Would a trendy and successful intellectual-property lawyer ever change her job and join a not-for-profit organisation with considerably lower salary and a lot of worry? Quite unlikely, but this is exactly what Margaret Yang did.
Various factors moved her to shift from a glamorous career that she enjoyed to another that she loved, among them the hope that she could further the cause of classical music in Hong Kong.
'I always considered how I could fully maximise my ability to make the world a better place, and look beyond the immediate benefit,' says Yang, Hong Kong Sinfonietta's chief executive. 'Listening to music, you can live in a very wonderful world. We want to show that world to others.'
As many cultural players have noted, finding top art administrators in Hong Kong is next to herculean, given the limited opportunities for work experience here compared with the situation in Britain, Australia or the US, with their many orchestras and other art organisations.
Another clincher for Yang, therefore, was the lack of a trained person who could take up the baton. 'There were lots of lawyers, but the board said there was nobody suited to start up this orchestra,' she says. 'The prospect of having something new, and changing the environment, was also something quite exciting.'
In any case, Yang had both the education and experience. She majored in music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and played the piano and viola. After graduation, she 'jumped into the first position that was open' at the Hong Kong Philharmonic - handling marketing, a step she found natural and attractive. Yang also worked with the Hong Kong Art Festival for a year before moving to London for a post-graduate in art administration.
A six-month post-diploma secondment at an artist agency became a couple of years, during which she helped organise the first large-scale Japanese festival in Britain. Although the agency was a commercial organisation, it gave Yang strong experience in artist management and organisation.
