SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2026 / Morse Percussion & SYC Ensemble Singers

 

SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2026

Morse Percussion &

SYC Ensemble Singers

The Theatre Practice, 54 Waterloo Street

Sunday (7 June 2026)

11.30 am & 4.30 pm

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 June 2026 with the title "Singaporean and South Korean talents on display".

Only in its second edition, the Singapore Composers Festival 2026 organised by Composers Society of Singapore (CSS) was an eight-hour affair that included two public roundtable chats and two concerts of contemporary music.

Singaporean and South Korean composers
with members of Morse Percussion.

The opening concert was a showcase for CSS and South Korean composer collective Space For Sound, with eight works performed by Morse Percussion, comprising Derek Koh, Joachim Lim, Cheong Kah Yiong and Yuru Lee. Those who regard music for percussion as just “banging on cans” will be surprised by the variety of sounds generated.

Photo: Amos Poh

Toh Yan Ee’s Atlas opened the show with timpani skins being scraped before proceeding to intricate rhythms on pitched percussion (marimba and xylophone) resembling gamelan, and drumming that extolled the majesty of the eponymous star constellation. Varying the sound palette completely, Won Jung Lee’s The Glittering Diamond Water delighted in extreme high registers. Minimalist textures emanating from marimba, slung gongs and bowed vibraphone keys, created a beautifully ethereal effect that bears repeated listening.

Photo: Amos Poh

The next two works were the most violent. Somin Lee’s Death of First-Borns was some orgy of militarist might, dominated by snare-drum, cymbals, triangles and xylophone employed strictly for beats not melody. The wanton biblical slaughter of Egyptians was its depiction. Hoh Chung Shih’s Rounding Round celebrated round objects, recurrent subjects as in a rondo (round dance) and three players rotating positions around a central axis of instruments. This later erupted into a free-for-all with mallets hurled in all directions.

Photo: Amos Poh

This concert was clearly a playground for exploring new sounds and techniques. Seung-ki Hong’s Resonant Ritual continued in its vein, tinkling on metal, tribal-drumming and walking in circles, now in a counter-clockwise direction. Hye-Jeong Hwang Lee’s Percussion Sanjo was a modern-day update of the traditional Korean sanjo instrumental essay with hints of melody emerging from a marimba, amid more drumming. All four works by Korean composers were world premieres

Photo: Amos Poh

Two local composers closed the matinee, with Emily Koh’s emoyo describing the emotional yo-yo involved in getting an American green card. Judging by the lack of angst, it was probably not such an ordeal. Tan Yuting’s Kotekan revelled in the repeated harmonic patterns found in gamelan, realised with mini-cymbals, temple blocks and a drum-set.

Photo: Amos Poh

The festival’s closing concert was the CSS Young Composer Forum, where budding composers were mentored by established practitioners in the creating music for choir. The 22-member SYC Ensemble Singers led by Jennifer Tham did the honours for seven works by mentee and mentor.

Photo: Amos Poh

Anvay Mathur’s Anahata, Sanskrit word for “unstruck sound”, relied on long-held syllables, vocal drones and sliding between pitches. Thomas Kai-ren Rettig’s Greenland used his friend Elliot Chew’s poem to eloquently describe a distant and unattainable goal, unrelated to Donald Trump’s territorial designs.

Photo: Amos Poh

The very dry acoustic in the venue’s black box theatre, while excellent for percussion, was far less conducive for voices. Despite the choir’s spotless diction, the first word of Bae Jun Soo’s Luminate, bi-cheul (빛을 or light), sounded like “bitch”, an unintended consequence. The next two works, Ding Jian Han’s Silenc(E)mpty? and Estene Cheong’s Why, had long stretches of spoken words, with the voices suspended in some form of sprechgesang (speech-song), a favourite technique of polytonalists.

