About me

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Singaporean composer Ji Heng Lee began writing and arranging music for his peers in the Guitar ensemble (of which he was Music Director) and other student-run orchestras when he was studying in Raffles Institution (Singapore), where he read Music at the A-Level. Since graduating, he has continued to compose pieces for school juniors, including a Quintet conducted by Peter Veale as part of a collaboration with the Cologne-based Ensemble musikFabrik, as well as a chamber piece, heard that…, performed by a combined (Western and Chinese) string orchestra under Wei Shing Chan. In 2011, Ji Heng received the Singaporean Composer Award for his orchestral piece, Dark Light, in the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition. His piece was premiered by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra under the direction of Tsung Yeh, and has also been recorded as part of an album featuring winning pieces from the competition.

Under a teaching scholarship awarded by the Singapore Ministry of Education, Ji Heng read the Music Tripos at University of Cambridge (Girton College), and graduated in June 2017. He took composition lessons with teachers including Richard Causton, Jeremy Thurlow and Cheryl Frances-Hoad, and also academic lessons with Martin Ennis, Tim Watts and Gareth Wilson, along with several others. He was involved in the College’s Chapel Choir and numerous recitals organised by the Music Society. In 2016, he was awarded the Sophia Turle Scholarship and Phyllis Tillyard Prize in recognition of his academic performance. During his time at Cambridge, Ji Heng wrote for a diverse range of ensembles. Past projects include a prize-winning Advent carol Maranâ thâ premiered by Ely Consort under Matthew Rudd, a Short Piece for Cambridge University Chinese Orchestra, a setting of a poem The Ocean Breathes for twelve solo voices and three suspended cymbals, as well as Three Movements for Organ dedicated to Lucy Morrell, who was Senior Organ Scholar (2015-2018) at Girton College.

Ji Heng graduated from Royal College of Music (RCM) London with a Master of Music (MMus) in Composition. He studied with Jonathan Cole under a Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, supported by donors Ms Jean Cater and Professor Gordon Marshall. During his time in London, his pe_ple_sc_ns was played in the Taylor-Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition Concert at the National Portrait Gallery, along with pieces written by other RCM composition students in response to selected portraits. Collaborations with musicians associated with RCM also brought forth pieces such as repose I, EXCITATIONS, and the caged bird sings… Beyond college, his [autofocus] for string quartet was premiered by the Heath Quartet at Dartington International Summer School, and his aḍḍā আড্ডা won two performances in the Diaphonia Edizioni Minelli-Dacey Duo ‘Flute-like-Voice’ Call for Scores, and has been published by Diaphonia Edizioni.

Presently, Ji Heng is teaching music in a junior college in Singapore, and seeks to keep on composing alongside his teaching job.

Updated December 2021