about Elaine

Born in Hong Kong, originally from Taiwan, violist Elaine Ng established herself as a well-rounded musician. Currently, Elaine resides in Belgium as one of the Artist-in-Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, under mentorship of Miguel Da Silva. Despite the pandemic's influence, she is actively participating and performing in various platforms. She also regularly appears on Belgian national radio 3 and television, her recent concerts include solo and chamber works by Schubert, Brahms, Schumann ,Dvorak, Faure etc.


Elaine was awarded with academic fellowships and full scholarships awards while she earned her Bachelor Degree of Music (Honors) at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Master Degree of Music at Mannes College - The New School for Music in New York City, where she was under guidance of Hong-Ying Ho, Hiroko Yajima, and Chu-Tung Lo. She worked as the first violinist and violist of the University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory’s Graduate Fellowship String Quartet for years while being the longest recipient of the fellowship award in the program. As the award winner of Sigma Alpha Iota Scholarship competition and the support of university fellowship grants, Elaine is now at the final stage of defending her Doctoral Degree of Musical Arts, where her mentors are Benny Kim, Scott Lee, Michael Mermagen and Chen Yi.


With major festival-invitations, Elaine’s appearances include New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall; Kent/Blossom Music Festival with Cleveland Orchestra; St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford University; Chiara String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar at University of Nebraska at Lincoln; Young Professional Artist Program at Newport Music Festival; Miami Music Festival fellowship program in Florida; School for Music and Arts at Fontainebleau Chamber Music Festival in Paris, France etc.


As a passionate chamber musician, Elaine’s ensembles received intensive chamber music training and collaborations with members from the Miami, Guarneri, Orion, Juilliard, Fine Arts, Szymanowski, Endellion, Ébène, Ysaye, Artemis, Belcea, Takács, Berlin Philharmonic String Quartets etc. Being very experienced in performing contemporary music, Elaine worked closely with leading living composers including Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Kaija Saariaho, John Corigliano, Jake Heggie, Yotam Haber, Aaron Kernis, Donald Crockett, Morton Subotnick etc. Corigliano himself described Elaine’s performance as “One of the finest playings of my own compositions that I have ever heard...terrific musical experience!” During her time in France, her quartet has won the First Prize for Ravel Prix Chamber Music Competition at Fontainebleau. As an international artist, Elaine was invited as a soloist, collaborating with cellist José Herrera on seasonal concert series along with the Orchestra Camerata de Coahuila on Brahms’s Double Concerto in Mexico.


After serving as the associate concertmaster of Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Topeka Symphony Orchestra, Elaine won the principal viola position at the Des Moines Symphony, frequently invited as guest viola principal at Sioux City Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, and plays with the Kansas City Symphony. Besides orchestral career, she is one of the Artist-in-Residence at professional contemporary music ensemble The newEar, as well as regular guest artist at the Bach Aria Soloist Ensemble.


Made possible by the generosity and sponsorship of the Chi Mei Museum Collection Foundation (Tainan, Taiwan), Elaine plays on a Béla Szepessy viola, made in London, 1889.

What’s next


June 8th, 2021

Dvorak Sextet with Shuichi Okada, Luka Ispir, Natanael Ferreira, Aleksey Shadrin, Ari Evan at Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.

June 24th, 2021

Closing Season Concert Fauré Piano Quartet No.1 with Anna Agafia Egholm, Florian Pons and Victoria Vassilenko at Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.

June 27th-July 2nd, 2021

Weinberg recording with Les Métamorphoses and Pieter Wispelwey, in Ghent, Belgium.

July 4th, 2021

Opening concert for Fontainebleau Festival Centenaire, Ravel String Quartet with Rozarta Luka, Thomas Briant, Andrew Briggs in Fontainebleau, France.

July 5th, 2021

Centenaire Piazzolla concert with Martha Argerich & friends at Fontainebleau Château, France.

July 10th, 2021

J. Françaix String Trio, Stravinsky 3 pieces for String Quartet with Rozarta Luka, Thomas Briant, Andrew Briggs in Fontainebleau, France.

July 10th, 2021

Mendelssohn Octet, Mozart Viola Quintet with Stéphanie-Marie Degand, Rozarta Luka, Thomas Briant, Bartu Elci Ozsoy, Françoise Gneri, Ophélie Gaillard, Diana Ligeti in Fontainebleau, France.

July 14th, 2021

Contemporary Music Workshop at Promenade, music by Alexandre Jamar and Dayton Hare, in Fontainebleau, France.

July 17th, 2021

Appearance on Pierre Henri Xuereb's Public Masterclass at jardin Anglais of Fontainebleau Château, France.

July 18th, 2021

Centenaire Saint-Saëns Composer of Fontainebleau 1921 concert, Saint-Saëns Piano Quartet with the Trio Zarathoustra, in Fontainebleau, France.

July 20th, 2021

Summer Festival Schumann Piano Quintet and Schumann Kinderszenen transcribed for String Quartet, with Luka Ispir and the Trio Ernest, at Normandie -Cherbourg, France.

July 29th, 2021

Contemporary Music Concert and Masterclass, music by Alexandre Jamar and Dayton Hare, at La Fondation des Etats Unis in Paris, France.

July 31st, 2021

Film Music Concert by previous composers of Fontainebleau such as Saint-Saëns, Samuel Barber, Ravel, Piazzolla in Fontainebleau, France.

August 1-10th, 2021

Appearance on Verao masterclass series of Miguel Da Silva at Lisbon, Portugal.

August 12th, 2021

Classissimo Concert Franck Piano Quintet No.1 with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Karen Su, Luka Ispir, Riana Anthony, in Brussels, Belgium.

Media


Around the notes - 100% Viola | Digital Concert



Michael Miller - incest of time (alone in a box) for Viola and Piano



Arvo Pärt - Spiegel im Spiegel (Viola and Piano)



Henri Vieuxtemps - For Solo Viola, Capriccio "Hommage à Paganini" Op. 55


Photos

Digital Concerts


Around the notes - 100% Viola | Digital Concert



MuCH Digital Concerts 2021 - Brahms’ Sextets



Bruckner, Dvořák & Shostakovitch - MuCH New Year's Concert 2021



Music Chapel Christmas Concert - 24.12.2020



Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 from "Strung Through Time" (2019)


My Contact

Email Me

elaivillo@gmail.com

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