Jue Yao

Jue Yao is a Chinese violinist and entrepreneur. She is the founder of the Hong Kong Children's Chamber Orchestra and the Hong Kong String Orchestra. She was a recipient of the Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in 2004.

Early life and education Jue Yao is the daughter of Di Yao, who was the conductor of the Shanghai Film Orchestra. She only started appreciating the violin when she went to the middle school affiliated with Shanghai Conservatory of Music. When she was 16, she was one of the prize winners in the inaugural China National Violin Competition.

In 1981, Jue Yao recorded her first album and became the first violinist to perform in Taiwan, where she was promoting her album. Later in the same year, she founded the Yao Jue Music Academy. Yao has served on the International Jury Panel for the Montblanc Arts Patronage Award in 2003, and was a council member of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Chairlady of the Academic Affairs Committee from 2000 to 2006. She was also a member of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council from 2005 to 2010.

Currently, she is on the Board of Trustees of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund and serves as a program committee of the Hong Kong Arts Festival. She is also a council member of the Shanghai Political Consultative Committee.

In December 2021, it was reported that Yao was eligible to vote four times in the 2021 Hong Kong legislative election, yielding 0.0366618% of the total voting value (elected seats), which is 7377 times more than the value of an average voter's total voting value.

In fall 2022, Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki announces the “Strive and Rise Programme”, a subsidy scheme aimed to help underprivileged pupils expand their social networks, build communication skills, and plan their finances and careers. Jue Yao, along with renowned conductor Yip Wing-sie and Hong Kong Olympic medallists are among the group of mentors in the “Strive and Rise” scheme.

Yao was selected to perform the violen during the 2024 Lunar New Year fireworks display in Hong Kong, as part of a musical arrangement by Chiu Tsang-hei incorporating multiple genres.

Instrument Jue Yao plays on a 1713 “Lady Ley” Stradivarius violin.

Discography

Kreisler: Liebesleid/ Schon Rosmarin (2010). Jue Yao, violin; Vivian Wai Cheng, piano Monti: Czardas (2010). Jue Yao, violin; Vivian Wai Cheng, piano Ritzen: Chinese Requiem/ Chinese Violin Rhapsody (2000). Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra; Peimin Yu, conductor Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn Violin Concertos (2013). Central Philharmonic Orchestra; Lihua Tan, conductor