Hong Tee, widely regarded as Malaysia’s premier classical guitarist, performs regularly throughout the country and abroad—including Wales, England, Singapore, Taiwan, Spain, London, Iceland, and Indonesia. She is the first Malaysian to serve as a professor, masterclass artist, and competition judge at the internationally acclaimed World Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade, Serbia.
In 2017, she released her debut solo album <Evocation> . In the same year, she gave a world premier of a new work, Fantasia over a Bornean Folksong, written for Malaysia and dedicated to her by the renowned Italian composer, Maestro Carlo Domeniconi.
In 2018, she was invited by Taiwan’s Ensemble Los Seis twice. She gave her debut solo recital in Taipei as part of the Asian Classical Guitarist Recommended Series and conducted masterclasses at the Music Faculty of ShiJian University, Taipei and Taiwan International Guitar Summer Seminar in Kaohsiung.
In 2022, she world premiered and published a project, Tropical Impressions, with six commissioned solo guitar works written by foreign and local composers, inspired by Malaysia and dedicated to her. Through her masterful rendition of one of these works, Datun Julud Variations, by Maestro Dusan Bogdanovic, she became the first ever Malaysian guitarist to contribute to an international classical guitar educational website and YouTube channel, Guitar by Masters.
As an active performer, Hong is a sought after soloist, educator and adjudicator in the major concert series and international music festivals held in Malaysia. Since 2013, she has initiated a classical guitar charity concert series, Love Music, which aims to extend the outreach of guitar music to the local community. In 2022, she founded the Peninsular Guitar Ensemble, in which she is the artistic director and conductor of this group of young guitar players from across peninsular Malaysia. The Ensemble aims to create a performing platform for the young generation while raising the playing standard in general. She also directs the nation’s only actively performing classical guitar quartet, Quartet Seis, featuring her former students who continue to follow her example as both performer and teacher.
Hong is the first Malaysian female guitarist to achieve FTCL qualifications, in addition to earning a Master’s degree in classical guitar performance. She attained her Master of Music with Distinction at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, UK, under the tutelage of two prominent UK classical guitarists, Professor John Mills and Professor Graham Anthony Devine. Her exceptional performance earned her a scholarship from the college. In recognition of her achievement in FTCL (Fellowship Music Performance Diploma), she was honoured with the Award of Excellence by Trinity College of London. Before pursuing her master’s studies, she studied with Professor Tim Walker in London, Mdm Malgorzata Skrodzka and Mr Woon Siong Teck in Malaysia.
She has greatly enhanced her expertise through participation in master classes conducted by some of the most distinguished teachers and virtuosos, such as Roland Dyens, Pavel Steidl, Marco Tamayo, David Russell, Ana Vidovic, Philip Hii, Edoardo Catemario etc.
She currently teaches at UCSI University’s Institute of Music and Sunway Conservatoire of Music. She was teaching at the Malaysian Institute of Art from 2014-2020. Additionally, she conduct master classes and workshops in different regions of Malaysia and internationally. Notably, a number of her students have achieved remarkable success as award winners in both the international and local guitar competitions.
Hong Tee - Classical Guitarist 