Barbara Fei, Hong Kong opera singer, Died at 85

Barbara Fei was born on July 8, 1931, in Tianjin, China and died on January 2, 2017.

She also known as Barbara Fei Ming-yi.

She was a Hong Kong soprano opera singer.

Fei was the founder of a choral group, Allegro Singers, which performed for over 50 years.

She studied piano and vocal music at the national conservatory in Nanjing in the late 1940s, before relocating to Hong Kong with her family in 1949.

Fei made her debut at a 1951 concert, presented by the Sino-British Orchestra, inaugurating the new hall at Queen’s College (Hong Kong).

In 1956, she joined the Sino-British Orchestra to perform in Guangzhou, and, later that year, flew to Paris to study under European soprano Lotte Schöne for three years.

Fei founded the Allegro Singers in 1964 and commissioned Chinese composers to arrange folk songs for chorus, which she did for every annual concert up to 2016.

She was awarded the Bronze and a Silver Bauhinia Medal in 2001 and 2012.

Fei was a long-time member of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, serving also as head of music until late 2016.

Fei was survived by two sons.

She died at the Hong Kong Sanitorium and Hospital.

Barbara Fei passed away at 85 years old.