London-based Chinese conductor Yajie Ye is active across orchestral, choral, opera and contemporary music. Her work brings together performance, recording and artistic collaboration, with projects ranging from world premieres and interdisciplinary productions to major choral-orchestral repertoire and studio recording.
In 2026, Yajie was appointed Music Director of CoMA Sussex, Resident Conductor of Bled Contemporary Music Week and Conductor at the Fourth London International Chinese Music Festival. She is also the Founder and Music Director of Pavilion Ensemble, an ensemble dedicated to championing contemporary music through performance, recording, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Recent appointments include Guest Conducting Programme Director and Fellow at the South China Contemporary Creative Music Institute (SCCCMI) and Music Director and Orchestrator of the musical Miracle at London’s Cockpit Theatre.
Recent conducting engagements include serving as Assistant Conductor to Adrian Partington for Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius at the Three Choirs Festival, and participation in the Royal Opera House Jette Parker Artist Conductor Observership Scheme (2026). Her professional development has been recognised internationally through conducting scholarships from Divertimento Ensemble (Italy) and the Mostly Modern Festival (New York) in 2024. She was awarded Second Prize in the Conducting Category of the Gabriel Fauré Music World Competition (2024), selected for the Young Conductors’ Scheme Workshop with Crouch End Festival Chorus, and previously received a Conducting Fellowship from the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy (2023).
Her collaborations encompass workshops and artistic projects with the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, FAME’S Institute, Lugo Music Festival, Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble, Opéra de Baugé, AltreVoci Ensemble, Bordighera Symphony Orchestra, NEW Sinfonia, the Royal Northern College of Music Chamber Orchestra, Derbyshire City & County Youth Wind Band, and the Royal Welsh College of Music Chamber Choir.
Before specialising in conducting, Yajie developed as both a composer and performer. As a composer, her works have been performed by the London Oriana Choir Scholars and the Mavron Quartet, while her Clarinet and Piano Duo, Doubt received its premiere at the 13th European Clarinet Association Congress in Salerno, Italy. Alongside composition, she achieved success as both a pianist and vocalist, receiving awards including Second Prize in the Vocal Music Competition at the American California International Youth Arts Festival, Second-Class Award in the Operatic Aria – Youth Class A category at the Hong Kong International Vocal Open Competition (2019), and Second Prize in the Group A Tchaikovsky Category of the “Liszt Award” Hong Kong International Piano Open Competition. An experienced choral singer from an early age, Yajie has held both a Choral Scholarship with the London Oriana Choir and the prestigious Lanfine Choral Exhibitioner Scholarship at the University of Glasgow. She has performed with leading ensembles including the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC National Chorus of Wales, Edinburgh International Festival Chorus, Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus, Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir, and the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
Alongside her conducting career, Yajie is completing a PhD in Music at King’s College London, supervised by Dr Amy Blier-Carruthers and Professor Katherine Butler Schofield. Her research explores collaboration, recording practice, and distributed artistic decision-making in contemporary music performance, examining how conductors, performers, producers, and recording technologies shape musical interpretation. This research directly informs her artistic practice, bridging professional performance with ethnographic and practice-based research.
She previously completed an MPhil in Conducting at the University of Glasgow, studying with Professor John Butt and Professor David McGuinness, and undertook her undergraduate studies at Cardiff University, where her background in composition, piano, and vocal performance established the multidisciplinary foundation that continues to inform her work as a conductor. She has undertaken advanced masterclasses with distinguished conducting pedagogues including Uroš Lajovic, JoAnn Falletta, and Colin Metters.
As a researcher, Yajie has presented her work internationally at the International Conductors Guild Conference (London), the Royal Musical Association Annual Conference, Innovation in Music, 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 the UNC–King’s College London Music Conference (North Carolina, USA). Alongside her research, she has taught Music Theory and Music, Culture and Society as a seminar leader at King’s College London since 2022 and has delivered guest lectures at Cardiff University.
Beyond conducting and teaching, Yajie has contributed to academic publishing as a former editor of eSharp, an international peer-reviewed postgraduate journal. She has also worked as a Research Assistant and Impact Assistant on research projects led by Professor Christina Scharff and Professor Emma Dillon at King’s College London, including The Silence That Is Not a Rest: Juggling Performing and Parenting (2024) and the UKRI-funded Musical Lives: Towards an Historical Anthropology of French Song, 1100–1300 (2026).
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