MUSICAL MOSAICS: SINGAPORE UNSUNG / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

MUSICAL MOSAICS: 

SINGAPORE UNSUNG

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (1 August 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 August 2026 with the title "Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra turns 10, celebrates with Singapore works".

When the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (ACSO) gave its first concert in August 2016, it performed the popular Butterfly Lovers and Yellow River Concertos, both by Chinese composers. The mission to promote works by Asian composers had evolved such that by its 10th anniversary, the chosen repertoire was wholly Singaporean.

Led by co-music directors Dedric Wong and Adrian Chiang, the landmark concert was a celebration of the people who made and defined Singapore, not statesmen, politicians or history-makers, but good ordinary folk who risk being sidelined or forgotten. It opened with Wang Chenwei’s Samsui Women, a vigourous work song that quoted the Cantonese melody Ping Hu Qiu Yue (Autumn Moon Over A Calm Lake), later briefly and cleverly merged in counterpoint with Rasa Sayang.

A drum-set provided a driving beat to Terrence Wong’s Fortitude, where 19-year-old soloist Dante Tan let rip on soprano and alto saxophone, with the latter reveling on a long-held note at its climax. The work was a tribute to our hardworking Pioneer and Merdeka generations.

In Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin’s Everyday Guardians: Three Portraits Of Service, three groups of civil servants were lauded. Zulkifli Mohamed Amin’s accordion portrayed resoluteness and constancy in The Nurse – Steady Hands, contrasted with Madhavan Kalaichelvan’s swashbuckling veena in The Firefighter – Into The Flames, a show of courage and fearlessness. Finally, Joyce Poh’s dizi was calm and decorous for The Teacher – Light In The Classroom, with a modal melody that resembled a folksong.

Lyricism and tenderness came to the fore in Germaine Goh’s Pillars Of Strength: Tribute To Migrant Domestic Workers, where warm tones of the brass were reinforced by Alan Kartik’s French horn solo. Goh herself played on the grand piano, a calm and reassuring presence.

Jazz legend Jeremy Monteiro’s Fortitude was a completely different work from Wong’s earlier number. Originally scored for wind band, its orchestral version was built on a series of chorales, all in praise of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), a force of personality always the exception to the rule.

Founder-director of Voices of Singapore (VOS) mega-choir, Darius Lim was the soloist in his Between Heaven and Earth which received its world premiere. Using the model found in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia (Op.80), his passionately Romantic piano part ushered in the 34 members of VOS Ladies Choir who sang in English, expressing his aspirations and pondering the purpose of life. This was the score that came closest to popular Disney film music.

Closing the concert was Ralph Emmanuel Lim’s Singapura Tapestries, a fantasy that brought together two very different local songs, Dick Lee’s Bunga Sayang from the musical Kampong Amber and Shabir Sulthan’s Singai Naadu (Singapore My Country) sung in Tamil.

Singapore’s racial harmony was further emphasised in the encore, which included an audience sing-along for the 2003 National Day Parade song One United People by Joshua Wan, popularised by Stefanie Sun. A nation that sings together stays together.

MUSICAL MOSAICS: IMAGINEASIAN / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra / Review

MUSICAL MOSAICS: IMAGINEASIAN

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (10 August 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 August 2025 with the title "Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra's concert celebrates Asean's musical heritage".

There was a definite ASEAN flavour to the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra’s (ACSO) latest concert jointly conducted by Dedric Wong and Adrian Chiang. Attended by President and Mrs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, there were no less than four medleys of local and regional songs, but thankfully there was hardly any overlap with each composer having distinct voices.

Kelly Tang’s Symphonic Suite on a Set of Local Tunes, which opened the show, highlighted Dick Lee’s songs including Home and Bunga Sayang. Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin’s Singapura Medley was strong on Malay songs, beginning with Di Tanjong Katong, while Zechariah Goh’s Singaporean Folk Medley looked at local Eurasian culture, closing with Jinkly Nona.

Given the recent border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, a musical truce was declared with concertante works from both nations performed one after another. Thai composer Jinnawat Mansap’s Naka, celebrating the mythological serpent (or naga as we know it) featured Prapanpong Maneewong on the khaen, a mouth organ fashioned with bamboo pipes. Its sheng-like sonority dominated this work which was filled with striding martial strains.

By contrast Cambodian composer Him Sophy’s The Way To Angkor opened plaintively with Tola Say bowing the tro sao, a Khmer spike fiddle with a timbre not unlike the zhonghu. His duet with cellist Olivia Chuang was short but touching, and despite oncoming dissonance from the orchestra, the traditional instrument was a voice not to be silenced.

