ZECHARIAH GOH: A CHORAL ODYSSEY / Review

 

ZECHARIAH GOH: A CHORAL ODYSSEY

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (6 August 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 August 2025 with the title "Choral concert showcases Zechariah Goh's wide-ranging works".

Singaporean composer Zechariah Goh Toh Chai, recipient of the 2003 Young Artist Award in 2003, was once described as promising. Twenty-two years later, he has established himself as one of Singapore’s most important composers. This two-hour mostly a capella choral concert, the first dedicated to a single composer since the late Leong Yoon Pin’s retrospective in 2008, featured 271 singers and nine choirs from three countries. 16 songs, from 1993 to the present, showcased Goh’s versatility in wide-ranging styles.

Opening the show was the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir (Conductor: Wong Lai Foon) with Rose of Sharon (2014), ushering in a lush unison and series of echoing voices. More complex was Four Tones (2019), which played on Chinese words ying (阴), yang (阳) and shang (上) as resonating bell sounds, later ornamented with animal and bird calls to maximal effect.

From Anderson Serangoon Junior College Choir (Angela Lee), the folk-influenced In the Bamboo Forest (2004) had percussive drum beats from male voices accompanying lyrical flowing lines from female voices. The 19-women in red kebayas from Crescendo Voices, originally established in Malaysia (Raymond Lee Pei Khoon), sang in Malay for Irama Belia (2003) and Mandarin for Qing Ping Diao (The Beautiful Lady Yang, 2014), the latter’s mellifluous tones based on Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai’s words.

Photos: Tan Zexun

Chinese inspirations continued in Loyalty to the Nation (2015), with the words Jing Zhong Bao Guo (精忠报国) associated with Han dynasty general Yue Fei’s patriotism and martyrdom. The music turned from calm to heroic and finally reflective. Goh’s arrangement of Dayong Sampan (1993) was his first commissioned work, involving counterpoint well-handled by the 20 singers of Novae (Quek Jing).

The combined Eunoia and Hwa Chong Junior College Choirs (Lim Ai Hooi) was the largest contingent, their strength in numbers displaying exuberance for Sounds of Joy (2009), which rang out with bell and drum-like sonorities. Plangent tribal drone effects also coloured Reminiscences of Hainan (1995), a joyous tribute to Goh’s own dialect group and forebears.

The 23 singers of the Taichung Chamber Choir from Taiwan (Yang I-Chen) were the best ensemble, performing four works, a mini-concert within a concert. Whoever thought that the Chinese word for Tea (2024) – cha (茶) - could be subject to so much elaboration and ornamentation. Wonderful solo voices distinguished Hakka Triptych (2025) and The Happiness of Fish (2013) which pondered serenity, contentment and ethereal beauty. By contrast, Assassination (2014) played on the word for kill – sha (杀) - complete with pugilistic poses and martial arts choreography.

Photo: Tan Zexun

Vox Camerata Chamber Singers (Shahril Mohamed Salleh) sang the evening’s only sacred work, Psalm No.1(2023) with its opening line Blessed is the Man a firm reflection of Goh’s Christian faith, while Lullaby (1999), sung in Chinese, was a gentle cradle song.

Closing the evening was Ode (2025), performed by the Voices of Singapore State Choirs (Justin Goh) accompanied on piano by Gabriel Hoe. Sentimental and ear-catching, its aspiring strains about flying away were intruded upon by one of the hall’s alarms. A welcome encore was requested, this time sounding even better. Could this be the song to take over the popular mantle of Dick Lee’s Home?

All lit up for National Day.

EVENSONGS / Vox Camerata / Review

MUSICA INTIMAE: EVENSONGS

Vox Camerata

Yong Musicians Foundation Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (17 January 2017)

The first choral concert of the year was given by Vox Camerata, a choir founded by Mohamed Shahril bin Mohamed Salleh which has a distinction of programming serious choral repertoire yet without subjecting its members to a formal audition. This open-handed and egalitarian approach, characterised by a total absence of snobbery, has been rewarded by seriously good performances in venues as diverse as the Armenian Church, School of the Arts and The Arts House.

Its Esplanade Concert Hall debut was backed by an orchestra, no less than the young and very promising The Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra. The concert opened without voices, in Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture, also known as Fingal's Cave, conducted by Ignatius Wang. The evenness of the playing was remarkable, led by very good strings (with ex-SSO veteran violinist Lim Shue Churn as concertmaster), and as the work progressed, a very fine woodwind section with an excellent clarinet principal. If the slow opening pages sounded little soporific in pace, it soon built up a head of steam. This was a performance of polish, if not one of raw passion and a little wildness. That would come with some more experience.