Photo: Amos Poh

Alicia De Silva’s Quando La Rota used words from Dante’s Divine Comedy, closing in a devotional tone with visions of paradise within sight. To close, Danny Imson’s Ama Namin or The Lord’s Prayer in Tagalog opened with a very even unison. A mixed tape was slowly unreeled linking all the performers, before they walked off stage in a procession as the music dissipated into nothingness.

Both concerts at the Singapore Composers Festival were a veritable showcase of local creative talent, and long may that continue.

Singapore Composers Festival 2026 - Composers Society of Singapore

EIGHT HOURS @ SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2026: PART 1

54 Waterloo Street has Singapore's
unique Straits shophouse design.

The Singapore Composers Festival 2026, just in its second edition, was held at The Theatre Practice, 54 Waterloo Street, on Sunday 7 June 2026. Organised by the Composers Society of Singapore, it was an eight-hour affair which involved roundtable discussions with composers and performers, and two concerts of contemporary music. This year, four South Korean composers from Space For Sound, a collective that promotes contemporary music in Seoul, was invited to share in the discourse.

The event was very well attended, with important members of Singapore's composing community present to witness some history being made. There were world premieres and first hearings of new works by young Singaporean composers mentored by senior CSS members. The two concerts by Morse Percussion and SYC Ensemble Singers, two of Singapore's premier ensembles, were illuminating to say the least. It was a time for sharing and learning, and every person present was richer for the experience. 

The composers' roundtable discussion.

Singaporean composer Toh Yen Ee
speaks about her Atlas.

John Sharpley promotes his book, while
Ding Jian Han shares his composing experience.

Tools of the trade.

The Korean composers check their social media.

With composers Eric Watson & Joyce Koh.

Toh Yan Ee's Atlas and
Won Jung Lee's The Glittering Diamond Water

Two strikingly loud performances:
Somin Lee's Death of First-Borns
and Hoh Chung Shih's Rounding Round. 

Continued in Part 2:

pianomania: EIGHT HOURS @ SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2026: PART 2

Singapore Composers Festival 2026 - Composers Society of Singapore

EIGHT HOURS @ SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2026: PART 2

The festival is located in Waterloo Street,
the historical heart of Singapore's civic district

Continued from Part 1:

pianomania: EIGHT HOURS @ SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL 2026: PART 1

Here are more photos from the Singapore Composers Festival 2026, a premier event for musical composition involving local and international practitioners. There were two concerts, by Morse Percussion and SYC Ensemble Singers, where 17 works were performed, including several world premieres.

More tools of the trade.

Seung-ki Hong's Resonant Ritual

Hye-jeong Hwang Lee's Percussion Sanjo

All the composers line up

Young composers and veterans
speak about the creative process.

Decades of composing experience:
Danny Imson, Peter Kellock,
Joyce Koh and Eric Watson.

SYC Ensemble Singers,
led by Jennifer Tham, 
is arguably Singapore's top choir.

The singers walk out with
Danny Imson's The Lord's Prayer

It has truly been an immersive experience
for everyone involved.

Had it been eight hours?

The time passed so fast that 

it seemed much less than that.

When you are being engaged and having fun,

the theory of relativity works for you!

Singapore Composers Festival 2026 - Composers Society of Singapore

SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL: FINAL CONCERT / VENU NADAM: A SYMPHONIC CONFLUENCE / Composers Society of Singapore / Vamshika Quintet

 

SINGAPORE COMPOSERS FESTIVAL: 

FINAL CONCERT 

Peranakan Museum 

Saturday (23 March 2024)

VENU NADAM: 

A SYMPHONIC CONFLUENCE 

Vamshika Quintet & Friends 

Black Box, Drama Centre 

Saturday (23 March 2024) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 March 2024 with the title "Contemporary dissonance at Singapore Composers Festival, Vamshika Quintet's aural feast".  

The Singapore Composers Festival was a one-day event organised by the Composers Society of Singapore (CSS) which included two talks and and two concerts. Its closing concert was a showcase by six young composers from CSS and its cross-Causeway counterpart, the Malaysian Composers Collective (MCC). 