Wang Chenwei’s Tekka Theka was a tribute to the Kandang Kerbau vicinity of Little India with its bustling market place. Ghanavenothan Retnam’s hauntingly beautiful bansuri (Indian flute) was the protagonist in a work which had Indian, Malay and Chinese influences. In support were Madhavan Kalaichelvan (veena), Muhammad Ansari Abdul Razak (rebana) and Soh Swee Kiat (sheng) representing three musical cultures.

Our closest neighbour across the Causeway was represented by Loh Ui Li in her Malaysian Folk Song Medley, which had Rais Iqbal resplendent on the serunai (Malay reed instrument) with its plangent and piercing tone not unlike a suona. Among the songs were Rasa Sayang and Chan Mali Chan, and before one cries foul, it should be remembered that just a little more than sixty years ago, Malaysia and Singapore were once the same nation.

Food is a subject where many a debate arises, but Eric Watson chose a Broadway idiom to frame his Gourmet Paradise, a three-movement dawn-to-dusk primer of local meals. Vocalist Juni Goh from vocal band MICappella led a rap for Nanyang Breakfast – Kopi, eggs and kaya toast / Nanyang breakfast is so shiok – before extolling the virtues of Roti Prata and Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Closing the colourful concert was the world premiere of Germaine Goh’s When Rivers Remember, uniting the four soloists from four ASEAN nations. Here was the baroque concerto grosso updated to include water-related songs Dayong Sampan, Loy Krathong, Ulek Mayang and Sarika Keo Euy, with visuals representing the Singapore, Chao Phraya, Malacca and Mekong Rivers.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

If all governments can sort their problems as harmoniously as these instrumentalists and ACSO, lasting peace is here to stay.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

MUSICAL MOSAICS / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

MUSICAL MOSAICS 

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Sunday (4 August 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 August 2024 with the title "Celebrating Singapore towns with catchy melodies".

Subtitled “A symphonic portrait of Singapore’s towns”, the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (ACSO) conducted by Adrian Chiang provided an excellent lead-up to Singapore’s 59th National Day. Eight works by eight local composers showed what contemporary Singaporean music, albeit on the lighter side, was all about. 

Wang Chenwei’s Thaipusam was an orchestration of a solo violin piece, opening with Guan Qi’s viola solo then joined by guest concertmaster Lynnette Seah’s violin on a raga-based theme. No skin was flayed or blood spilled in this infectiously rhythmic number once described as “John Adams goes to Serangoon Road”. 

Five Singaporean composers was commissioned to write 10-minute-long works inspired by the nation’s satellite towns, some of which where they had personally resided. Although such a project would have sounded very different forty years ago, the results were illuminating. 

Toa Payoh

Our ethnic groups have become so well distributed within these towns that ghettos no longer exist. Thus, it was difficult to differentiate the individual characteristics of Germaine Goh’s Roots To Skies: The Hopes and Dreams of Toa Payoh from Terrence Wong’s Transient Paths – An Exploration of Tiong Bahru or Felix Phang’s Queenstown: The Estate of Change. 

Tiong Bahru

All were very well written, slickly orchestrated, possessing the feel good NDP (National Day Parade) vibe, which equated with nice catchy melodies and the minimum of dissonances. Lack of harmonic tension makes for harmonious listening (and living), for which one is to be grateful. 

Queenstown

Goh’s score had Americanisms galore (Toa Payoh was once hailed the Chicago of Singapore), Wong gave viola and cello the voice of gentrification, while Phang’s trumpet melody soared like the new HDB blocks overlooking Commonwealth Avenue. All of these were reflections on the dynamic changes taking place within our communities today. 

Azrin Abdullah’s gambus (a lute-like plucked instrument), Nizarfauzi’s Malay percussion, Jacky Ng’s suona, Tan Jie Qing’s yangqin and Germaine Goh’s piano all made for a colourful melange of sound textures, reflecting Singapore’s true and tested diversity and multiculturalism. 

Geylang Serai

Interestingly, it was the more ethnic neighbourhoods which inspired the most distinctive sounds. Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin’s Reminiscing Geylang Serai was a veritable bazaar of spices and aromas, including dances, merrymaking, bicycle bells and a loud-hailer announcing that “the sale is on!”. The composer herself performed solos on an accordion. 

Bedok

Sulwyn Lok’s Bedok: Legacy By The Sea was a memoir of a long-gone Malay fishing village, with Malay melodies heard on yangqin and rebana (Malay drum), yielding a mystical and evocative sound. All this was accompanied by a video of an amble on the seemingly endless Bedok Jetty. 

