Yii Kah Hoe
Office: Kimbrough 145
School of Music
Washington State University
PO Box 645300
Pullman, WA 99164-5300
Phone: (509) 335-3961
Email: kahhoe.yii@wsu.edu
Fulbright Scholar, Composition
Yii Kah Hoe is a Malaysian composer and Chinese dizi and xiao improviser. Yii was the winner of 11th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards (Malaysia, 2014), the winner of Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra Forum for Malaysian Composers (Malaysia, 2007), the 3rd Prize in the International Composition for Chinese Orchestra (Singapore 2006), the finalist of International Composers Competition “Città di Udine” (Italy, 2010).
Yii has been recognized as one of the major voices among Southeast Asian composers of his generation. His music has been widely performed in Asia, America, and Europe by ensembles such as Ensemble Mosaik, Interensemble, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, The Claremont Concert Choir, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra, Pan-Pacific Ensemble and musicians such as Peter Veale, Christopher Redgate, Moritz Ernst, Jürg Henneberger, Maruta Staravoitava, Anne Harley, Luisa Sello, Duplum Duo and etc.
Yii’s music is perceived as bold and avant-garde. His works use sounds and rhythms of many traditional instruments from various ethnic cultures. The sensitivity of space that Yii mastered as an artist (Fine art) in his younger years is also evident in his music.
Recently, Yii won the National Outstanding Educator Award 2018 presented by the Private Education Cooperative of Malaysia. In the fall of 2015, Yii was the Scripps College Erma Taylor O’Brien Distinguished Visiting Professor at Scripps College in Claremont. Yii was guest composer and guest speaker at Birmingham Conservatoire UK (2013 & 2014), York St John University (2014), Yale-NUS College (2017), Iowa State University (2015),Tianjin Conservatoire of Music (2017), Mahidol University (2017), Guanxi Conservatoire of Music (2014, 2015, 2016).
Yii was the festival director of Kuala Lumpur Contemporary Music Festival 2009, the festival director of SoundBridge festival (2013, 2015), the president of Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers (2014 – 2016) and a senior lecturer at SEGi College Subang Jaya, Malaysia since 2000.