Pei-Jee Ng
Ensemble:
Press
'With Ng we finally got the real thing - an artist whose age is irrelevant to his musical maturity. To David Matthew's Journeying Songs he lent a graceful inwardness. To Daniel Kildane's quietly impressive new Metamorphosis he brought stature, concentration and a beguiling range of sonorities. And to Britten's Third Cello Suite he imparted a sense of the intimate and the epic. The music just falls from Ng's fingers. He is one of those rare musicians who makes you unaware of technique - and eager to hear again.'
Financial Times, Purcell Room / PLG Series, January 2009
'Pei-Jee Ng was impressive in Britten's Third Cello Suite, delivered with technical assurance and complete emotional involvement.'
Evening Standard, Purcell Room / PLG Series, January 2009
'Pei-Jee Ng was at his most persuasive in Britten's Third Suite for Cello - written for Rostropovich. Ng has a big, rumbustious tone and manner, reminiscent of Ralph Kirshbaum, his present teacher.'
The Times, Purcell Room / PLG Series, January 2009
'Pei-Jee performed Kabalevsky's Cello Concerto No.2 with commanding virtuosic power and insight into this work's bleak and melancholia, showing a level of poised control that one usually hears in soloists of many years experience.'
The Adelaide Review 2004
'With Ng we finally got the real thing - an artist whose age is irrelevant to his musical maturity. To David Matthew's Journeying Songs he lent a graceful inwardness. To Daniel Kildane's quietly impressive new Metamorphosis he brought stature, concentration and a beguiling range of sonorities. And to Britten's Third Cello Suite he imparted a sense of the intimate and the epic. The music just falls from Ng's fingers. He is one of those rare musicians who makes you unaware of technique - and eager to hear again.'
Financial Times, Purcell Room / PLG Series, January 2009
Described by the Financial Times as 'one of those rare musicians who makes you unaware of technique and eager to hear again.'
Described by the Financial Times in 2009 as 'one of those rare musicians who makes you unaware of technique and eager to hear again', in 2011 Pei-Jee made his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra performing the Elgar Concerto and returned to play Shostakovich's Concerto No.2 with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Australia.
Born in Sydney, Pei-Jee grew up in Adelaide studying at the Elder Conservatorium with Janis Laurs and Barbara Yelland. In 2001 he was Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year and in 2003 entered the Royal Northern College of Music on a full scholarship where he studied with Ralph Kirshbaum, graduating with distinction. He was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2008 and in 2011 won the Libero Lana Prize at the 12th Trieste International Chamber Music Competition with pianist Chiao-Ying Chang.
Over the last year concert appearances have included Wigmore Hall, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern, the Sounding Jerusalem, Steirisches Kammermusikfest in Austria and Estonian Music Days Festivals. In 2009 Pei-Jee toured the USA as soloist, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra appearing at Royce Hall, Los Angeles and Carnegie Hall, New York, made his debut at the Konzerthaus in Berlin as part of the Classic Young Stars International series and gave a critically acclaimed recital at the Purcell Room. He has given the world premiere of the Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits Helios Helios with the Adelaide Symphony at the Adelaide International Cello Festival and the Australian premiere of Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger.
Pei-Jee Ng has performed widely in Australia, Asia and Europe, appearing with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Oulu, Melbourne, Sydney, West Australian, Tasmanian and Queensland Orchestras; the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia ViVA and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with conductors Arvo Volmer, Rumon Gamba, Christian Varquez, Paul Mann, Frederico Cortese, Peter McCoppin, Nicholas Kok and Graeme Abbott.
His recital work has included concerts at the Lincoln Centre New York, Purcell Room, the Newbury Spring and Gower Festivals, a three city tour of Germany, sixteen city tour of Australia and an appearance in the opening recital of the 2007 Manchester International Cello Festival. A member of the award winning Fournier Piano Trio during the 11/12 season Pei-Jee returns to Wigmore Hall and undertakes a Tunnell Trust tour of Scotland.
Passionate about contemporary music, Pei-Jee and his twin brother Pei-Sian, also a cellist, have commissioned new works for two cellos by acclaimed Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin and Daniel Kidane, and given the Asian and Australian premieres of double cello concertos by the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho, Italian composer Giovanni Sollima, Australian composer Graeme Koehne and Tõnu Kõrvits. In 2008 Melba Recordings released his debut CD, featuring works by Chopin and Kats-Chernin. Future plans include the premiere of a double concerto by Brian Howard and a new work for two cellos by the British composer Gary Carpenter.
Pei-Jee Ng plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello of 1844.