ECHOES BEYOND / Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute / Reflections by PHAN MING YEN

ECHOES BEYOND

Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute

Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday 5 September 2026

This reflection was written by PHAN MING YEN, personal friend of the Tans, in memory of the late Mr Tan Kah Tee.

On the evening of 5th September, a concert honouring the memory of the late Tan Kah Tee was held at the Concert Hall of the Yong Siew Toh (YST) Conservatory of Music. Titled Echoes Beyond, the event was presented by the YST Orchestral Institute under its “Ones to Watch” Series. The institute’s publicity marketed the programme as one of “searching, transformation and renewal, reflecting on the enduring impact of a life well lived.” 

Photo: Faezah Zulkifli

In the first half, audiences heard the YST Orchestra under principal conductor Jason Lai in Charles Ives’s The Unanswered Question and Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration. The second half began with YST Head of Piano Studies Albert Tiu and Cello Faculty member Qin Li-Wei in Harry Sdraulig’s Fantasia on Waltzing Matilda and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Spring Waters before YST Concerto Competition 2026 Prizewinner Jiang Qifan took center stage with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3.

Photo: Faezah Zulkifli

The titles of the works in themselves may already echo the programme, although Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 was more of a practical calling card to seek opportunities than one bearing any visionary message. This was the work with which the composer wrote specially for his debut in the USA, where he eventually settled — perhaps more out of necessity than choice, as he always longed for the Russia he once knew.

Photo: Sean Chew

At a pre-concert reception, YST Dean Peter Tornquist paid tribute to Tan Kah Tee’s legacy for the conservatory — a donation of three concert grand pianos and the Tan Eng Chin Scholarship. 

Alborada del coq,
inspiration for improvisation.
Photo: Mrs Catherine Tan

Photo: Sean Chew

This preceded a sharing by Tan’s widow, Mrs Catherine Tan, that was memorable for an anecdote which illustrated the depth to which music resonated in his life. One morning, when Tan was already stricken by the illness that would take his life, he still found strength to improvise on the piano, accompanying the crowing of a rooster that had wandered into their house compound. Tan, from all those who remembered him, was always there in the audience at YST concerts.

Charles Ives and Richard Strauss

As for the concert itself, a thought flashed by during the climactic moments of Death and Transfiguration and stuck in the mind for the whole evening — reinforced by the orchestra’s support in the Rachmaninoff. The YST Orchestra reminded me of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at their best in the mid-1990s: performances delivered with raw conviction and power. It was the kind of conviction that made you want to revisit music you once knew or made you curious about music you were hearing for the first time.

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

The wistful mood set by Tiu and Qin in the two cello-piano duos after intermission set the stage for the epic that is Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto — famously once described as a work of quicksilver mood shifts that ran the gamut of all human emotions.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

Jiang Qifan’s high-spirited drive through of the third movement of the Rachmaninoff and his encore of Rachmaninoff’s Polka de W.R was enthusiastically received by the audience comprising guests and the public. The concert was part of the conservatory’s “Ones to Watch” Series, and the evening certainly piqued one’s curiosity about who to listen out for next.

The concerto was performed on the
Fazioli grand piano donated by Tan Kah Tee.
Photo: Toh Yan Ee

Photo: Phan Ming Yen

The writer wishes to thank Dr Kevin YL Tan for valuable suggestions.

Post concert photos:

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

Photo: Toh Yan Ee

SINGAPORE'S VINTAGE EATING PLACES: HAKKA AMPANG YONG TAU FU @ UPPER THOMSON ROAD

As long as I remember, there has always been a Yong Tau Fu restaurant on the way to Nee Soon (Yishun). Now there are two. Located on the northern stretch of Upper Thomson Road, this row of shophouses has existed for many decades, and could be called Nee Soon by its locality, long before the actual new towns of Yishun and housing estates of Lentor came into being. 

It was my late uncle Tay Lee Soon who first brought my family here to try out its famous Yong Tau Fu, and my grandmother joking referred to it as Lee Soon Yong Tau Fu. This dish, essentially tofu items stuffed with meat and other ingredients and eaten with savoury and sweet sauces, was an acquired taste for us youngsters. But as tastes mature and refine themselves, yong tau fu (ytf for short) become a sort of delicacy or comfort food, eaten on special occasions. 

Braised duck, stuffed intestines and boiled eggs.

This time, we were guests of local writer and arts polymath Phan Ming Yen, a true-blue Hakka originally from Petaling Jaya, and his wife Amy Ho, a Hongkonger. That is guaranteed of quality in itself, and we were not disappointed. The big pile of yft may be eaten with rice or kway chap (broad rice sheets in soy sauce), but not before being dipped in copious savoury or sweet sauces. This restaurant also serves braised duck, which provides the meat content of this meal.

Real Hakka Phan Ming Yen
swears this is the real thing!

This ytf is rather different from those served in food courts, and that makes it rather special. The other ytf place was closed on this Monday evening, so that means another trip up north to make culinary comparisons. 

With sweet and savoury sauces,
it is guaranteed there will be no leftovers.

