SUKA MAKAN: DELIZ STREET @ ANCHORPOINT

We've been to Anchorpoint five times in the past few weeks, and never seem to tire of it. Having spied on Deliz Street with its doner kebab vertical rotating grill, which reminded us of those Turkish eateries in Europe, we had to try it. Sunday lunch seemed like a good time, and despite being busy, we were promptly seated.

Poring through its menu, we found this place served Indian, Arabic and Turkish food. Being a Halal joint as well, its patrons were distinctly multicultural. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, and we were no exception. 

Teh tarik and masala tea

So we decided to try a lamb shawarma and a chicken quesedilla (OK, that's Mexican but pita bread is a common factor), to be washed down by masala tea and teh tarik. Variety is the spice of life, and Anchorpoint seems to have them all. Happy to come back again.

Lamb shawarma
with garlic and Iskender sauce

Chicken quesedilla

DELIZ STREET

Anchorpoint

370 Alexandra Road #01-02

Singapore 159953 

Deliz_street (@deliz_street) • Instagram photos and videos

ECHOES BEYOND / Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute / Reflections by PHAN MING YEN

ECHOES BEYOND

Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute

Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday 5 September 2026

This reflection was written by PHAN MING YEN, personal friend of the Tans, in memory of the late Mr Tan Kah Tee.

On the evening of 5th September, a concert honouring the memory of the late Tan Kah Tee was held at the Concert Hall of the Yong Siew Toh (YST) Conservatory of Music. Titled Echoes Beyond, the event was presented by the YST Orchestral Institute under its “Ones to Watch” Series. The institute’s publicity marketed the programme as one of “searching, transformation and renewal, reflecting on the enduring impact of a life well lived.” 

Photo: Faezah Zulkifli

In the first half, audiences heard the YST Orchestra under principal conductor Jason Lai in Charles Ives’s The Unanswered Question and Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration. The second half began with YST Head of Piano Studies Albert Tiu and Cello Faculty member Qin Li-Wei in Harry Sdraulig’s Fantasia on Waltzing Matilda and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Spring Waters before YST Concerto Competition 2026 Prizewinner Jiang Qifan took center stage with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3.

Photo: Faezah Zulkifli

The titles of the works in themselves may already echo the programme, although Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 was more of a practical calling card to seek opportunities than one bearing any visionary message. This was the work with which the composer wrote specially for his debut in the USA, where he eventually settled — perhaps more out of necessity than choice, as he always longed for the Russia he once knew.

Photo: Sean Chew

At a pre-concert reception, YST Dean Peter Tornquist paid tribute to Tan Kah Tee’s legacy for the conservatory — a donation of three concert grand pianos and the Tan Eng Chin Scholarship. 

Alborada del coq,
inspiration for improvisation.
Photo: Mrs Catherine Tan

Photo: Sean Chew

This preceded a sharing by Tan’s widow, Mrs Catherine Tan, that was memorable for an anecdote which illustrated the depth to which music resonated in his life. One morning, when Tan was already stricken by the illness that would take his life, he still found strength to improvise on the piano, accompanying the crowing of a rooster that had wandered into their house compound. Tan, from all those who remembered him, was always there in the audience at YST concerts.

Charles Ives and Richard Strauss

As for the concert itself, a thought flashed by during the climactic moments of Death and Transfiguration and stuck in the mind for the whole evening — reinforced by the orchestra’s support in the Rachmaninoff. The YST Orchestra reminded me of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at their best in the mid-1990s: performances delivered with raw conviction and power. It was the kind of conviction that made you want to revisit music you once knew or made you curious about music you were hearing for the first time.

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

The wistful mood set by Tiu and Qin in the two cello-piano duos after intermission set the stage for the epic that is Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto — famously once described as a work of quicksilver mood shifts that ran the gamut of all human emotions.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

Jiang Qifan’s high-spirited drive through of the third movement of the Rachmaninoff and his encore of Rachmaninoff’s Polka de W.R was enthusiastically received by the audience comprising guests and the public. The concert was part of the conservatory’s “Ones to Watch” Series, and the evening certainly piqued one’s curiosity about who to listen out for next.

