SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL BAND FESTIVAL CLOSING CONCERT / SAF Central Band / Review

 

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

BAND FESTIVAL 2026

CLOSING CONCERT

SAF Central Band

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Sunday (26 July 2026)

The closing concert of the 10th Singapore International Band Festival was given by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Central Band, opening with the National Anthem, Zubir Said’s Majulah Singapura. Conducted by ME4 Koh Kai Jie (Associate Director), this preceded the concert’s opening work, Kelly Tang’s Three Portraits for Wind Band which he also led.

In three continuous movements, the opening Fanfare was martial and heroic, a wholly apt portrayal of patriotism with National Day not far away. Excellent intonation and tightness of ensemble distinguished this and the works to come. The Chorale that followed was none other than Singapura (I much prefer the alternative with David Lim’s words Thee I Honour, Thee I Adore over the sappy Sunny Island, Pretty Flowers version), wordless for once and subjected to a variation or two. The closing March relived the pomp and circumstances of Elgar, with Percy Grainger and John Williams thrown into the mix, bringing the work to a stirring close.

More modern in feel was American composer David Gillingham’s Heroes, Lost and Fallen, now led by ME5 Ignatius Wang (Director). Beginning quietly with bells, piano and xylophone producing tinkling sonorities, this slow introduction soon led into music of wider emotional range and orchestral colour. The narrative recounted conflicts with struggles, sacrifice, loss and remembrance, as wars in service of the nation tend to do. The alternation of calm and violence also provided moments for reflection before closing in reassuring C major, a harbinger of hope and harmony.

Next was Percy Grainger’s Colonial Song as arranged by R.Mark Rogers. Pianists who know this as a solo piece often find its introduction difficult to find its voice, but no such worries for the winds, which sound far richer than a keyboardist can hope for. The big tune carried by tenor saxophone and later trumpet is one of the best original melodies Grainger wrote, its glorious climax representing the benign face of the empire on which the sun never set.

CPT Jose Toranza, Assistant Director of the world-renowned “The President’s Own” US Marine Band, guest conducted in John Philip Sousa’s Solid Men To The Front, one of the March King’s less well-known marches relative to The Stars and Stripes Forever, Semper Fidelis or Washington Post. It was nevertheless a rousing, almost jazzy and foot-tapping reading with suitable bluster fully in sync with the earlier martial works about heroes, bravery and selflessness (something which the current POTUS has never known and will never know).

The hour-long concert closed with Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, in an idiomatic wind transcription by Yoshihiro Kimura led by conductor Wang. For this, the SAFCB was joined by ten members of the Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra, Japan’s oldest wind band. Respighi was one of music’s greatest orchestrators, and even if strings were absent here, the final outcome was no less gripping due to the sheer ebullience and responsiveness of the players.

The opening Pines of the Villa Borghese bristled with the bustle of children’s games, a carnival of mischief, followed by the more sober Pines of the Catacombs, where clarinet and trumpet solos provided moments of pensiveness. Koh Kai Jie’s piano part ushered in Pines of the Janiculum, its haunting beauty matched by the song of nightingales (the first instance of recorded sounds making an appearance in a classical work). It was left for the inexorable march of Roman armies in Pines of the Appian Way to close the concert on an energised and spirited high. Singapore’s finest professional wind orchestra has done it again.

STAGE & SCREEN / Singapore Armed Forces Central Band / Review

 

STAGE & SCREEN 

Singapore Armed Forces Central Band 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Friday (9 May 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 May 2025 with the title "SAF Band gets cinematic in successful soundtrack concert".

Imagine going to the movies and not getting to hear the music. That is simply unworkable as music written for film plays a vital role in generating moods and engendering feelings as the action rolls. The converse, however, is true as well-written music can do the same without visuals or accompanying words. 

All SAF Central Band concerts
open with the National Anthem, Majulah Singapura.

That was the premise of this 130-minute concert by the Singapore Armed Forces Central Band conducted by ME5 Ignatius Wang who also served as the concert’s very engaging and self-deprecating host. Addressing an audience of diverse age-groups, it was interesting to note what music resonated with the different generations of listeners. 