Interesting and thought-provoking may describe the works performed by the aptly-named Weird Aftertaste, a contemporary music ensemble comprising keyboardists Bertram Wee and Lynette Yeo, saxophonist Michellina Chan, violinist Christoven Tan and cellist Chee Jun Sian. 

Music from the guests came first, opening with Sebastian Ooi’s Mujo for alto saxophone, which explored myriad capabilities of the instrument. Lyrical lines were interjected with assorted snorts and gasps, and clicks emanating from depressed keys, a representation of the state of impermanence suggested in its title in Japanese. 

Ainolnaim Azizol’s Miroirs of Malay Rebab: Menghadap Rebab highlighted the modern cello’s kinship with the Malay spiked fiddle, with accompanying electronics sampling recorded sounds of techniques employed including pizzicatos, slides and the knocking of wood. 

Spare a thought for those sitting near the speakers as Jellal Koay’s oMGgggG hOW dAR3 yoOouUwUu!!!!!1! for keyboard four hands blasted without apology the musical equivalent of Greta Thunberg-inspired expletives. Listen beyond the ear-shattering white noise, one may find a modicum of rhythm and demented organ-like chorales. 

From the Singaporean composers, Avik Chari’s Cities I for saxophone, cello and electronics provided the most repeatable listening, its funky jazz-like themes and rhythms suggesting the chic of urban sophisticates. 14-year-old composing prodigy Nathanael Koh’s Of Eternal Time for synthesisers, violin and cello relived the reassuring chords of Frenchman Olivier Messiaen and a quest for inner peace. 

Closing the hour-long concert was Ding Jian Han’s P. p. P. p., a play of contrasting sound textures and rhythms featuring all five players. With motivic fragments, pulsed ostinatos, alternating long-held and staccatos notes coming into the mix, the pointillistic score brought the festival to a resounding conclusion. To the creators, one can only heed, “Carry on composing!” 

There are few things in this world more haunting or sensuous as the tones of the bansuri or Indian bamboo flute. Bring together five bansuri exponents, Niranjan Pandian, Raghavendran Rajasekaran, Logindran, Vishnu Veluri and Bian Tong who formed the Vamshika Quintet in 2022, an aural feast is the result. 

Directed by bansuri veteran Ghanavenothan Retnam, the ensemble does not function like a typical Western ensemble with polyphony as a main goal. Instead, each player takes turns as his own virtuoso with others providing heterophonic backing and harmonies in fixed intervals. In addition, the quintet was accompanied by Lazar T. Sebastine (Carnatic violin) and percussion, Jayagowtham Annadurai (mridangam) and Lalit Kumar Ganesh (tabla). 

The music was based on ragas, the quintessential framework and basis for Indian composition and improvisation. Titles like Pandian’s Divine Echoes and Ballad of Quintessence, Muthuswami Dikshithar’s Vathapi Ganapathim, and visiting composer-lecturer Vidwan Amith Nadig’s Leaf merely served as vehicles for musical magic – a free-flowing and almost improvisatory outpouring of expressions and emotions - to emerge. 

In Nadig’s Ragam Thanam Pallavi, the concert’s centrepiece and longest work, guest-performer Samuel Phua’s mellow saxophone blended seamlessly into the ensemble. The music’s complex and ever-changing meters were comfortably negotiated, and there was even a segment of communal beating out of rhythms with no winds being heard. 

Nadig’s Nuances saw Jonathan Tan’s dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) join the love-in. Far from being an interloper, his higher pitched and shriller timbre were absorbed as an integral part of the flute family. Adjectives like mesmerising, hypnotising and other-worldly came to mind all through the concert’s 90-odd minutes, performed without intermission. 

In Lalgudi Jayaraman’s classic Mohanakalyani Thillana, the pristine tone of Rachel Ho’s Western flute in perfect conversation with any of the bansuris became true objects of beauty. One might add a glimpse of paradise itself.

Visiting bansuri specialist Vidwan Amith Nadig
addressing the audience and performers.