The chorus of Vox Camerata, joined by guests from the Anderson Junior College Alumni Choir and German Protestant Church Choir, had their say in Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs with baritone Brent Allcock as soloist, and conducted by Alvin Seville Arumugam. Using the poems of George Herbert, the music relived the English pastoral tradition which the New Zealander Allcock was totally at home with. His is a warm and reassuring voice that sounded gorgeous in the opening Easter, with the words “Rise, heart. Thy Lord is risen”, echoed with deep resonance from the chorus. This set the tone, further lit up with I Got Me Flowers, gently accompanied by harp and strings, and Love Bade Me Welcome, with subtle woodwind contributions and the chorus joining in later with fine and discreet unison humming.

Credit has to go to conductor Arumugam for his command of the orchestra, which was always sensitive to the voices, and never threatened to overwhelm. The transparency of the strings and  sublime woodwind solos were true to the music's gentle spirit. The Call was for a short but moving baritone solo, followed by the final song Antiphon, perhaps the most exciting for the chorus, which proclaimed “Let the world in every corner sing”, and meaning every word of it. Vaughan Williams is not often performed in Singapore, so this was indeed a real treat.

The strings remained onstage, joined by pianist Ong Seng Choo to accompany the choir in Gabriel Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine, which was conducted by Ignatius Wang. This short work breathes the same ethereal air as the French composer's Requiem, that is it sounds otherwordly. The men's voices that opened sounded uneven, with the volume weighted to the lower registers, but that soon leavened with the entry of the women. The strained voices sounded exposed here but the spirit with which the music was sung made up for this shortcoming.

It was laudable that in order to save trees, no programme booklets were printed for the concert, with all programme information and notes made available in a downloadable soft copy. The price to pay was that the audience applauded after every single movement, and that trend continued well into the second half.

The excellent orchestra was dispensed with in John Rutter's Magnificat, which was conducted by Vox Camerata Chorusmaster Shahril himself with Ong again on piano accompaniment. In this larger scale work, the chorus occupying centrestage under the acoustic canopy seemed overmatched by the venue, and some parts sounded thin as a result. A choir double its size would have been preferable, but make no mistake, it still brought out a gutsy and committed performance, full of heart and feeling.

The syncopated opening Magnificat was well-delivered, with a keen mastery of its tricky rhythms. Rutter's very tonal and highly approachable music risks sounding saccharine, so the chorus avoided over sentimentality in the slower movements. The 2^nd movement, Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose, was poetically sung, contrasted with pomp and ceremony of Quia fecit mihi magna. Guest soprano Akiko Otao was a standout, her lovely voice wafted clearly over the chorus in Et Misericordia and Esurientes. If one wondered what an angel sounds like, this would be a pretty close approximation. There was a jazzy choral fugue in Fecit potentiam which was unfortunately not further elaborated by the composer, but the final Gloria patria recapped the opening's high spirits and the concert closed on a celebratory high.

The audience clearly enjoyed the music and effort put in the performance, and the applause showed it. Thus it was a pity that the performers chose to leave the stage at the very first opportunity, which curtailed any further plaudits. So there were no curtain calls at all! Here amateur musicians could take a leaf from their professional counterparts by staying onstage for a longer duration, and milk the applause for themselves and their collaborators what it is worth. This would be a lesson for future concert opportunities: You put in the hard work, so you deserve all the credit!   

SOULFUL SOUNDSCAPES / Vox Camerata / Review

SOULFUL SOUNDSCAPES

Vox Camerata

Chamber @ The Arts House

Saturday (2 July 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 July 2016 with the title "Voices with heart".  

One of the best settings to make music and real friends is in a choir. Under the banner of corporate artistic endeavour, people from disparate cultures and walks of life can find a common ground for which musical expression becomes genuine and unforced. Such a group is the a cappella choir Vox Camerata, whose members range from young adult voices to to the odd bona fide opera singer.

Its 60-minute recital programme, led by young choral conductor Shahril Salleh and his even younger assistant Jolene Khoo, was compact, varied and ambitious. It had the comforting unifying theme of childhood and home, with their associate sub-themes of nostalgia and longing. Additional context with poetry readings and story-telling was provided by the concert's host Lo Yen Nee.

The concert opened with an Åland Islands fisherman's song Who Can Sail Without The Wind?, in Swedish and arranged by Robert Sund, which was poignant with a gentle lilt. The 21 singers, 14 women and 7 men, responded with a general warmth of tone.  This took on a more serious vibe in William Byrd's I Will Not Leave You Orphans, sung in Latin, with its reassuring words capped with a chorus of hallelujahs.  

