Born in Hong Kong, Ki Fung (Kenneth) Yeung is a versatile keyboardist (harpsichord, fortepiano, organ, clavichord, piano) and string player (cello, viola da gamba and baroque cello). He has been in frequent demand locally and internationally in solo, chamber, continuo and improvisational performances.
Yeung began to study the piano and cello at a young age and gradually developed enthusiasm in historically informed performance under the guidance of his mentor, Eos Cheng Hui Tung. He further continued his cello studies with Cheung Ming Yuen and studied the harpsichord with David Chung Yu Sum and Timothy Kwok Ka Ho at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where he showed distinguished academic excellence and graduated with First Class Honours. He was also a recipient of several major scholarships, notably the C.F. Hu Postgraduate Memorial Scholarship, the Bernard Van Zuiden Music Prize, the HKSAR Government Scholarship, the Yamaha Scholarship, the Chung Chi College Departmental Prize, the Peter Curzon Oram Charitable Trust Scholarship, the Chinese Christian Universities Alumni Association Scholarship, the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation “Gucci Timepieces and Jewelry Music Fund” and the Kai Chong Tong Scholarships.
Yeung continued to receive his Master of Music in Historical Performance at the Oberlin Conservatory, Oberlin College, where he was awarded the full tuition Conservatory Dean Scholarship. He studied harpsichord with Mark Edwards and Webb Wiggins, fortepiano with David Breitman, organ with James Christie and Marie-louise Langlais, and viola da gamba and baroque cello with Catharina Meints. He was the continuo keyboardist of the Oberlin Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Julie Andrijeski and Scott Metcalfe, and a baritone of the Collegium Musicum Oberliniense, directed by Steven Plank. He was a church organist at Amherst United Methodist Church. Moreover, he performed in the 2016 annual meeting of Historical Keyboard Society of North America (HKSNA), which awarded him with the Ben Bechtel Scholarship Award. Besides, he received private guidance from Lisa Crawford, Elizabeth Farr, Edorado Bellotti, Joyce Lindorff, Peter Bennett, Adam Pearl, Vivian Montgomery, Joseph Gascho, Enrico Baiano and Jean Rondeau. Furthermore, he attended master classes with Pierre Hantaï, Arthur Haas (on antique instruments at the Flint Collection in Delaware, U.S.), Christophe Rousset and Bruce Dickey.
Currently, Yeung is pursuing a doctoral degree in Early Music Performance on historical keyboards under the tutelage of Elisabeth Wright at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University. As a recipient of Jacobs Supplemental Award, he serves multiple positions including the Associate Instructor in the Historical Performance Institute, continuo keyboardist of the IU Baroque/Classical Orchestra directed by Stanley Ritchie and early music ensemble Concentus directed by Dana Marsh. He has recently worked with such internationally renowned musicians as violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock and cornettist Bruce Dickey. As a scholar, his recent research interests include rhetoric and musical gesture in keyboard music from seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, the use of birdsongs and animal sounds in Baroque music and Baroque “conducting” practice.
Yeung attained the Licentiate Theory Diploma of Trinity College London (LTCL) in 2014, the Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (DipABRSM) in piano performance in 2013, and the Associate Performer of Trinity College London (ATCL) in both piano and cello performance in 2012 and 2010, respectively.