Slightly older members would instantly recognise the score of Howard Shore’s Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) which followed the journey of hobbits to Middle Earth in search of an all-powerful ring. Film music relies on bold and brassy scores, which was duly delivered with virtuosity, the perfect atmosphere being set up with gold lighting. 

A younger demographic would have enjoyed Jon Powell’s How To Train Your Dragon (2010), an animated movie classic, with music that took on the rhythmic jig of Northern folk music. As this also incorporated a battle piece, the excellent percussion section had a field day. 

It was John Williams’ Harry Potter Symphonic Suite, which used music spanning several movies of the franchise, had perhaps the widest appeal. The mysterious opening celesta solo (played by keyboardist Clarence Lee) was truly iconic. Intricate playing from the woodwinds simulated string textures, while brass fanfares at full blast were mightily impressed. 

Tickets for Joe Hisaishi’s concert conducting the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in July are selling out fast, so many will have to do with enjoying the band playing a Symphonic Suite of his popular tunes. This revealed the Japanese anime composer as a supreme melodist. The excerpts from Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, performed with much tenderness, are not easily forgotten. 

A loud cheer erupted from the audience when the Symphonic Suite from Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (2020) with music from several composers was announced. Besides exciting train effects, the music explored a wide range of emotions with an oboe solo from Leow Rui Qing being the icing on the cake. 

Moving from anime to Broadway musicals, Claude-Michel Schonberg’s Les Miserables (1980), based on Victor Hugo’s novel, has to be one of most memorable of recent decades. Justin Chew’s oboe solo in I Dreamed a Dream was poignancy unspoken, while saxophones blew away the Thenardiers’ Master of the House dance. The suite ended with the rousing call to arms Can You Hear The People Sing. 

The devil often gets the best tunes, thus John Williams’s Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back, imperious portrait of Sith Lord Darth Vader, closed the show with the full-house audience baying for more. The band’s life-affirming encore of the Oscar-winning song Let It Go from Disney’s Frozen by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez did just the trick.

The band acknowledges the audience
seated in the Gallery.

Photography by Nathaniel Lim

& PianoManiac.

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL BAND FESTIVAL 2024 GALA CONCERT / SAF Central Band / Review

 

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

BAND FESTIVAL 2024 

GALA CONCERT 

Singapore Armed Forces Central Band 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Sunday (28 July 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 July 2024 with the title "SAF Central Band celebrates wind instruments at gala concert".

It is not a well-known fact that the Singapore Armed Forces Central Band is Singapore’s third largest employer of professional musicians, after the Singapore Symphony and Singapore Chinese Orchestras. It may even be considered Singapore’s national wind orchestra, as it represents the state in international diplomatic events and regularly performs overseas concerts. 

Its latest concert was the marquee event of the 9th Singapore International Band Festival involving 66 wind ensembles from Singapore, Southeast Asia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Major repertoire works by four American composers were led by three conductors, Philip Tng, Tan Aik Kee and Ignatius Wang, all who hold the rank of Military Experts (ME) in the armed forces. 

SAF Central Band conductors (from L):
ME6 Philip Tng, ME5 Tan Aik Kee
& ME5 Ignatius Wang

Repertoire for wind orchestras occupies a separate parallel universe from that of symphony orchestras, and with rare exceptions, none the twain shall meet. It would, however, be a grave mistake to underestimate wind works, typically involving woodwinds, brass and percussion (strings being conspicuously absent), which are no less demanding to perform and master. 

How often does one hear the National Anthem, Zubir Said’s Majulah Singapura, in concert? That set a rousing mood, followed by Flying Jewels by James David (born 1978) conducted by ME6 Tng. This scherzo-like symphonic poem reveled in mercurial pace and pulsatile beat, representing the soaring passage of birds and aircraft. At its heart was a French horn aria, which resounded with pride and nobility. 

Conductor ME5 Tan led in two works, the first being Chaconne (In Memoriam...) by Ron Nelson (1929-2023), a funereal procession with minimalist progressions. The chime of tubular bells opened accounts. Two percussionists on marimba provided insistent ostinatos, later replaced by woodwind entreaties and brass chorales. A gradual crescendo of sound soon enveloped the hall, reminiscent of Estonian composer Arvo Part’s well-known Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten. 

