Chew Hee-chiat Conductor

Currently Assistant Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Chew Hee-chiat was able to play many types of Chinese musical instruments when he was in secondary school, and received composition lessons from Saw Boon Kiat of Malaysia and renowned composer Qian Zhaoxi of China.  He went to the United States in 1990 to take up a double degree programme at the Southeast Missouri State University in computer science and music (with a cello major). He went on to read a postgraduate course at the University of South Carolina under Dr Donald Portnoy, and was awarded a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting in 1996.

Chew was appointed Music Director of the Professional Cultural Centre Orchestra (PCCO) of Malaysia in 1996, a position that involved not only conducting but also orchestral development. In 1999, he conducted the Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra in Singapore and the Hong Kong Music Lover Chinese Orchestra in Hong Kong in two critically acclaimed concerts. In July 2000, he collaborated with Maestro Yan Huichang in two sold-out concerts at the Istana Budaya (National Theatre), and held a joint master class for conducting in Malaysia in which many young and promising Chinese orchestra conductors participated. 

In April and June 2002, Chew was invited by the HKCO to guest conduct two concert series, Cook up Some Music and Music from the Heart II - Join up with the World.  Soon after joining the HKCO in June the same year, he was actively engaged in conducting, arranging and orchestration work for the many concerts of the orchestra. In March 2004, he guest conducted the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in a highly successful concert, A Nanyang Musical Voyage II. More recently, Chew conducted the Opening Rally of the Hong Kong Dizi and Xiao Festival organised by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 2005. More than 500 players performed his work A Celebration of Dizi under his baton. The event made the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of people playing the dizi at the same time. 

Conducting aside, Chew is also an active composer.  His works have characteristic features that demonstrate his Southeast Asian cultural heritage. They include Orchestra Suite No.1 and Orchestra Suite No.2 which won him the second runner-up prize in the International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Compositions 2000 organized by HKCO; The Third, which won him the Outstanding Composition Award in the Chinese Music Competition 2002 organized by the Council for Cultural Affairs in Taiwan; Fantasy Dance (a Hong Kong premiere); Tradition? for bangdi and small orchestra (a Singapore premiere); Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra and his arrangements of the Malaysian folk song, Ulek Mayang, and Bizet/ Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy for dizi and orchestra; and Western Film Classics Suite.