AN EVENING OF DOUBLE HAPPINESS / Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (University of the Arts Singapore)

Judging from the title, I thought this was going to be a Chinese wedding dinner. In a way it was, as the evening marked the union of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (University of the Arts Singapore) and London's Royal College of Music with the formation of their Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree programme. 

NAFA and RCM have been dating had over a decade of working together, with local music undergraduates spending their last semester in London to complete their basic B.Mus degree. This one goes all the way one step further, a consummation of a joint project to further our musical students' education. The evening also marked the start of a working relationship with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Here are photos of the auspicious event, complete with a gong-beating ceremony and a concert to boot.

Guest-of-honour Heng Sweet Keat
and NAFA CEO Tan-Soh Wai Lan
gave mercifully short speeches.

Singapore Symphony Group CEO Kenneth Kwok
receives a gift from NAFA.

All the honoured guests reveal
the inner percussionists in them.

Zechariah Goh conducted the opening work,
Joey Yeo's Retrospect. The composer was also
the guitarist in this performance

NAFA Chinese Ensemble performs
Li Bochan's Ancient Tea-Horse Road.

Close-ups of the exquisite performers.

The piece de resistance was 
Dante Tan performing Henri Tomasi's
Alto Saxophone Concerto with the 
NAFA Orchestra conducted by Lin Juan.

Dante had earlier performed this concerto 
with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra
at the President's Young Performers Concert.

The repeat performance was just as awesome.

And here are some of

the wedding guests:

Esplanade's Christel Hon with
NAFA Head of Vocal Studies Jessica Chen.

SSO's Ong Shu Chen with
Lianhe Zaobao's Zhang Heyang.

Former Ding Yi Music Company's Elvia Goh
with former NAFA CEO
Mr & Mrs Choo Thiam Siew.

British concert pianist Ashley Wass
with Kenneth Kwok and 
NAFA's Nellie Seng

Pianists all:
See Ning Hui, Nicholas Ong & Zhou Yun.

NAFA Dean of Performing Arts Ernest Lim (centre)
made sure everyone had a good time.

MUSICAL MOSAICS: IMAGINEASIAN / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra / Review

MUSICAL MOSAICS: IMAGINEASIAN

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (10 August 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 August 2025 with the title "Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra's concert celebrates Asean's musical heritage".

There was a definite ASEAN flavour to the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra’s (ACSO) latest concert jointly conducted by Dedric Wong and Adrian Chiang. Attended by President and Mrs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, there were no less than four medleys of local and regional songs, but thankfully there was hardly any overlap with each composer having distinct voices.

Kelly Tang’s Symphonic Suite on a Set of Local Tunes, which opened the show, highlighted Dick Lee’s songs including Home and Bunga Sayang. Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin’s Singapura Medley was strong on Malay songs, beginning with Di Tanjong Katong, while Zechariah Goh’s Singaporean Folk Medley looked at local Eurasian culture, closing with Jinkly Nona.

Given the recent border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, a musical truce was declared with concertante works from both nations performed one after another. Thai composer Jinnawat Mansap’s Naka, celebrating the mythological serpent (or naga as we know it) featured Prapanpong Maneewong on the khaen, a mouth organ fashioned with bamboo pipes. Its sheng-like sonority dominated this work which was filled with striding martial strains.

By contrast Cambodian composer Him Sophy’s The Way To Angkor opened plaintively with Tola Say bowing the tro sao, a Khmer spike fiddle with a timbre not unlike the zhonghu. His duet with cellist Olivia Chuang was short but touching, and despite oncoming dissonance from the orchestra, the traditional instrument was a voice not to be silenced.

Wang Chenwei’s Tekka Theka was a tribute to the Kandang Kerbau vicinity of Little India with its bustling market place. Ghanavenothan Retnam’s hauntingly beautiful bansuri (Indian flute) was the protagonist in a work which had Indian, Malay and Chinese influences. In support were Madhavan Kalaichelvan (veena), Muhammad Ansari Abdul Razak (rebana) and Soh Swee Kiat (sheng) representing three musical cultures.

Our closest neighbour across the Causeway was represented by Loh Ui Li in her Malaysian Folk Song Medley, which had Rais Iqbal resplendent on the serunai (Malay reed instrument) with its plangent and piercing tone not unlike a suona. Among the songs were Rasa Sayang and Chan Mali Chan, and before one cries foul, it should be remembered that just a little more than sixty years ago, Malaysia and Singapore were once the same nation.

