Raymond Yiu is a Hong-Kong born, London-based composer, jazz pianist, conductor and writer on music. He is the winner of a BASCA British Composer Award in 2010 (Northwest Wind), and nominated for the same award in 2004 (Beyond the Glass), 2012 (Les Etoiles au Front), 2013 (The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured) and 2018 (Mielo) respectively. Originally trained as an engineer, Yiu was self-taught as a composer until he undertook his DMus under the auspice of Julian Anderson at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2009.

His early work received the advocacy of the American composer-pianist-conductor Lukas Foss. He has worked with ensembles and artists including BBC Singers, BBC Philharmonic, Chroma, Concorde Ensemble, Ensemble 10/10, London Sinfonietta, Lontano, London Symphony Orchestra and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.

The Original Chinese Conjuror, with a libretto by Lee Warren, was commissioned for the 2006 Aldeburgh Almeida Opera, with further productions at the Musikverein by Teatro Barroco in 2013 and Left Bank Opera in Leeds by Northern Opera Group in 2018. Maomao Yü, a quintet for piano and traditional Chinese instruments was commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra for Lang Lang and the Silk String Quartet. 

His ‘hugely impressive’ (The Guardian) Symphony was commissioned by the BBC, and premiered by countertenor Andrew Watts, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner during the BBC Proms 2015. In April 2017, Hong Kong Philharmonic presented the Asian premiere of The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured.

First performed at Manchester International Festival 2017, and given its London premiere by Roderick Williams, BBCSO and Sir Andrew Davis in 2018, The World Was Once All Miracle was nominated in the large-scale composition category of 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.

Yiu’s creative partnership with the BBCSO continued in 2019 with two major performances – the second UK outing of The London Citizen Exceedingly Injured at the Barbican in April, and the world premiere of the revised version of Xocolatl in July as part of the 10th Music in Summer Air Festival in Shanghai.

Corner of a Foreign Field, written to commemorate the Chinese Labour Corps of World War I,  was shortlisted in the small-scale composition category of 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.