Photo by Minim Pictures, 2025

Brisbane-born professional flautist Lilly Yang recently completed a Master of Music in Woodwind – Flute at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Germany, studying under Robert Winn (former principal flautist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Leonie Brockmann (principal piccolo of WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln) and Thaddeus Watson (former principal piccolo of the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra). Her overseas studies were generously supported by the 2025 Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust Music Scholarship program. ​As an orchestral flautist, Lilly has performed professionally as a guest with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Kölner Kammerorchester, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. Lilly is also an alumna of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), where she completed her training in 2021 under the guidance of Virginia Taylor.

 

​Lilly is passionate about bringing music to the community and actively maintains her own concert series in Brisbane with the Waterlily Musicians, her own flexible ensemble and rotating collective featuring some of Brisbane and Melbourne’s most promising young classical performers. Lilly is a founding member of several ensembles and has delivered recitals across Germany, the UK and the east coast of Australia. As part of the Estrel Duo with Melbourne-based harpist Tijana Kozarcic, she has toured nationally and internationally to Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Melbourne and the UK. Lilly also regularly collaborates with fellow ANAM alumna Rachel Lau (flute) as a flute duo, and with Melbourne-based pianist Amanda Pang as the Beyond Time Trio where they have performed in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and in Melbourne (Tempo Rubato 2025 and 3MBS Fine Music radio 2019).

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​With support from the 2023 PPCA Performers Trust Grant, Lilly participated in masterclasses by renowned flute pedagogues Jacques Zoon (Adriatic Woodwinds Festival 2023) and Robert Winn (Oxford Flute Summer School 2023). She has also journeyed to Europe on other occasions to perform in the masterclasses of Peter Lukas-Graf (2025), Sophie Cherrier and Julien Beaudiment (Nice International Summer Academy 2022).

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During her time at ANAM, Lilly performed with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Simone Young as well as the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in a successful season of the Bolshoi Ballet’s Jewels performances (2019). As part of her professional development program, she performed regularly with ANAM’s orchestral and chamber ensembles at renowned Melbourne venues, including the Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and South Melbourne Town Hall. Lilly has also performed multiple times at the Ian Potter Centre as part of the ANAM@NGV concert series, and has collaborated with world-class guest artists such as Stefan Dohr, Denis Bouriakov, Adam Walker, Nick Deutsch, Elim Chan, Simone Young, and Gábor Takács-Nagy. Highlights of Lilly’s time at ANAM include winning Best Performance of an Australian Work for Carl Vine’s Flute Sonata (2019); being awarded First Prize at the 2019 Victorian Flute Guild Leslie Barklamb Scholarship Competition; and participating as a finalist in the 2019 Australian Flute Festival Open Flute Competition, the 2021 Australian Youth Classical Music Competition, and the 2021 James Carson Memorial Prize.

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During her undergraduate studies in the Bachelor of Music Performance (Flute) at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (QCGU), Lilly achieved a number of notable accomplishments. These include receiving the Pat Volek Orchestral Training Scholarship, performing Nielsen’s Flute Concerto as a soloist with the Conservatorium String Orchestra, completing an internship with QSO, and appearing multiple times as Principal Flute with the QCGU Symphony Orchestra. She was also selected as a performer for the Michael Cox Flute Symposium in Adelaide in 2018. Following the completion of her degree, Lilly participated in a side-by-side performance of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos with Australia’s leading chamber ensemble, Ensemble Q.

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Lilly is the founder, photographer and editor at Minim Pictures Photography — a small, independent team offering portrait photography, as well as recital photography and videography services for emerging musicians and chamber ensembles. She is passionate about helping young, emerging musicians who are beginning to build their professional portfolios and want high-quality archival photos and video recordings of their performances, but may not yet have the budget to hire a professional photographer or videographer.

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Outside of playing flute, Lilly enjoys taking photos, playing tennis and trying various tea-flavoured desserts.