NIU NIU PREVIEWS GALA CONCERT FOR VIVA FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN WITH CANCER

For its 20th anniversary celebration, Viva Foundation for Children with Cancer is presenting a fundraising gala concert on 27 October 2026 at Esplanade Concert Hall entitled Viva Concerti: Where The Twain Shall Meet. The concert features Chinese former child prodigy pianist Niu Niu performing eight piano concertos with the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra conducted by Chan Tze Law.

Jennifer Yeo, Chairman of Viva Foundation
gave the opening address. An accomplished
pianist herself, she has performed with the SSO
to raise funds for the orchestra.

On Wednesday 2 September, Niu Niu gave a preview of this concert by performing a piano recital at Viva Hub, Novena Medical Centre. His programme of popular keyboard classics included an 8-minute mash-up of the eight piano concertos to be performed.

For the record, movements from the eight concertos to be performed include:

1. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1

2. Chopin Piano Concerto No.1

3. Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2

4. Butterfly Lovers Concerto

5. Liszt Piano Concerto No.1

6. Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5

7. Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

8. Yellow River Concerto

At the age of 12, Niu Niu became the
youngest pianist to record all the Chopin Etudes.

Niu Niu was a student of the legendary
Leslie Howard besides being a Juilliard alumnus.

Niu Niu will also perform the violin (from the Rin Collection) in an abridged version of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, his debut in a violin concerto.

His recital opened with Wang Jianzhong's transcription of Ren Guang's Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon. Also included in were Tchaikovsky's March from Nutcracker (transcribed by Mikhail Pletnev), Liszt's La Campanella, Rachmaninov's 18th Variation from the Paganini Rhapsody, Gershwin's I Got Rhythm and the first movement from Franz Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. 

Niu Niu accomplished this feat of virtuosity and bravura on a Cristofori grand piano which valiantly withstood more multitudes of notes than it had ever endured. As an encore, he let down his hair in an original composition Sunny Day, delighting in infectious bossa nova and samba rhythms.

The preview concert was followed by a sumptuous buffet dinner for all who attended, the photos of which I will not include here.

VIVA CONCERTI:

WHERE THE TWAIN SHALL MEET

NIU NIU PLAYS 8 CONCERTOS

Tickets from $20-1000 

are available at SISTIC:

VIVA Concerti : Where the twain shall meet

CROSSINGS IN SOUND / National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

CROSSINGS IN SOUND

National University of Singapore 

Symphony Orchestra

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (6 February 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 February 2026 with the title "NUSSO bridges divide between classical and pop in stirring fashion".

In the opening concert of the National University of Singapore Arts Festival 2026, the National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra (NUSSO) conducted by Chan Tze Law presented a stirring programme that attempted to bridge the divide between classical music and popular forms.

Italian opera composer Gioachino Rossini’s Overture to La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is a “lollipop”, a work of lightness that early audiences could relate to as easily as popular music. Drum rolls opened the piece, which initially strided with martial pretension, before breaking loose to reveal its true comedic intentions.

Photo: NUS Office of Student Affairs, Centre for the Arts

The patented Rossinian crescendo that graces all his overtures was taken deliberately, building up to a head of steam before wrapping up in a joyous conclusion. If the orchestra had not fully warmed up, it did so in the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal.

Without replicated the exact sequence of songs and dances in the famous musical, it brought together most of its choreographed music, melding Latin and Puerto Rican rhythms with contemporary jazzy idioms in a virtuosic orchestral showpiece. Adding further interest were snapping fingers, a police whistle, lusty shouts of “Mambo!” and a fugue scored in jazz style.

While winds, brass and percussion were having a field day, the strings finally came into their own in the final song Somewhere, shining with a silvery sheen as the suite drew to a quiet close.

NUS Office of Student Affairs, Centre for the Arts

The final work was Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major (Op.56), the only concerto for piano trio (violin, cello and piano) in the active concert repertoire. For many, it was a guilty pleasure, often considered Beethoven’s least serious concerto but also the most fun to listen to.

Equally important was witnessing university students partnering and supporting Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s dons and alumnus as soloists in concert. Where amateurs could stand equally tall with seasoned professionals, it was an exchange or metaphorical crossing that was never thought possible until recent times.

Beethoven never wrote a cello concerto but this came closest to it with cellist Qin-Liwei getting the plum parts and leading the way in all three movements. With violinist David Loke and pianist Ning An joining the fray, this was a spirited romp from start to finish.

With the orchestra quiet for much of the central slow movement, the trio was allowed to express itself with a luminous song-like glow. The finale’s Rondo alla Polacca, so named for its vigorous polonaise rhythm, provided a send-off that was clearly enjoyed by all in attendance.

NUS Office of Student Affairs, Centre for the Arts

The soloists’ encore of violinist Loke’s Pre-Dawn At Harbour River (a world premiere) opened in G minor like some trio elegiaque by Rachmaninov. Then morphing into a Canto-pop-like rave before breaking off abruptly as if he had run out of ink, paper and time, it drew plenty of laughs from the audience. It was a Haydnesque way of saying, “Enough of it, that’s all folks!”

ROMANCE & FIRE: ZHANG HAOCHEN PLAYS RACH 3 / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

 

ROMANCE & FIRE:

HAOCHEN ZHANG PLAYS RACH 3

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (10 January 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 January 2026 with the title "William Walton's First Symphony steals thunder from Rachmaninov in OMM concert".

The selling point of the Orchestra of the Music Makers’ latest concert may have been Sergei Rachmaninov’s popular Third Piano Concerto featuring a star pianist, but in reality the big news was the Singapore premiere of English composer William Walton’s First Symphony.

