KATIE YAP - VIOLIST
photo by Darren James
Violist, curator and composer Katie Yap is an artist who brings people together. She uses her instrument’s role of collaborator to amplify the voices of her colleagues and audience with her own warm, authentic voice. Through deeply layered curation, she shares her music as a natural part of life, as a way to build connection in real time.
ABOUT
Born in Meanjin/Brisbane and based between Naarm/Melbourne and Nipaluna/Hobart, period and modern violist Katie Yap seeks to offer performances that that can be places of connection and beauty to her listeners. Her work speaks of quality and thoughtfulness with a welcoming manner that allows the music to be shared freely and without airs. She presents with authenticity, and allows her audiences to come as they are.Katie has had a string of fellowships - she is currently a Van Diemen’s Band Curation Fellow; and previously has been an ANAM/Ian Potter Emerging Performer Fellow (24-25), Musica Viva Australia FutureMaker (23-24), and Freedman Classical Fellow (2022). Her focus in these fellowships explores a life-long fascination with improvisation, collaborative composition, curation, and a love of the natural world.Chamber music being closest to her heart, she is a founding member of the Gryphon Baryton Trio, baroque viola/synth duo Bronzewing, and is co-artistic director of crossover folk/baroque group Wattleseed Ensemble.
photo by Grant Leslie
In large ensembles, she performs regularly with Australia’s top period and modern groups including Van Diemen’s Band, the Orchestra of the Antipodes, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She has played with most of the country’s state symphony orchestras, and toured domestically and internationally with the Australian World Orchestra.Katie loves slipping sideways from the classical genre, in particular towards folk music. She is a member of mixed fiddle quartet Van Diemen’s Fiddles, chamber folk band Where Water Meets, and sanshin-wielding duo Honmono no Gaijin. She is particularly interested in Scandinavian folk music, and the practice of singing and playing.Although not teaching regular students at the moment, Katie loves tutoring and mentoring young musicians. She has taught at the Australian National Academy of Music, the University of Queensland, Monash University, and tutored as part of the Australian Youth Orchestra and Musica Viva Australia’s Strike A Chord program.From 2023, Katie joined the Van Diemen’s Band team as Artistic Coordinator, where she helps with administration, artist liaison, curation support, and social media.In her spare time, she can be found gardening, sewing or knitting, and is apprenticed in the fine arts of Hainanese chicken rice and Dutch apple tart. In between those moments, she loves to watch turbo chooks chase each other down near the Newtown Rivulet, and is easily distracted by any cool bird.
PROJECTS
photo by Albert Comper
Bronzewing weaves old and new together in a spectacular, raucous combination. Donald Nicolson (harpsichord and synths) and Katie Yap (baroque viola and vocals) are two of Australia's foremost period musicians, and together they catapult their ancient instruments into modern soundworlds.Their music draws on influences from Hildegard von Bingen, JS Bach, and 70s electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre. Their debut work, Black Cockatoos is a 13-minute tour-de-force based on Judith Wright's poem of the same name, evoking the unsettling moments before a storm, and the heavy wildness of the black cockatoo’s wingbeats.
photo by Darren James
Wattleseed Ensemble's music is an invitation to intimacy; to the rawness of bowed strings and eucalypt forest; to connection.Katie is co-artistic director of Wattleseed Ensemble together with Meg Cohen, and their instrumental lineup varies depending on the project, from string trio to early music ensemble with plucked continuo. They weave together music of the baroque period with folk music and contemporary Australian music in a confluence of styles, finding cohesion in the telling of a story. These stories always find their way back to the scrappy, beautiful, astonishing Aussie environment.
Lewis Luman Cross (American, 1864–1951) Passenger Pigeons, c. 1900. Oil on canvas, 78 5/8 x 132 inches. Grand Rapids Art Museum, Gift of Ruth Skwarek in memory of Elsa and Henry Mueller, 1983.1.19. Image courtesy of Grand Rapids Art Museum.
