PEOPLE-WATCHING AT SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER & CONCERT

This is not Singapore Tatler nor Prestige, so I don't approach total strangers at high society events to take their photos and post in their society pages. Instead, I take photos of people I know and those who sat in the same table or nearby. So here are some photos of people at the glitzy ritzy Ritz-Carlton, Millennia Singapore on Sunday evening (6 September 2026) to celebrate the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's 30th anniversary. See anybody you know?

Hint: they are mostly former board members of SCO, CEOs, composers, conductors and people from the National Arts Council, past and present.

Professor Tan Huay Cheem & Patrick Goh,
former SCO board members.

Former NAC CEO Low Eng Tiong &
Former SCO Dy. Chairman Wu Hsioh Kwang.

This is my table, all music lovers.

The composers / musicologists table.
L to R: Liong Kit Yeng, Germaine Goh, Gu Wei,
Lee Ming-Yen, Chua Jon Lin & Phang Kok Jun 

Both of SCO's Associate Conductors:
Lien Boon Hua & Moses Gay

Present NAC CEO Elaine Ng &
Cultural Medallion recipiant Eric Watson.

Two of SCO's former Composers-in-Residence:
Wang Chenwei & Eric Watson

Paul Tan, CEO of Community Foundation
of Singapore, mugs for the camera.

Wang Chenwei poses with his
rare and prized traditional huqins.
So rare that the SCO borrows from him.

Conductor Dedric Wong (extreme right)
joins the fray.

Mr & Mrs Till Vestring get to grips
with the rare huqins.

With SCO Principal Conductor
Quek Ling Kiong, who is appropriately
also a percussionist. 
Do not throw away this
limited-edition SCO plushie.
It may become more valuable
than your Labubu.

SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA 30TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER & CONCERT / Some Photographic Memories

On 6 September 2026, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) held its 30th anniversary dinner and concert at the Grand Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. It was a grand and glitzy affair befitting this historical landmark. The SCO was formed in 1996, with humble origins as the People's Association Chinese Orchestra. Today, it is acknowledged as one of the world's leading ensembles of Chinese traditional instruments.

The guest-of-honour was its founding patron Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was also in attendance. It was a rare occasion outside of National Day Parades and People's Action Party events that two living Singapore former prime ministers were present to attend. SCO has been fortunate to receive their unwavering support over the decades.

Members of SCO perform to herald
the entrance of the honoured guests.

All hail to the chief

The SCO was also at full-strength to perform a concert led by its principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong. The full programme can be found below:

SCO Chairman Ng Siew Quan
addresses the audience and salutes the musicians.

Here are photos of the seven-course Chinese dinner that was served, interspersed by the musical performances. 

SCO performs Wang Chenwei's
Lion City Rhapsody, while the composer
films soloists playing on his rare huqins.

The SCO 30th birthday cake
in the shape of a dagu (big drum).

The main courses, you only get to eat one.

SM Lee is presented the anniversary gift,
a gong, which he strikes with gusto.

Everyone sings Happy Birthday to SCO
and the cake is cut by SM Lee.

Take It Step By Step relives some of
SCO's musical triumphs,
including its 2019 Berlin debut.

There's something Freudian about these
big, juicy and succulent kiwi mochis.
Befitting the final work Hua Hao Yue Yuan
(Full Moon Blossoms).

SCO30 OPENING GALA / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

SCO30 OPENING GALA

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (18 July 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 July 2026 with the title "Singapore Chinese Orchestra 30th anniversary gala celebrates early Nanyang music".

The programme of Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s 30th anniversary opening gala concert, led by principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong, was kept secret from all who attended up to the moment it began. The works had been selected based on audience feedback, a sample of what they wanted to hear most.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Surprising was the fact that most of the music was less than totally familiar or populist. Instead it was representative of repertoire SCO performed during its early years when led by conductors like Hu Bingxu and Xia Feiyun. The Overture from Shang Yi’s The Dagger Society Suite, arranged by Sim Boon Yew, opened the show. Resplendent suonas backed by percussion fronted this celebratory number from the 1989 folk-dance opera.

Ma Shenglong and Gu Guanren’s Fisherman’s Song of the Eastern Seas was a symphonic poem relating the toils, trials and tribulations of fisher-folk. Its conjoint sections depicted dawn with an evocative dizi solo, the outward journey with lyrical songlines, a proverbial storm to be weathered, before the emphatic triumph of a bountiful harvest.

Academy Award winner Tan Dun’s Yellow Earth followed with similarly programmatic content. The highly cinematic music opened dramatically with Raining From The Sky, lots of percussion, a plangent suona solo and vocalisations from the musicians. Gate Crashing the Bridal Chamber was suitably raucous, while Desiring Intimacy saw dizis and erhus expressing sensuousness in the highest registers. Coming back down to earth was Stone-Slab Waist Drum, with martial and ceremonial music dominated by percussion again.

Peng Xiuwen’s The Sixth Month: A Night in Pasir Ris from Twelve Months Suite opened the second half, in a scene of nocturnal tranquility interrupted by Malay and Indian dance rhythms, with Chan Mali Chan being alluded to. Whoever thought sleepy Pasir Ris during the 1980s to be this festive in an early example of Nanyang music?

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Lo Leung Fai’s Winter opened with snowy flurries represented by string prestidigitation, a perpetual motion that also depicted gently falling snowflakes. A big tune first heard on dizi was worked to a plethoric climax before a resumption of virtuoso fiddling for a brilliantly festive finish.

Former SCO composer-in-residence and Cultural Medallion recipient Law Wai Lun’s Admiral of the Seven Seas was a prime example of Nanyang music at its finest, with two movements closing the concert on buoyant spirits. The Voyage of explorer Zheng He (Cheng Ho) deftly depicted adventure on the high seas, with broad melodies ornamented by cries of seagulls. The Vow, recounting the marriage between a Malay sultan and Chinese a princess, good reason to bring out all the gamelan scales, a chorus of suonas and drumming at full pelt.

Attended by Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, on whose watch SCO turned professional from its humble beginnings as the People’s Association Chinese Orchestra, the playing was full-blooded and celebratory. The obligatory encore of Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Full Moon Blossoms) by Huang Yi Jun merely capped off the importance and significance of SCO’s three illustrious decades as “the people’s orchestra”.