William Walton as a young man

Led by music director Chan Tze Law, the 45-minute four-movement masterpiece was moulded in the hallowed tradition of Edward Elgar’s two massive symphonies. However, its overall tone was completely different. Gone were grandstanding moments of nobilmente (nobility), in its place a nervous tension that was stoked up from the very first page.

The opening movement’s angst was developed incrementally, building up to seemingly suffocating climaxes, and then without relenting went for the jugular instead. The vitriolic Scherzo marked “con malizia” (with malice) sounded more like “with mischief”, but this belied a deeper despair that finally came to fruition in the slow movement.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Now marked “con malinconia” (with melancholy), a series of aria-like solos heralded by Cheryl Lim’s flute paved a path of catharsis that was laid bare in this deeply felt performance. The finale, composed separately and later than the preceding three movements, sounded like a completely different work altogether.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Its optimistic tone signalled a change of fortunes, which was milked for all its worth, including a triumphant fugue at its climax. Its suitably protracted close had the audience applauding prematurely at a false ending. Conductor Chan, a proven Wagnerian, Mahlerian and Elgarian, can now add Waltonian to his many accolades.

Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto seemed almost like an afterthought, but young Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang, joint winner of the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, made several personal points in this overworked warhorse.

His was not the fire-breathing performance one might usually expect, but a carefully thought-out one well-worked with orchestra and conductor. By placing the piano ahead rather than flush with the slightly pared-down orchestra, he was able to fearlessly project. He did so with utmost clarity and immediacy, sometimes emphasising left hand notes and bringing out hidden voices.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The score’s myriad technical challenges seemed like putty in his hands, and he chose the longer and thornier chordal cadenza to cap the opening movement. The orchestra also worked more like a partner rather than mere accompanist, and it was a joy to hear Seow Yibin’s solo oboe ring out the Intermezzo’s brooding main theme with much poignancy. The temperature then rose for the rapturous finale, and Zhang’s faultless fingers romped home to a reception of thunderous applause richly deserved.

Photo: Yong Junyi

After the showboating, Zhang’s mellow encores served like a salve. Claude Debussy’s And The Moon Descends On The Temple That Was from Images (Book Two) revealed beautiful voicing and Robert Schumann’s Traumerei (Dreaming) from Scenes from Childhood was the perfect parting gift for a totally engaged audience.

Zhang Haochen shuts the piano lid for the
last time, much to the audience's amusement.

ONE MELODY: CELEBRATING 50 HARMONIOUS YEARS OF SINGAPORE-REPUBLIC OF KOREA RELATIONS / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

 

ONE MELODY: CELEBRATING

50 HARMONIOUS YEARS OF SINGAPORE-

REPUBLIC OF KOREA RELATIONS

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (31 October 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 November 2025 with the title "Pianist Kun-woo Paik's immaculate playing anchors OMM's celebration of South-Korea-Singapore ties".

“Celebrating 50 Harmonious Years of Singapore-Republic of Korea Relations” was the other title of this concert by the Orchestra of the Music Makers conducted by Chan Tze Law. Inspired by Korea was the opening work, Singaporean composer Jonathan Shin’s what the sea was whispering which took its title from a verse from Gyeongpo Beach by local writer Gwee Li Sui.

The very accessible 9-minute work quoted three Korean melodies about different aspects of love: Island Baby, Longing and Beautiful Country. Over lush strings which relived the English pastoral tradition, a solo oboe evoked tender feelings, and the music’s quiet close suggested that love did not need be overpowering or demonstrative to be personally felt.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Veteran 79-year-old Korean pianist Kun-woo Paik was the soloist in Frederic Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto in F minor (Op.21). Music-lovers who have been following the fortunes of young virtuosos in the recently-concluded Chopin International Piano Competition will be amazed by the youthfulness and vitality of Paik’s playing.

Photo: Yong Junyi

This was music of a 19-year-old about to leave his native Poland and never to return, the sense of loss and longing being well brought out by Paik. He was not just note-perfect but also wholly attuned to the bittersweet drama imbued in its pages. The nocturne-like central Larghetto movement was luminous in its utter clarity, supported by sensitively-weighted strings which whispered rather than spoke.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The finale’s dance rhythms were alluring, with Paik’s fingerwork immaculate, and together with the orchestra’s vigorous entreaties, drove the work to a stirring conclusion. Those hoping for an encore from this patrician of Korean pianists will do well to attend his all-Mozart solo recital at Victoria Concert Hall on Tuesday evening.

The evening concluded with Arnold Schoenberg’s Technicolor orchestral transcription of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor (Op.26). A million miles from his astringent atonal scores, this opulent 45-minute piece of cholesterol-laden Viennese confection has playfully been nicknamed as “Brahms’ Fifth Symphony”.

Its guilty pleasures lie in its rich and beefy harmonies, liberally voiced extras with oozing sauces like a well-seasoned steak. Conductor Chan was the master chef in this musical kitchen, guiding the opening movement with urgency and tautness. Anything less would come out flabby and shapeless.

Oops, wrong photo!

The faster Intermezzo featured excellent solo woodwind playing while the slow movement looked forward to the big tune of Brahms’ First Symphony, which was still in gestation. Through the distorting lenses of Schoenberg, the absent piano part was no longer missed, in its place a panoply of roving and raving new ideas.

And who was not waiting for the finale’s rip-roaring Rondo Alla Zingarese? This gypsy dance to end all gypsy dances was distinguished by a battery of percussion, with xylophone and vibraphone in a starring role, and a cascading clarinet solo as the rapturous showstopper. Whoever thought that crusty old Schoenberg, the Father of Duodecaphony, could garner such loud and enthusiastic cheers?