HAKKA AMPANG YONG TAU FU

922 Upper Thomson Road

Just use the northern exit of

Springleaf MRT station

(Thomson East Coast Line)

1943: THE MUSICAL EVENINGS AT CHANGI / Phan Ming Yen et al

 

1943: THE MUSICAL 

EVENINGS AT CHANGI

Talk by Phan Ming Yen et al

National Library Building

Saturday (27 September 2025)

After Singapore fell on 15 February 1942, thousands of civilians became subject to the Imperial Empire of Japan. While the local Chinese were brutally suppressed, their Western counterparts including British / European / Australian were in incarcerated in Changi Prison. Over-crowded conditions meant that thousands were housed in spaces meant for hundreds. What was life like in Changi, and what sort of music did the prisoners get to enjoy? That was the subject of this interesting illustrated talk by historical researcher and general polymath Phan Ming Yen.

The 1st floor space of the National Library
was a conducive spot for this public talk.

Assisted by actor / dramaturg Aaron Lee who did readings and pianist Natalie Ng performing excerpts from piano pieces, this was an absorbing hour-long presentation that captured the imagination, and there was never a dull moment.

The source material came mostly from The Changi Guardian, a self-published periodical started by the prisoners to report on and document happenings that took place there and then. Extracts from May 1942 to September 1943 gave an idea as to what the prisoners went through.

Despite straitened circumstances, there was humanity in Changi. Through the good graces of a certain Lieutenant Okasaki, the captives were allowed to mount musical concerts to entertain themselves. Using captured pianos, those who could perform (and there were hundreds) did so and this meant a lot to those in attendance. 

The diagram behind shows the plan
of Changi Prison in 1943.

The concerts took place twice a week in an unlikely venue: the prison’s laundry area, amid the noise of operating machinery, flushing WCs and people at work. Not exactly Dame Myra Hess at The National Gallery.

One piece heard during the New Year period was Auld Lang Syne, which also existed in its Japanese version, Hotaru no Hikari (Glow of a Firefly), hence it was not proscribed. Also performed were works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Rachmaninov, all of which would have been familiar and played at home. One name stood out among the performers, Gordon van Hien, who in 1938 founded the Singapore Musical Society, which would be active post-War till the 1970s.

One asks the question, “Why does music matter?” One was the opportunity for silence, away from the mundane noises of the day, except for music and the laundry itself. Besides the music, there was also “Changi University”, a reference to the 4000 books that the internees had access to. By 24 September 1943, the population in Changi had numbered 3194.

All this had to end sometime. In September 1942, an illegal wireless transmitter radio was found in the possession of a prisoner, and music stopped. 57 men were interrogated and tortured at the hands of the Kempeitai; 15 died and the others were sent to Thailand’s Death Railway. It was a cruel way to end, but this was war after all. The last issue of The Changi Guardian was published in 12 October 1943. In 1946, the Singapore Musical Society that survived the war resumed its concerts.

Attending the talk were the WAGs.

The full article was published in BiblioAsia Vol.22 No.2 / Jul-Sep 2026:

Musical Evenings in Changi Internment Camp | BiblioAsia

THE WEST, WESTERN MUSIC & THE CHINESE COMMUNITY IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY SINGAPORE / A Talk by Phan Ming Yen

THE WEST, WESTERN MUSIC &

THE CHINESE COMMUNITY

IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY SINGAPORE

A Talk by Phan Ming Yen

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Saturday (30 November 2024)

Today, we take for granted the sheer variety of Western classical music performed in Singapore by a multitude of artistic groups, both professional and amateur. However, this wonderful state of affairs had to have its origins. No, we are not referring to the "cultural desert" of 1970s Singapore, as decried by Dr Goh Keng Swee, before he famously set things right by founding the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1978. In this very interesting talk by former Straits Times music critic and The Arts Magazine editor, the polymath Phan Ming Yen goes way back in time where his story actually starts.

Based on old newspapers, articles and archival material, Ming Yen has painted a very vivid and not too flattering picture of colonial Singapore from the 1890s. Those were the days when Brits like William Graeme St Clair and Edward Salzmann, with important connections to the establishment and press, held sway. 

They were responsible for introducing Western classical music to the natives, quaintly referred to as Asiatics, to counter the hideous noise of the daily grind and "rudimentary Chinese music", to enrich and educate the unwashed. These came in the form of the Singapore Philharmonic Society and its children's concerts, and other activities. For his troubles, the old pipe organ of Victoria Memorial Hall was named the St Clair organ.

Racist or not?
Supremacist to say the least!

Ming Yen plays some "rudimentary" Chinese music.

The very photograph which sparked
Ming Yen's interest in this subject.

The locals were receptive, in particular the Straits-born Chinese, who were mostly English-educated, upwardly mobile and increasingly gentrified. This movement led to the first orchestra formed by non-Europeans, the Chia Keng Tai Orchestra which performed in society events, public concerts and in 1939, accompanied the Wuhan Songsters in its anti-Japanese fundraising efforts. A central figure was violinist Tay Lian Teck, also a member of the Municipal Commission of Singapore, who died in 1942 while fleeing the Japanese by ship.

Remembering Tay Lian Teck

This tapestry of histories from old Singapore is relevant because it eventually shaped the society we live in today and how we enjoy our music. Ming Yen closed his riveting 90-minute-talk with a quote from Goh Keng Swee, revealing within his mind what would eventually lead to the founding of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1978. We are where we are today because we stand on the shoulders of giants. 

A meeting of old friends and historians.