The Original Chinese Conjuror - Biographies

Raymond Yiu, Composer (Hong Kong)

Raymond Yiu, born in 1973, is a composer and jazz pianist. Born in Hong Kong, he came to England in 1990. He started piano lessons at the age of four. He began writing music as a teenager, and took up composing again while he was studying at Imperial College.

As a composer, Raymond is mostly self-taught. He has studied composition privately with Graham Williams. He has also received informal consultations from several composers including Lukas Foss, David Matthews and David Sawer. He had undertaken research on the music of Lukas Foss; his article on Foss's recent works appeared in the July 2002 issue of Tempo magazine.

Distance of the Moon was selected and conducted by Lukas Foss at the Bridgehampton Music Festival, New York in 2001. Three of his works have been shortlisted by the spnm: Tranced Summer-Night, Tranced and Calendar of Tolerable Inventions from Around the World, which was performed by Lontano in 2002 and subsequently broadcast by BBC Radio 3. It was also chosen by Harrison Birtwistle for performance at the 2003 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival with the London Sinfonietta. Tranced was performed by the Northern Sinfonia at the 2003 Bath Festival and was presented as a dance piece at the Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna, with choreography by Bernd Bienert. Forget-Me-Not was written for and premiered by Andrew Watts, and Beyond the Glass was performed and recorded for broadcast by the BBC Singers.

Raymond is the recipient of the spnm's 2003 George Butterworth Award, and is currently represented by the British Music Information Centre's New Voices scheme.

Lee Warren, Librettist (UK)

Lee Warren has worked as a professional magician since the age of 12. He trained as an actor at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London from 1991­94. He has written several short stories, two plays and a previous short opera, The Painter and the Woman, with Raymond Yiu. He trained as a teacher of the Alexander Technique with Karen Wentworth and is the resident Alexander teacher at the Actors' Centre, London and the Rose Bruford Drama School. He also directs plays, most recently a rehearsed reading of Milk for Jamie at the Soho Theatre Studio.