Thursdays at Noon | Laureates: Innovators
Daniel J. Choi: Kelele Nje for singing marimbist (2019–2020)
Fish Yu: "I. Black and White" and "III. Sevens" from Frolic (2023, rev. 2024)
KöNG Duo (Hoi Tong Keung & Bevis Ng, percussion)
Golden Hour by Cait Nishimura
Six Lieder by Clara Schumann
Escapade by Gina Gillie
Piper Shiels, horn
Hong Kong-raised percussionist Hoi Tong Keung believes in the power of music in connecting people. Her performance and research interests lie on the interplay between modes of expression, be it Eastern and Western music, acoustic and electronic instruments, or music and speech. Among which, her doctoral research focuses on incorporating spoken Cantonese into percussion music.
Hoi Tong co-founded KöNG Duo with percussionist Bevis Ng. In 2022, they curated their début set “good morning, hong kong” during their residency at Banff Centre. Since then, they have performed locally at Music TORONTO’s Celebration of Small Ensembles series and internationally at the New Music Gathering in the U.S.A.. Besides discovering under-performed gems, they collaborate with emerging composers and have premiered over 15 works. The duo was the First Prize winner in the 2023 Southern California Marimba International Artist Competition and the Young Artistic Associates of Confluence Concerts in the 2023–2024 season. KöNG Duo proudly endorses Marimba One instruments.
Hoi Tong is a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto under the guidance of Aiyun Huang and Beverley Johnston. She holds degrees from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Piper Shiels (she/her) is a Canadian horn player studying at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Throughout her musical career, Piper has won awards such as the National Honour Award at MusicFest Canada, UofT's Ethel Berney Jackson Scholarship and the Ontario Gold Medal for her RCM studies in Horn performance. Piper is currently pursuing a Master of Music at Indiana University under the guidance of Denise Tryon and holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto.
Piper has played with ensembles including the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra and most notably, the National Youth Band of Canada, where she was named Principal Horn. Piper is an avid music educator, an advocate for music education and is a member of the Ontario and Canadian Music Educators' Associations. She is also a member of the Canadian Armed Forces as a musician in The Royal Regiment of Canada.
In her free time, Piper enjoys travelling, attending concerts and collecting funky socks.
Livestream available on our YouTube Channel.
The Thursdays at Noon series is made possible in part by the Jay Telfer Forum Endowment Fund.