Taking a break from the constituencies, Ong Lin Wei’s Romance in B minor provided his former violin teacher Seah a major solo part, which may be described as an elegiac love child of Schindler’s List and Butterfly Lovers. As encore, Seah played the outer movements of Vivaldi’s La Primavera (Spring) from the Four Seasons. 

Which location does Vivaldi belong to?
Orchard Boulevard (Four Seasons Hotel)!

Cultural Medallion recipient Eric Watson’s A River of Music, a grand salute to the Singapore River, and NDP song One United People orchestrated by Johnson Lee with vocals by Chloe Ong brought the 150-minute concert to a rousing close.

Singapore River (or the Thames?)

All the composers take a final bow.

REUNION: HARMONIES OF SPRING / HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT 2024 / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra & Ding Yi Music Company / Review

 

REUNION – HARMONIES OF SPRING 

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Saturday (17 February 2024)

HAPPY CHINESE 

NEW YEAR CONCERT 2024 

Ding Yi Music Company 

China Cultural Centre Theatre 

Sunday (18 February 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 February 2024 with the title "Liu Lingling, Boon Hui Lu shine in festive concerts".

Chinese New Year celebrations do not usually end until after the fifteenth day, so this pair of concerts conducted by a very busy Dedric Wong De Li was par for the course. Both festive events opened with works by Young Artist Award recipient Wang Chenwei. 

The Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (ACSO) relived popular melodies in his Gong.He.Ying.Chun (Medley of Chinese New Year Songs). Although orchestral scoring and harmonies were decidedly Western, the tunes were unmistakable, with each word of its title representing a seasonal song. 

There was also a huge helping of nostalgia in the brassy Mediacorp Channel 8 Medley arranged by Yap Sin Yee. Familiar were themes from The Awakening and Kopi-O (The Coffee Shop), both popular 1980s television series during the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) era, but how many of the young musicians on stage would have sung or hummed to these? 

One also suspects that the medleys of Wakin Chau and Frankie Kao songs held greater resonance with the middle-aged demographic which dominated the audience. The inclusion of Asian instruments like Chen Ning’s erhu, Ansari Abd Razak’s oud (Middle Eastern lute) and Raghavendran Rajasekaran’s bansuri (Indian flute) added to the colour of the music performed. 

Star quality came in the concert’s guest performers, Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s concertmaster Li Baoshun and “Goddess of Getai” Liu Lingling. In Love from Zhao Jiping’s Qiao’s Grand Courtyard Suite, the sole serious work on show, Li’s erhu waxed lyrical from elegiac to virtuosic. 

It was the gaudily-attired Liu, however, who stole the show with her chatty and outsized personality, singing in Hokkien and Mandarin. Memorable was the glittery 881 Medley from the iconic 2007 getai feature-film directed by Royston Tan, which she starred in, and her encore Jit Lang Jit Bua (一人一半,Yi Ren Yi Pan) which had the audience singing along. 

Even before echoes of “Huat ah!” (Get rich!) had died down, it was Ding Yi Music Company’s turn to celebrate. Also led by conductor Wong, this was a more intimate and decorous affair with Wang Chenwei’s Minnan Medley, featuring three popular Taiwanese songs, opening the concert. 

Following that was Luk Wei Chung’s Tan-tiao Rock which highlighted the plucked string sonority of two ruans and one pipa, which might have sounded just as vivid on three guitars. 

This concert also saw a collaboration with two visiting virtuosos from Hong Kong’s Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble. In Medley of Guangdong Classics arranged by William Wu, Ding Yi’s Chen Ning and Windpipe’s Chan Kai Him were paired on two erhus for immortal Cantonese melodies like Han Tian Lei (旱天雷), Ping Hu Qiu Yue (平湖秋月) and Bu Bu Gao (步步高). 

The best work on show was Germaine Goh’s Odyssey – A Rock Fantasia for double ruans, receiving its world premiere, with Ding Yi’s Wong Wai Kit and Windpipe’s Chan Sze Tung as dual soloists. This sojourn on the Silk Road wafted with exotic scents and aromas of the Middle East and Central Asia, the strummed timbres of both instruments leaving an indelible impression. 

The concert’s obligatory vocalist was singer-songwriter Boon Hui Lu, who projected a wholesome girl-next-door image, in contrast to the worldly-wise getai auntie from the evening before. Her songs, including Hang Around (theme from television series Jalan Jalan), Reset and Till The End, may someday become instantly recognisable. 

The concert closed with Sim Boon Yew’s Chinese New Year Medley (Gong Xi, Gong Xi and more) and as an encore, Boon in a song heard in both concerts, the Tsai Chin classic Chun Feng Wen Shang Wo De Lian (春风吻上我的脸, Spring Wind Kisses My Face). Just delightful.