Conducting – Music Direction
Yajie Ye, a versatile young conductor, is gaining international recognition for her fresh and collaborative approach to contemporary music. Yajie is currently a PhD researcher at King’s College London and completed an MPhil in conducting practice under the supervision of John Butt at the University of Glasgow. She is a former conducting student of Adrian Partington (BBC NOW). Her deep engagement with vocal studies and composition during her undergraduate at Cardiff University paved her way in the conducting realm.
Awarded Conducting Scholarships by Divertimento Ensemble (Milan) and Mostly Modern Festival (New York) in 2024, Yajie has also been selected for the Young Conductor’s Scheme Workshop, working with the Crouch End Festival Chorus. In 2023, her talents were recognised with a conducting fellowship at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy, and she participated in the Glover-Edwards Conducting Programme at the Royal Academy of Music. As an assistant musical director, she worked alongside Melissa Foster (Northwestern University) at the Chicago International Youth Musical Theatre Camp in 2019, the same year she won the First Prize Choral Director Award at the 9th Chorus Competition of South China Normal University. Currently, she is the music director of Pavilion Ensemble.
Furthermore, her conducting experience spans collaborations in workshops with NEW Sinfonia, Royal Northern College of Music Chamber Orchestra, Derbyshire City & County Youth Wind Band, and the Royal Welsh College of Music Chamber Choir, showcasing her adeptness in orchestral and choral domains. An experienced singer, she has received the Choral Scholarship from the London Oriana Choir and the Lanfine Choral Exhibitioner Scholarship from the University of Glasgow. She has worked closely with the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC National Chorus of Wales, Edinburgh International Festival Chorus, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus, the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir, and the National Youth Choir of Scotland. From conducting to composition to vocal facilitation, she has a detailed, systematic approach to every facet of her music, and is known for an optimistic, goal-oriented leadership presence that gives her fellow musicians confidence.
As a researcher, she has presented her research at the EPARM Conference (Thailand), the RMA/BFE Research Students' Conference (Cambridge), the Twelfth Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900 (Birmingham), Sphere of Singing (Glasgow), and UNC-KCL Music Conference (North Carolina, U.S.). Also, she was an editor at eSharp Journal. Currently, as a Research Assistant, she works on the project 'The silence that is not a rest: juggling performing and parenting' with Dr Christina Scharff.
