She helped underprivileged children keep their passion for music alive through her classes.
Kitty Yip
Hong Kong
My name is Kitty Yip. I co-founded Addoilmusic along with my husband, Bryan Yeung—an award-winning music composer, arranger and producer in Hong Kong—in 2013. As a social worker, I found out that several young talented musicians give up on their music dreams due to the lack of stable income, support, and network. We wanted to do our bit to help such musicians develop their careers and let underprivileged children learn music for free.
Addoilmusic is the first social enterprise in Hong Kong that promotes playing and making music together.
The biggest challenge for any venture that’s starting out is spreading the word and finding the clients who would believe in their vision. For the past 8 years, we have used Facebook and Instagram to help promote our business, announce updates, and engage our clients and alliances.Things have not always been easy, but we never gave up. Over time, we have managed to train and employ over 30 part-time professional musicians and tutors, and have been working with over 40 schools, NGOs, and corporations successfully to serve over 22,000 children, young people, adults, and seniors.
Her focus is never letting the less fortunate give up on their dreams.
The pandemic has showcased the importance of artists more than ever before. We are focused on our goals and our target in the upcoming months is to support 100 HK young talented musicians to produce high-quality music and help 1,000 deprived children to learn music for free. Eventually, we hope to expand our existing music education and production services to different platforms such as speed jam sessions, lyrics co-writing workshops, pop music ensemble band training, studio recording, and music production services.
I am also delighted to be joining forces with the #SheMeansBusiness Fellowship Program as I believe it will not only help me master the necessary skills needed to navigate the changing times, but also gather valuable lessons from experiences of other women entrepreneurs.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a greater need for music services across sectors.
COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill but there’s hope, and that’s what we want to inculcate in these children. We want to enhance their self-confidence, empathy, and team spirit, and let them experience the feeling of going from impossible to possible.
