Bio

Yip Chi Yuen (Chinese: 葉智源) was born in Hong Kong in 1991. Born to a middle-class family, his first contact with music came from the family piano, where his mother would sometimes play nursery rhymes and his father would serenade his mother with this one song. He soon began taking an interest and started watching his mother at the piano when he was two. At that point however, there was no indication whether he actually enjoyed the music or if he simply thought his mother’s fingers delicious.

Known affectionately in his family as Yuen Yuen, he would later spend significant part of his childhood plonking at keyboard toys, attempting to play back nursery rhymes he had heard. With the encouragement of his mother, Yuen Yuen started taking lessons at the age of seven. In 2002, his family emigrated to the UK and Yuen Yuen enrolled in Chetham’s School of Music in 2007, where he studied with Mr Simon Bottomley.

Yuen Yuen continued his musical studies at the Royal Northern College of Music with acclaimed pianist Stephen Savage, and then with Sally Ann Macleod who had studied with Vlado Perlemuter, a distinguished interpreter of Chopin. During his training at the RNCM, he benefited immensely from lessons with visiting artists such as Michel Beroff and Phillip Cassard. During the last years of his studies, he developed a passion for teaching under the guidance of Helen Krizos.

Perhaps due to his experiences living in a foreign country, Yuen Yuen has a particular affinity with works of Chopin, a composer with whom he shares a deep emotional connection. The great composer’s influence can be found most evidently in Yuen Yuen’s own compositions and performances.

As a performer, Yuen Yuen has worked as a hotel pianist, performed in solo recitals, and made appearances in Musicthon as well as Comic Relief to raise funds for local charities. Yuen Yuen also enjoys immensely the process of teaching and inspiring the next generation of pianists. Tailoring his approach to meet the goals and needs of his pupils, he always takes pleasure in finding creative solutions, making the previously impossible, possible.

In his spare time, Yuen Yuen likes to play computer games and write arrangements of popular tunes, which he shares on his website for free. Yuen Yuen is also a qualified UKCC level 2 badminton coach and considers learning German his next major challenge.

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes... it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

— Frederic Chopin

Mission

Hello and welcome to my website. I am Yuen Yuen, a pianist, composer, and teacher belonging to a generation of Millennials looking to make a difference in this world. While many studies have characterised Millennials as ‘idealists’, ‘entitled’, and ‘impatient’, I like to reflect often on my upbringing, hoping to improve and make music education more interesting for the next generation.

There are many problems facing music education today. Economic uncertainties meant that middle-class families have less disposable income, let alone investing in an instrument for benefits that are not immediately obvious. Working adults are finding it difficult to make commitments, and children are surrounded by shiny screens and technologies, all competing for their attention. Faced with these new challenges, piano teachers have evolved along with their students, leading to an explosion of new methods and ideas.

New technologies also mean new possibilities. In the age of internet, music education should be as accessible as possible. Just as my teachers had once opened the door of music to me, I in turn want to open the door to as many as possible. For my students, I aim to make my teaching fun, engaging, and impactful, offering concise and practical feedback so they can achieve their goals. For curious parents, I love to share and explain what I do (and why), and always strive to make my teaching transparent. Whatever your background, I invite you to join me on my journey and help me bring music to the world.