。其後於2007年，他赴奧地利薩爾斯堡莫札特國際暑期學院學習作曲並獲得文憑；於2010 年，在香港浸會大學全額研究生獎學金資助下獲作曲和音樂理論博士學位。此外他還考獲倫敦聖三一作曲院士文憑、英國皇家音樂學院鋼琴專業文憑以及維也納音樂考試局優秀鋼琴獨奏專業證書。自2007 年，他獲各機構頒發的獎項和榮譽，包括ASCAPlus 獎、愛德華-尤德爵士紀念獎學金、波蘭「音樂之鷹」國際比賽金獎譽獎、美國新出版音樂比賽榮譽獎和維也納國際純古典音樂比賽榮譽獎、Clouzine 國際音樂獎-最佳當代古典專輯獎、第五屆維也納國際音樂比賽一等獎等。他的管弦樂作品《解開》贏獲2022 年美國全球音樂獎最佳當代古典音樂和作曲兩個組織別金獎。