MISSING YOU / KHOR AI MING Song Recital / Review

 

MISSING YOU

KHOR AI MING Vocal Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (18 October 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 October 2025 with the title "Soprano Khor Ai Ming pays tribute to Malaysian roots in a concert on her 55th birthday".

Performing on one’s own 55th birthday must be a daunting task for most, but not so the Malaysia-born soprano Khor Ai Ming, vocal teacher and founder-chorusmaster of Vocal Associates and Joy Chorale. Her two-hour recital, conducted without a break despite nursing a poor stomach, was a microcosm of her personality: vivacious, tireless and driven by the “can-do” spirit.

Speaking in a comfortable mix of Mandarin and Singlish, her life story was laid bare, filled equally with career triumphs and personal vulnerabilities. The programme of songs in multiple languages also amply illustrated a versatility and penchant for diversity.

Raised by strict but loving teacher parents in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, the provinciality of her beginnings was reflected in the opening song Xiao Cheng Gu Shi (小城故事, A Small Town Story) popularised by Teresa Teng. This was followed by Du Juan Hua (杜鹃花, Azalea), also in Mandarin, a recollection of her very first singing competition, which she won, naturally.

There were two parts to Jonathan Lee’s song I Am A Little Bird, first an admission of humility, and later, a yearning to conquer the world. So this was how the recital’s trajectory went. The young Khor Ai Ming tires of being cooped in, and in the Irene Cara-covered song Fame, seeks the bright lights of Singapore.

As a parting shot to her hometown, her sung Malay and dance moves in the song Kuda Hitam (Black Horse) were so idiomatic as to raise some of the evening’s loudest cheers.

Then came a dizzying set of songs in various languages. There was Spanish in Manuel de Falla’s El Pano Moruno (The Moorish Cloth) and Uyghur for Bir Piyale Mey (A Glass of Wine) where she had to jiggle maracas accompanied by her husband Tamagoh on tarabuka (goblet drum). German was represented in the atonal Mondestrunken (Moonstruck) from Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Mack The Knife from Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera.

Her tributes to her brothers included Xinyao pioneer Liang Wern Fook’s Tian Leng Jiu Hui Lai (天冷就回来, Come Back When It Gets Cold), to her mother a pair of Cantonese songs by Anna Lin and Sam Hui, and her late father who loved American pop songs, a Carpenters medley - Yesterday Once More, Top of the World and End of the World. For her students, she offered the Beatles’ Now and Then.

Khor’s first original composition Xing (信, I Believe), the Chinese word also meaning “letter” or “faith”, was poignantly accompanied by Colin Yong on dizi. To close a busy evening, the premiere of Liang’s The Wind of Shanghai, was sung with audience participation, supported by Mei Sheum (keyboard), Bertrand Lee (piano), Yong (bass), Sebastian Ho (guitar), Jeremy Wong (pipa) and Tamagoh (drums).

There was time for two encores, sung in Mandarin - Shi Jie Zeng Yu Wo De (世界赠予我的, My Gifts From The World) popularised by Faye Wong and Wo Xiang Ni Le (我想你了, Missing You) by Hailai Amu. The last was also the concert’s title, a declaration that despite fame and fortune, an artist also needs true and lasting friends.

CRYSTAL TO PORCELAIN: KHOR AI MING & TAMAGOH'S 20TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

What a privilege it is to have been among 80 guests invited to Esplanade Recital Studio on Sunday 27 October 2024 to attend the 20th wedding anniversary concert of singer chorusmaster Khor Ai Ming and drummer extraordinaire Tamagoh. Like her annual concerts, this was a heady mix of Ai Ming's favourite songs in Chinese, Malay, Japanese and German, accompanied by the star-studded Simply Jazz Band. 

Esplanade Recital Studio was transformed, with the rows of concert seats removed and its place special arms chairs and coffee tables, arranged as in a jazz lounge. This was a very special concert in celebration of a China anniversary, which the couple niftily called a Porcelain anniversary. Here are some of the photos, and needless to say, all who attended had a great time. 

A special invitation card
and special seating at Esplanade Recital Studio.

The evening's programme,
wedding dinner style!

Ai Ming and Tama make
a very compatible pair,
the secret for 20 good years.

Ai Ming's Kurt Weill segment
was accompanied by pianist Bertrand Lee.

The Simply Jazz Band performs.

Ai Ming accompanies herself in one song.

The final encore was Bizet's Habanera
from Carmen sung in Chinese. 

Take a bow, Ai Ming & Tama.
Here's to 20 more good years!

We were guests along with
Dr & Mrs Tony Makarome,
with the best seats in the house.

IN PRAISE OF KHOR AI MING

信 XIN

KHOR AI MING & FRIENDS

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (29 October 2022)

 

I have known Khor Ai Ming since 1992, when she was a fresh-faced 21-year-old girl-next-door singing student and soprano in the Singapore Symphony Chorus. She was soft-spoken, unassuming and totally down to earth, fresh from the Malaysian boondocks of Kota Baru, Kelantan. Who knew that thirty years later she would become one of Singapore’s leading chorusmasters (Vocal Associates and Joy Chorale among others) and stage diva par excellence?

 

Her annual song recitals are sold-out events, presenting an eclectic mix of art songs, arias, folk songs, new works and showstoppers. Her versatility in different genres and diverse languages is awe-inspiring, and few might know she gave one of the first performances of Arnold Schoenberg’s atonal sprechgesang classic Pierrot Lunaire in Singapore.

 

Her latest recital was entitled 信(xin), which is the Chinese word for “letter or message”, besides being the root for Chinese words meaning “faith, trust and confidence”. This wide-ranging concert was a love letter to her late father, who had passed two months ago, and encompassed songs that were lullabies, romances and other affirmations of love.

