HKBU Music Department lecturer Dr Austin Yip was recently named winner of the CASH Golden Sail Music Award, Best Serious Composition 2017 with his musical piece Metamorphosis. Meanwhile, a Cantonese pop song Yin Fa Bai with lyrics written by Associate Professor of Humanities and Creative Writing Dr Chow Yiu-fai won the CASH Best Song.
 
Metamorphosis, which literally means “breaking through a cocoon” in Chinese, depicts the moment when a troublesome matter resolves and the short instance right after the process. It successfully stood out from another five nominations on the finalist list to clinch the Best Serious Composition award. Dr Yip says: “I was delighted to be commissioned by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra earlier this year, and my work Metamorphosis was premièred by the orchestra in January, conducted by Aldert Vermeulen. Without their superb performance, I would not have been awarded this prize.” 
 
CASH – the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong – inaugurated its Golden Sail Music Awards in 2001 with the aim of recognising outstanding musical works as well as vocal performances of musical works first commercially released or performed in Hong Kong within a specified period of the past year. Judging is based on artistic, creative and technical achievements of each piece of work or recorded performance.
 
Dr Yip’s flourishing creative works also brought him another award recently – the 2018 Chou's Annual Composition Commission Award, Soochow University. Dr Yip was chosen from among 260 professional composers of different nationalities and was commissioned to write a new chamber work for the autumn of 2018.