EIN MUSIKALISCHE ABEND @ RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE 4 / October Edition

It has now been established that the Master's Lounge of Residential College 4 of National University of Singapore is a place for music, and not just for steak. All thanks to Professor Peter Pang of Mathematics who got the ball rolling after receiving a Yamaha grand piano from the Centre for the Arts, and add a Schimmel upright piano, this has become a venue for music making.

It was a pleasure and privilege to be asked to play something for the latest soiree, and I followed a line of esteemed professors whose love for music was expressed and shared with all who attended. There was a good house of students, staff and residents for an evening of mostly Austro-German music (this much suggested by the title of the event). None of us are professional musicians, but most are professors of non-musical subjects who care for music, while I can only profess to enjoy music and play a little.

Here is the damning evidence, all visual and no aural, although there might be a few videos captured by handphone circulating around and ready to use for blackmail.  

Peter gives a short address, and by the
looks of it, suggests something light-hearted.

Yap Von Bing, aka Yap Von Beethoven,
Professor of Statistics, plays the
Aria from J.S.Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Winston Seah Kar Heng, Emeritus Professor
of Mechanical Engineering, added
Variations 3, 18 & 30 (Quodlibet),
before Von Bing reprises the Aria da capo.

Peter Pang now proposes something serious.

Peter performs the Bach-Kempff
Siciliano in G minor

Young Emma Ng, cellist in the MacPherson
Philharmonic Orchestra, is a final year 
Mechanical Engineering student.

Here, she performs the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria
accompanied on the piano by her mother
Vivian Ng, Professor of Electronic Engineering.

The piece de resistance of the evening was
Peter playing Mozart's Fantasy in C minor (K.475).

Yours truly playing the much easier
Mozart Fantasy in D minor (K.397),
preceded by Scriabin's Etude (Op.2 No.1)

The encore came from Kar Heng,
and now for something very different,
a Cantopop song by Sam Hui.

It wasn't exactly the Singapore International
Piano Festival, but I think everyone had a good time.

The performers gather for one last applause.