Folksongs in transcription were a mainstay of the programme, none better demonstrated in Shahril's take on the Japanese children's song Aka Tombo (Red Dragonfly) and Floris van Vugt's South African lullaby Thula Baba, Thula Sana. The latter had the luxury of its infectious rhythms being tapped out by guest percussionist Marcus Teo on the box-shaped cajon. 

Two original songs by Shahril featured only ladies' voices. Dua Tiga Kuching Berlari (Two Three Cats Are Running) was a Malay song accompanied by mewing in the manner of Rossini's famous Cat Duet. Seasons Change, after a Sandra Milligan poem, featured variegated and piquant harmonies which reflected the altering colours of leaves. In his arrangement of the Finnish song On Suuri Sun Rantas, a soaring soprano line was floated with haunting beauty.

Perhaps the most austere and demanding work was Armenian nationalist composer Komitas' Khoroud Khorin from Patarag, where elements of ancient liturgical chant and a polyphonic hymn filled the hall with a cathedral-like sonority. Contrast this with the playful but equally life-affirming beat of Christopher Tin's African-inspired Baba Yetu, which in 2011 became the first video-game music track to win a Grammy Award.

Further songs in Romanian, Spanish, Finnish, English and French, including composers like Sibelius, Rutter and Poulenc, completed the highly eclectic mix. The encores were designed to bring tears to the eyes, Dick Lee's Bunga Sayang which was preceded by Irish Blessings, a benediction with the repeated refrain “Until we meet again” ringing in the ears.

If these smiling faces among the singers are not besties by now, then there is something wrong with music, and with the world. 

COLLEGIA MUSICA: IN MEMORIAM / Vox Camerata / Review

COLLEGIA MUSICA: IN MEMORIAM

Vox Camerata

Armenian Church

Saturday (18 April 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 April 2015 with the title "Sacred tunes, heavenly voices".

Quite amazingly, this was the fourth choral concert this reviewer has attended in as many evenings. Four different venues, four different choirs, and in certain ways, this one was the most inspiring. Vox Camerata is an a cappella outfit in its eleventh year led by young Malay conductor Mohamad Shahril Salleh who had studied in USA, UK and Australia. Entry to the choir is without audition, and its members differ vastly in levels of experience, from young students to professional singers.   

The concert held in the diminutive sanctuary of the Armenian Church of St Gregory The Illuminator, Singapore's oldest church (erected in 1835), was dedicated to the memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The acoustics in the G.D.Coleman designed church was surprisingly good, with the choir singing under its small rotunda. The sound was neither too dry nor too reverberant, and when the choir went full voice, it was easy to forget the vehicular traffic and evening birdsong outside.

Beginning with Josef Rheinberger's Abendlied (Evening Song) and Benjamin Britten's Deus In Adjutorium Meum (Haste Thee God To Deliver Me), its merits could be readily discerned. These included the presence of strong individual singers of solo quality, a rock steady bass section and general cohesiveness as a group. They coped well with changes in dynamics and harmonic subtleties. In Tchaikovsky's The Crown Of Thorns (sung in English) and Franz Biebl's Ave Maria, a sensitive side was also displayed.

Central to the tribute was the performance of Armenian sacred songs. Khoroud Khorin by Komitas (nom de plume of Soghomon Soghomonian, Armenia's most famous composer before Aram Khachaturian) saw the solo tenor voice of Carlo Beltran rise above the liturgical drone of the choir, while a semi-chorus of nine performed two short songs by Grigor Arakelian. The choir had received special coaching in the Armenian language and despite some vocal limitations in the difficult scores, acquitted itself well.

Another highlight was an exquisite reading of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, once exclusive property of the Vatican and decreed not to be performed outside its walls. To create the special antiphonal effect, four singers were placed on the opposite side of the hall and facing the main group. The glory of this work is the high treble that wafts into heavenly realms, wonderfully realised by soprano Claire Wee. Opposite her were stentorian recitatives provided by the splendid bass Brent Allcock, adding to the mystic quality of this sublime piece. 

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The choir had more than warmed up, bringing no little passion and polish to the popular motets, Deodat de Severac's Tantum Ergo and Bruckner's Christus Factus Est. The latter brought out the full volume and range of the choir's abilities, filling the space with a spine-tingling resonance. The final song was Australian composer Graeme Morton's Crossing The Bar, a solace-filled contemplation on the end of life and the thereafter, dedicated to the late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. 

As a contrast to the sacred, the encore was strictly secular but still filled with meaningful words, a John Lennon medley of Imagine and Let It Be, in a swinging arrangement by the conductor Shahril himself. Tenor Timothy Liu took the spotlight, and the smiles of 27 voices brought the 70 minute recital to a highly satisfying close.