A percussionist, sound artist and interdisciplinary arts researcher, Karen Yu uses sound-making as a medium to question and redefine the relationship between audience and performer. Constantly in pursuit of new possibilities in the performing arts culture, Yu is interested in curating cross-disciplinary collaborations and performances that weave spaces and people together. Based in Hong Kong, Yu is the Artistic Director of Contemporary Musiking Hong Kong, a Co-Founder of the chamber percussion group, The Up:Strike Project, and an Associate Musician of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.
Formerly an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and a fellow at the Blackbird Creative Lab, Yu was most recently commissioned by the Axel Vervoordt Gallery Hong Kong for a sound performance at Germaine Kruip’s Solo Exhibition “Screenplay”, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble for a multi-media work, “the vigil of debris”, and Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District Freespace, Creation for Freespace: Choreography and Composer Lab. She has performed at the Biennale Montreal, Contemporary Musiking Hong Kong Sound Forms Festival (2019, 2020), Freespace Jazz Fest, Harvard Graduate Music Forum Conference, Hong Kong Sinfonietta @ ArtisTree “Notating Beauty That Moves,” Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival, IRCAM ManiFeste Academy, Percussive Arts Society Day of Percussion (Hong Kong, Montreal), SoundSCAPE New Music Festival, Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, and Transplanted Roots Percussion Research Symposiums (Guanajuato, Brisbane, Montreal). Karen Yu obtained a Bachelor and Master of Music from McGill University, Canada, where she was a Schulich Graduate Fellowship holder.
Website: www.karenyu.net
Instagram: @karenerak
Twitter: @karenerak
Karen Yu is collaborating on the Ways Of Being Together project.