Born in Hong Kong, Tinny began learning the oboe at the age of 13. In 2012, she received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Celia Nicklin, Melanie Ragge and Jill Crowther. Tinny subsequently took a gap year, during which she studied privately with Diana Doherty and Alexandre Oguey in Sydney and with Seung Eun Lee in Germany.
As an orchestral musician, Tinny has played under the baton of eminent conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Sir Mark Elder, Semyon Bychkov and Lorin Maazel and is a freelance player with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. In summer 2014, Tinny was selected to participate in the Penderecki Music Academy Westfalen, performing in Germany and Poland.
Tinny is currently taking time off from her Master of Music at the University of Arts in Bremen, Germany, to join Southbank Sinfonia 2016. In her spare time, Tinny enjoys cooking and is an avid traveller.
What do you love about classical music?
Classical music endures the test of time. It has such a wide spectrum of colours and styles and is able to project both the simplest and most complex emotions. Personally, classical music has also given me the chance to meet so many incredible and interesting human beings from all over the world. We may not speak the same language, but we understand each other perfectly with music.
What or who inspired you to become a professional musician?
No one in either my immediate nor distant family is musical. I wanted to become a pianist at first, but I have tiny hands (just about right for an octave!) so it seemed rather hopeless. Then I started learning the oboe and soon, rehearsals and music-related activities took up the majority of my time outside school. It just seemed natural for me then to study music after A-level. However it was only during a concert at the Academy, in which I played Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, that I felt shivers down my spine and thought, ‘this is what I want to be doing for the rest of my life!’.
Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us
Although I was born in Hong Kong, I have spent half my life living abroad – I spent my childhood in Singapore, did my Bachelor’s degree in England, lived in Australia, studied for my master’s in Germany, and now I’m so excited to be back in London again!