 

These included songs in Spanish (Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita and three of Manuel de Falla’s Popular Spanish Songs), Hebrew, Japanese, Uyghur, English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Besides exhibiting a wide range of emotions, she is equally adept in varying idioms, moods and languages. She is most comfortable in the Chinese dialects, performing with the right idiom and immediacy in the manner born.

 

Her partners in this concert included her husband percussionist Tamagoh (above), pianists Bertrand Lee and Mei Sheum, guitarist Roberto Zayas (Paraguayan, resident in Taiwan), flautist Rit Xu, bassist Tony Makarome, children from Vocal Associates, and special guests Tamil vocalist Nishanth Thiagarajan and dancer Janaki H. Nair.

 

Pride of place, however, has to go to Ai Ming’s own mother, a retired school teacher, who joined her in two Mandarin songs. Those were the most special moments of this concert, which will not be forgotten anytime soon.

 

Khor Ai Ming has an infectious personality, that is both informal and welcoming. Nothing is off-limits for her. I was particularly entranced by her singing of Malay songs several years ago, clad in the slenderest of kebayas. Those beguiling performances would surely get her in trouble with the Syariah courts and morality police up north, besides giving frustrated imams apoplexies and myocardials.

Children's voices from
Vocal Associates.

 

She is also capable of mustering large groups of singers with little or no experience of choral singing to participate in classics like Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra led by the late Adrian Tan. That level of connection and involvement with the community is something truly special. It is certain that we have not heard the last of Khor Ai Ming.

IN MEMORIAM: A TRIBUTE TO ADRIAN TAN / Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

IN MEMORIAM:

A TRIBUTE TO ADRIAN TAN

Braddell Heights 

Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (11 September 2022)

 

A year and a bit has passed since the tragic and premature passing on 12 July 2021 of Singaporean conductor Adrian Tan, music director of the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO). A successor has yet to be appointed. This well-conceived memorial concert led by Taiwanese conductor Apo Hsu was a moving memorial to one truly passionate about music, and a timely reminder of our massive loss.

The Maestro Adrian Tan
all of us remember.

 

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was an appropriate opener as it was Fate that took Adrian away. Beethoven’s fist-shaking defiance, expressed so dramatically in C minor, was what identified most with Adrian’s “can do” spirit. A naval officer with an arts degree in theatre studies who wanted so badly to be a conductor that he gave up a stable career to study music from scratch deserved our time and attention. His pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was the BHSO, which he whole-heartedly and single-mindedly honed into a fine ensemble capable of very convincing performances.

 

Under Hsu’s baton-less direction, a tautly gripping performance was the just result. The ensemble played their hearts out for her (and Adrian), often as if their lives depended on it. The opening Allegro con brio had vim and vigour, displaying an admirable cohesiveness. The slow movement sang unabated, the few rough spots from woodwinds doing little to derail the effort.  Time seemed to fly and spirits never flagged leading into the valedictory finale, culminating in glorious C major. From the stress of uncertainty to ultimate triumph was the path taken in this symphony and Adrian’s life, and he would have been immensely proud of it.

 

After the intermission, Singapore-based Filipino pianist Albert Tiu, regular collaborator with Adrian, was soloist in the slow third movement of Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto. Last year, he had crafted a solo piano transcription dedicated to Adrian, and here was the full monty with orchestra. It would have been great if Noella Yan (daughter of BHSO founder Yan Ying Wing and close family friend) had performed the cello obbligato part, but BHSO principal cellist Peh Xiang Hong was no slouch. Her solo was poignantly felt, the perfect introduction to Tiu’s impassioned reading which scaled the emotional heights yet found peace and resolution at its serene conclusion.

 

Twin composers Low Shao Ying 
and Shao Suan remember Adrian fondly.

Coinciding with the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations was also a fortuitous choice. There can be no music more moving than this, a regal nobilmente which aligned publisher A.J.Jaeger’s (Nimrod was his nickname) championship of Elgar’s music with Adrian’s keen support of Singaporean composers. The performance was a particularly rapturous one, which Song For Adrian by twin sisters Low Shao Ying and Shao Suan became the most logical follow-up. Scored for just strings, this was an elegy but one which channeled sadness into hope and optimism. Cast in C major, its musical idiom may be said to be a cross between Elgar and Sibelius.  

Singapore Symphony Orchestra's
fourth chair first violinist Chan Yoong Han was
an uncredited performer in this tribute concert.

Sama-sama maju ke hadapan
pandai cari pelajaran...

 

A familiar note (particularly for those growing up in the 60s and 70s) was struck with BHSO Arranger-in-Residence Mohd Rasull’s Fantasy on Zubir Said’s Semoga Bahagia (May You Achieve Happiness). Known popularly as the “Sama-sama Song", its melody brought back lots of primary school memories. It was sung in unison gusto by The Joy Chorale (Khor Ai Ming, Choirmaster) and some members of the audience (with whatever childhood memories of those bygone day). This work, which included a fugue among its variations, pulled out the stops in the best way possible.   

Handphones were not
prohibited in this concert!

A magical atmosphere
for Dick Lee's Home
Photo: Muhd Firdauz Bin Sapii

 

The evening concluded with Dick Lee’s Home as transcribed by Kelly Teng. A popular favourite, it had to be encored, this time accompanied by swaying lights emanating from hundreds of handphones within the audience. It was a spontaneous act that captured the spirit of the event, providing magical moments for all who attended. The Last Night of the Proms might have been cancelled in London, but nobody was to deny Adrian Tan his spot in our collective memories. His passion, zeal and courage will never be forgotten.

This is how Adrian Tan will be
remembered by all who knew him well.