The concerto was performed on the
Fazioli grand piano donated by Tan Kah Tee.
Photo: Toh Yan Ee

Photo: Phan Ming Yen

The writer wishes to thank Dr Kevin YL Tan for valuable suggestions.

Post concert photos:

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

PEOPLE-WATCHING AT OMM'S WAGNER SIEGFRIED

Saturday 5 September 2026. On this evening, music-lovers in Singapore were split between three rather special concerts. There was Orchestra of the Music Makers' production of Wagner's Siegfried at Esplanade Concert Hall, New Opera Singapore's production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at Victoria Theatre and Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute's Rach 3 / Tan Kah Tee Memorial concert at the Conservatory.

If only one had three clones to attend each of the concerts, but reality meant I had to pick one, and it was Siegfried. (Janet was at the Rach 3, which she enjoyed very much, and that's a different story.) Here are some of the lucky people who got witness a bit of musical history in Singapore.

Natalie Chang & Geoffrey Lim

Canadian music critic Robert Markow
(who flew in from Montreal) with
OMM Music Director Chan Tze Law
and his wife Chin Chee Mee.

Pianist Lena Ching (NAFA),
Lionel Choi (Altenburg Arts) & Natalie Ng.

Ignatius Wang (SAF Central Band),
pianist Abigail Sin (YST) and
bassoonist Lim Tee Heong (NAFA).

Professor Bernard Tan, founding Chairman
of OMM with his wife Jennie.

With Professor Peter Pang (NUS)

Ignatius Wang & Christopher Cheong
(Founding OMM member, OMM violist
 & Director of Programmes at SSO)

SSO's Cindy Lim with Chantal & Chandler.
Their father Chan Yoong Han
was OMM Concertmaster on this evening.

Tan Lay Kok and Juliana Lim,
past President of Richard Wagner Association.

Mrs Lu Shao-Chia and
Jessica Chen, Head of Voice (NAFA).

With Tan Chan Boon, composer and 
lifetime President of the
Singapore Mahler & Bruckner Societies.

PRE-CONCERT EATS: YUGOSLAVIA BAKERY & CAFE @ CITYLINK MALL

This is a cafe with a difference. Located in Citylink Mall / Raffles Link, it's just a five-minute walk to Esplanade. My friend Montenegrin pianist Boris Kraljevic swears by it. He knows, because he was born in the former Balkan state that used to be called Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia Bakery & Cafe specialises in Balkan bread and beverages, and is a refreshing change from all those chain coffee places.

Yugoslavia Bakery is owned by a Macedonian couple Mitre and Katerina, who obviously have a nostalgic link to the old country before it split apart in the 1990s to form six (some say seven) separate states. I've never been to that part of Europe but I can feel the pride in the way their breads are named and described. 

That's Marshal Tito,
former head of state of Yugoslavia (1945-1980),
one of the good Commies (if there's such a thing).

The way we were,
but at least the bread's the same.

Just before the six-hour extravaganza that was Wagner's Siegfried, I stopped by to get a fill-up. So I tried one of its pizza slices and a pogacha (or pogaca), a Balkan bread snack - this one had cinnamon and raisins. I had my fill and should have had a Balkan coffee to wash it down just before the opera. Perhaps the next time.

YUGOSLAVIA BAKERY & CAFE

1 Raffles Link #B1-13

Citylink Mall

Singapore 039393

Yugoslavia Bakery and Cafe – The spirit of Yugoslavia Bakery & Cafe

RE:SOUND 10TH ANNIVERSARY / BRADDELL HEIGHTS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERTS / Review

 

10TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT

re:Sound

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday (29 August 2026)

40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (30 August 2026)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 1 September 2026 with the title "re:Sound and Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra's anniversary galas prove diversity of classical scene".

