Karen Yu
We are delighted to announce a guest talk with Karen Yu at 12:00 on Tuesday 19th March 2024.
The session is part of SM4143 Sonic Art and the History of Sound and Noise. If you are not currently studying on this course but would like to attend, please contact us as places are limited.
A percussionist and sound artist, Karen Yu uses sound-making as a medium to question and redefine the relationship between audience and performer. Constantly in pursuit of new possibilities in the performing arts culture, Yu is interested in curating cross-disciplinary collaborations and performances that weave spaces and people together. Based in Hong Kong, Yu is the Artistic Director of Contemporary Musiking Hong Kong, a Co-Founder of the chamber percussion group, The Up:Strike Project, and an Associate Musician of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.
Yu was most recently an artist-in-residence at the Seoul Dance Center, and commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Centre & Castlefield Gallery (Manchester) (2022), Axel Vervoordt Gallery Hong Kong (2021), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (2021), and Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District Freespace (2020). Interested in cross-disciplinary and improvisational performance with sound objects and bodily movements, Yu has recently performed as soloists in Since When (2023), a multimedia theatre performance by Joyce Tang and Chow Yiu Fai, Somnium (2022), an installation/opera/trance by Steve Hui, Keep Breathing at Zero (2021) by Gaybird Leung. As a curator, Yu has curated the latest edition of the annual sound festival in Hong Kong Sound Forms with Tai Kwun Contemporary, and co-curated the annual UNHEARD sound and music festivals with Eaton Hong Kong and _dtby. Devoted to promoting sound art and sound pedagogy, she has recently curated a sound art initiative through Contemporary Musiking Hong Kong, Push the ENVELOPE, that aims to diversify our listening approaches and cultivate interests in sound-making as art-making.
Karen Yu obtained a Bachelor and Master of Music (Music Performance, Percussion) from McGill University, Canada, where she was a Schulich Graduate Fellowship holder. Yu is currently an instrumental instructor at the University of Hong Kong and part time lecturer at the School of Theatre & Entertainment Arts of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
余林橞 (Karen Yu) 是一位敲擊樂演奏家及聲音藝術家，擅長以現行物為發聲工具，以聲音為媒介探問及重新定義觀眾與表演者之間的關係。余醉心探索結合聲音與表演藝術的新可能，積極策劃能將人及空間交織起來的跨藝術領域合作及表演，熱衷於發掘改變表演藝術的新方向。余現居於香港，並為現在音樂的藝術總監、香港室內樂敲擊樂團 The Up:Strike Project 的創辦人之一及香港創樂團的聯席樂手。
余林橞多方面展現活躍演奏家的一面，最近獲邀的委約作品及演出包括香港藝術中心及曼城Castlefield Gallery的跨地域演出，在杰曼．克瑞普於維伍德畫廊的個展Screenplay中演出的三部聲音演出、香港創樂團 Sonic Ecology 網上研討會的委託創作及西九龍文化區自由空間的創作：舞・樂互碰。對跨媒介和即興演出感興趣的余氏，最近於鄧慧中及周耀輝的多媒體劇場作品《從甚麼時候開始》 (2023)、許敖山的裝置/歌劇/迷睡作品《Somnium》（2022）和梁基爵的沉浸式劇場作品《仍…息在零地》（2021）中為主要表演者。從2021年起，熱衷於表演文化研究的她與不加鎖舞踴館的創意團隊密切合作，進行樂譜和記譜法作為跨媒介合作中的創作語言的研究項目。
從2021年起，余林橞以策展人身份策劃了由現在音樂、香港藝術中心及大館當代美術館合辦，每年一度的聲音藝術節聲形2021﹕當刻_當下及聲形2022:虛無界限，及後與香港逸東酒店及_dtby共同策劃了UNHEARD sound and music festival 2021。她致力於推廣聲音藝術和聲音藝術教育，最近透過現在音樂策劃了推信封聲音藝術推廣計畫，旨在打破傳統觀念，以藝術創作及跨界合作的媒介重新認識聲音。
余林橞畢業於加拿大蒙特利爾麥基爾大學，在 Aiyun Huang 教授及 Fabrice Marandola 教授的指導下獲得她的音樂學士和碩士學位。余氏現任教於香港大學音樂系及香港演藝學院舞台及製作藝術學院。