Traveler by David Maslanka (1943-2017) was far more exuberant. Its brassy beginning, jazzy vibe, and turbulent rhythms suggested one hurtling through space and time, but this forward movement proved illusory, with a series of solos intervening before winding down to a quiet end. Travelling also means knowing when to call it quits, when one finds peace. 

The concert’s longest work was the Third Symphony (The Tragic, Op.89) by James Barnes (born 1949), which spanned 40 minutes over four movements. Conductor ME5 Wang provided a helpful preamble which made the work’s themes more accessible to the full-house audience. Composed in response to the death of his daughter, its first movement in C minor was a heart-wrenching expression of grief, with a Beethovenian Fate motif heard obsessively on the timpani. 

Its brooding Mahlerian and quasi-Shostakovich dark mood would lighten with a brief John Williams-like Scherzo, full of vitriol and irony. The slow movement was a portrait of tenderness and intimacy, with a Brahmsian French horn solo and climax to ravish, clearly the symphony’s emotional core. The finale’s life-affirming march closed the work on a spirited high. Performed with conviction and passion, the band demonstrated the enormous range of wind orchestras and what they are fully capable of.

The SAF Central Band acknowledges
applause from the audience in the gallery seats.

ON THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

ON THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (29 December 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 January 2018

Christmas has come and gone but its spirit lingered on in this feel good concert by The Philharmonic Winds. Conducted by Leonard Tan and hosted by William Ledbetter, five golden rings were introduced to the audience in the form of a guest conductor, three soloists and a children's choir.

The concert opened with Frank Ticheli's Nitro, a short but energetic scherzo which pulsated with a mercurial beat and radiated Stravinskyan brilliance. There were those rapidly evolving elements of minimalism and tricky cross rhythms, but the orchestra handled its demands with confidence and discipline. The baton was then handed to Ignatius Wang (below) who led in Percy Grainger's Children's March “Over The Hills And Far Away”, a catchy tune which built to a terrific climax before winding down.

Three of Singapore's top young wind talents came under the spotlight, beginning with saxophonist Samuel Phua in Ralph Hermann's Tosca Fantasy which recycles popular arias from Puccini's opera. Playing alto sax, his smooth and creamy tone relived tenor and soprano moments in soaring melodies like Recondita armonia, Vissi d'arte and E lucevan le stelle.

Euphonium soloist Kang Chun Meng, who appeared in this year's President's Young Performers Concert with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, also exuded an operatic flair in Eduardo Boccalari's Sounds of the Riviera. A richer and more burnished sound would be hard to find as he ambled from Italianate warmth to Hispanic fire in this dance-like showpiece.

Receiving the loudest cheers was clarinettist Ralph Emmanuel Lim who was in his element for Artie Shaw's Clarinet Concerto, a big-band era classic rife with jazzy riffs and flourishes. His seemingly effortless show continued into Malcolm Arnold's Pre-Goodman Rag as an outrageously hip encore. Like him, both Phua and Kang also had encores which they nailed with fearless aplomb.

The longest work was Howard Blake's enchanting music for the 1982 BBC animated television classic The Snowman, directed by Dianne Jackson. The wind arrangement by Phillip Littlemore accompanied the 26-minute-long movie that was screened in its entirety. The touching story is about a little boy who builds a snowman who comes to life at night, befriends and takes him on a magical winter flight to meet Father Christmas.

How the orchestra adapted so well to the movie's swiftly changing scenes and Ledbetter's lively narration was a credit to both the players and conductor Tan's abilities. Stealing the show was the 60-strong children's choir from Zhangde Primary School, which sang the hit song Walking In The Air with wide-eyed innocence and charm. There was a bittersweet end and anyone with dry eyes could be accused of having a heart of ice.

Three encores certainly pepped up the mood. The choir beautifully reprised Walking In The Air before Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride (conducted by Wang) and a sax arrangement of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You heralded the obligatory avalanche of balloons.