Over last weekend, three local musical ensembles marked their respective anniversaries with a gala concert each. These were Red Dot Baroque (8th), re:Sound Collective (10th) and Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (40th). By actively programming local composers, the latter two groups have helped shape the concert repertoire enjoyed in Singapore today.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

Singapore’s first professional chamber orchestra re:Sound opened accounts with J.S.Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor (BWV.1041), showcasing 13-year-old Chua Suen Ern in an exacting solo role. With spotless intonation and technique as natural as breathing, she blended seamlessly with players double to quadruple her age. A very bright future beckons.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

Warmth and lushness of re:Sound’s strings were caught in full bloom with harpist Charmaine Teo for the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Led by violinist Yang Shuxiang, this love letter to Mahler’s wife Alma felt right at 10 minutes, its passionate climax coming at just the perfect moment.

Receiving its world premiere was Germaine Goh’s Sleepless In Singapore, a re:Sound commission. A suite for chamber orchestra, it played like a 21st century concerto grosso in four movements. Between Concrete and Sky evoked dawn in Little India with use of raga scales. Through Windows recounted a frenetic pace of traffic (and life) with the added impetus of pelting rain.

Highly effective scoring included solos for clarinet and soprano saxophone (Ralph Lim), French horn (Alan Kartik) and bassoon (Lim Tee Heong), the latter starring in its slow movement Sleepless, mimicking the call of a nightjar. The finale Tomorrow, Again combined Malay percussive beats with John Adams-styled minimalism for an excitingly manic conclusion.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

The concert’s main work was Ludwig van Beethoven Fifth Symphony in C minor (Op.67) guest-led by Ohio-based Jonathan Ong, first violinist of the Verona Quartet. Although not performing on period instruments, the ensemble adopted the spirit of early 19th century’s “age of enlightenment”.

Photo: @Joelcaptures

Lithe textures and swift tempos did not translate into thin wispy sounds, instead gained an edginess that kept listeners engaged on the edge of their seats. The use of natural horns (without valves) and calfskin timpani heads were added points of authenticity. For an old familiar favourite to sound this refreshing and revitalised is exactly why re:Sound exists.

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO), Singapore’s oldest community orchestra, was led by Leonard Tan in an unusually creative programme. It opened with the winner of a call-for-scores, Seem Jia Ang’s The Journey Ahead. Within a single minute, a flute solo expanded into something with cinematic aspirations but ended as soon as it began, leaving one guessing myriad possibilities for development.

Tan Chan Boon’s In Memory of Franz Schubert (1997) was built on two motifs from the slow movement of the Austrian composer’s “Unfinished” Eighth Symphony. First heard as fragments, these coalesced into actual quotations before launching into an inevitable fugue. The orchestra’s masterful handling of its scholarly discourse was admirable.

Even more impressive was its partnership with Cheong Kah Yiong, founding member of Morse Percussion, in Chinese-American composer Chen Yi’s Percussion Concerto (1998). A solo tour-de-force premiered here by renowned Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie and the Singapore Symphony in 1999, Cheong headily relived all its dynamic moments on gongs, drums and xylophones.

In the central movement Prelude To Water Tune, vocal recitation of Beijing Opera was where Cheong had the advantage of language and fine auditory nuances. The rapid-fire Speedy Wind finale drew the longest and loudest ovation of all soloists who have played with the orchestra.

BHSO literally pulled all the stops for Camille Saint-Saens’ Third Symphony in C minor, popularly known as the “Organ” Symphony, in a performance that lacked nothing in full-blooded passion and visual spectacle. On Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ, Loraine Muthiah did the honours, in the hymn-like slow movement and the grandstanding finale which unleashed voice and vibration to spine-chilling effect.

Professional or volunteer, long may communal music-making in Singapore thrive.

Jeremy Monteiro's very detailed personal account of the re:Sound concert:

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