Multitudes joins Katie with four different collaborators: Donald Nicolson (harpsichord & synths), Emily Sheppard (violin), Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng) and The Bowerbird Collective (violin & cello). Together, each pair co-wrote a new piece based on the bird poems of Judith Wright.The new works were recorded and released on CD and vinyl on the VDB label.Multitudes was created for Katie's Freedman Fellowship project, with support from the Freedman Fellowship and Creative Australia
DIAPHANOUS
photo by Erin Sherlock
Diaphanous is a 45-minute long show for baroque viola, tape, sound design, and lighting design. It was developed during Katie's time as a Musica Viva Australia FutureMakerIt explores the sounds we reject, that we associate with nervousness, fragility, frailty and asks: could these be beautiful?Co-composed music for scordatura baroque viola and imaginary friends:Katie and:
Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng)
Laura Vaughan (baryton)
Donald Nicolson (synths)Solo-composed music for solo viola:
Leilehua Lanzilotti
Katie YapSound design: Tilman Robinson
Lighting design: Amelia Lever Davidson
Dramaturgy: Roslyn Oades
Producer: Michaela Coventry
MULTITUDES
Our world is filled with contradictions: technology affords us the opportunity to be the most connected we’ve ever been, yet we are the loneliest society that has lived. We proudly say we are a global, multicultural community, and yet there are barriers everywhere we turn. Our own identities are fractured, containing multitudes, yet struggling to create a single whole.Multitudes is a response and an antidote to these breakdowns in connection.Storytelling is one of humanity’s greatest tools; my vision is to tell my own story through live creation, active participation, and genuine, vulnerable sharing of an intimate space with collaborators and audience.
Multitudes involves the creation of four new works through collaborative composition and improvisation. Each is based on one of Judith Wright’s bird poems, which my mother introduced to me, along with a love of birds themselves.
CONCERTS
photo by Albert Comper, Tempo Rubato 2023
The four-concert series has toured three times so far:Tempo Rubato (Merribek/Brunswick, VIC) - 2023, self-presented
Moonah Arts Centre (Nipaluna/Hobart) - 2025, co-presented with Van Diemen's Band
VENTspace (Magandjin/Brisbane) - 2025, co-presented with Dots+Loops
photo by Reuben Fenemore, VENTspace 2025
NEW WORKS
BLACK COCKATOOS
old + new
Written and performed by Donald Nicolson (harpsichord, synths) & Katie Yap (baroque viola, pedals)
NIGHT HERONS
folk + classical
Written and performed by Emily Sheppard (violin, vocals) & Katie Yap (viola, vocals)
MIGRANT SWIFT
chinese + australian
Written and performed by Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng) & Katie Yap (viola)
PASSENGER PIGEONS
city + bush
Written and performed by The Bowerbird Collective (Simone Slattery, violin & Anthony Albrecht, cello) & Katie Yap (viola)
ALBUM
The four new works created for Multitudes were released as an album on vinyl, CD, and digitally in late 2025 on the VDB label.The CDs and vinyl are beautiful, high-quality physical products made in Naarm/Melbourne.
photo by Caz Whitehead
LISTEN
Aftermath (recorded 2020)
by Emily Sheppard
vid by Darren James
Black Cockatoos (recorded 2023)
by Bronzewing - Donald Nicolson & Katie Yap
vid by Albert Comper
Night Herons (recorded 2023)
by Emily Sheppard & Katie Yap
vid by Ursula Woods
Diaphanous - trailer (recorded 2024)
by Katie Yap, Mindy Meng Wang, Laura Vaughan, Donald Nicolson & Leilehua Lanzilotti
vid by NON Studio
SHOP
MULTITUDES - CD
$25
Single CD in cardboard gatefold packaging, made in Naarm/MelbourneReleased by VDB, 2025Led by violist Katie Yap, Multitudes brings together six of Australia’s most exciting musicians in a recording brimming with intimacy, warmth and vitality.Multitudes captures four new works, each based on one of Judith Wright’s exquisite bird poems, each celebrating a juxtaposition - old/new; human/nature; Chinese/Australian; and folk/classical.Track Listing
Black Cockatoos - Katie Yap & Donald Nicolson
Night Herons - Emily Sheppard & Katie Yap
Migrant Swift - Mindy Meng Wang & Katie Yap
Passenger Pigeons - The Bowerbird Collective & Katie Yap
MULTITUDES - VINYL
$55
Limited release recycled vinyl in cardboard packaging with leaflet, made in Naarm/MelbourneReleased by VDB, 2025Led by violist Katie Yap, Multitudes brings together six of Australia’s most exciting musicians in a recording brimming with intimacy, warmth and vitality.Multitudes captures four new works, each based on one of Judith Wright’s exquisite bird poems, each celebrating a juxtaposition - old/new; human/nature; Chinese/Australian; and folk/classical.Track Listing
SIDE A
Black Cockatoos - Katie Yap & Donald Nicolson
Migrant Swift - Mindy Meng Wang & Katie YapSIDE B
Night Herons - Emily Sheppard & Katie Yap
Passenger Pigeons - The Bowerbird Collective & Katie Yap
CONTACT
MAILING LIST
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THANKS
Thanks for your message! I'll get back to you as soon as I can.When I'm on tour or in a residency, this could take several days or a week. Thanks for your patience ❤️Katie x