Food is a subject where many a debate arises, but Eric Watson chose a Broadway idiom to frame his Gourmet Paradise, a three-movement dawn-to-dusk primer of local meals. Vocalist Juni Goh from vocal band MICappella led a rap for Nanyang Breakfast – Kopi, eggs and kaya toast / Nanyang breakfast is so shiok – before extolling the virtues of Roti Prata and Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Closing the colourful concert was the world premiere of Germaine Goh’s When Rivers Remember, uniting the four soloists from four ASEAN nations. Here was the baroque concerto grosso updated to include water-related songs Dayong Sampan, Loy Krathong, Ulek Mayang and Sarika Keo Euy, with visuals representing the Singapore, Chao Phraya, Malacca and Mekong Rivers.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

If all governments can sort their problems as harmoniously as these instrumentalists and ACSO, lasting peace is here to stay.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

OUR VOICES, OUR SONGS / Singapore Choral Artists / Review

 

OUR VOICES, OUR SONGS 

Singapore Choral Artists 

School of the Arts Concert Hall 

Sunday (14 April 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 April 2024 with the title "Choral delights from all over the world by Singapore Choral Artists". 

Singapore Choral Artists (SCA), established in 2021, joins a rich tradition of local a cappella groups performing at a professional level, including the Singapore Youth Choir Ensemble Singers, Philharmonic Chamber Choir and another recent addition, Resonance of Singapore. SCA’s latest concert, led by veteran choral conductor Nelson Kwei, provided nearly two hours of aural delights from the world over. 

Its first half comprised Western compositions, dominated by sacred and liturgical music. The 21-member choir (11 women and 10 men) opened with Lithuanian Vytautas Miskinis’ Pater Noster (The Lord’s Prayer) and Hungarian Gyorgy Orban’s Nunc Dimittis (Now Lettest Thou Depart), both in Latin, establishing the chorus’ strengths at the outset. 

The ensemble sounded larger than the actual number of singers, and control of voices largely excellent. Contemporary choral music is far more diverse and dynamic than the traditional SATB (soprano/alto/tenor/bass) configuration of old strophic hymns, essentially evolving into vibrant vehicles of multiple constantly moving parts. 

This was no better illustrated in American Eric Whitacre’s Sainte-Chapelle which opened with men’s unison voices, a throw-back to Gregorian plainchant, then branching into the myriad riches of polyphony. The 13th century Parisian edifice of awe-inspiring stained-glassed splendour could not have had a more glorious musical representation. Delivered with passion, the music rose to a high in Hosanna in Excelsis before closing with the calm of Gloria Tua. 

That chapel was supposed to have held Jesus’ crown of thorns, the subject of Tchaikovsky’s The Crown of Roses, a more traditional Slavic song of bittersweet sacrifice sung in English. Also in English were Ivo Antognini’s Come To Me, Edward Elgar’s Serenade and McKay Crockett’s arrangement of Marta Keen’s Homeward Bound, sung with innocence and heartfelt conviction. 

People who message / text during concerts
are better at home watching Korean drama.
Really sia suay.

The second half was devoted to songs and arrangements by Singaporean composers. The choir changed to Southeast Asian costumes and men performed on bare feet. Sung in Mandarin, arrangements by Ethan Mark Chua and Phoon Yew Tien of Qing Ping Diao (after Tang dynasty poet Li Bai) and Azaleas respectively were lovely muses on the beauty of women. 

Arranged by conductor Kwei was Indonesian song Potong Padi (Harvesting Rice) in Malay and Luo Da You’s The Golden Age in Mandarin, the latter luxuriating in the dulcet tones of men’s voices. Women’s voices had their spotlight in Xiao Xiao Yang Er Yao Hui Jia (The Lambs Return Home), innocence expressed in Americ Goh’s arrangement. 

Kenneth Tay’s luminous Ave Regina Caelorum (Hail Queen of Heaven) in Latin, which could have belonged in the first half, stood like the odd person out. The evening concluded with the Singapore premiere of Zechariah Goh’s Da Feng Ge (Song of the Great Wind), comprising three songs inspired by characters in Chinese history, with the the titular song, a paean of victory and regret, accompanied by a vigourous drum-beat. 

If there were to be a lingering memory, the encore of Latvian Eriks Esenvalds’ Only In Sleep, with a soprano voice wafting above the throng like an angel ascending to heaven above, was just that.

WEST SIDE STORY / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

WEST SIDE STORY

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (21 January 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 January 2017 with the title "Exhilarating Americana ride".

Just one day after the inauguration of a new American president, there was a Stars and Stripes theme to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's concert led by Associate Conductor Joshua Tan. Even the Singaporean composer Zechariah Goh's Blossoms, receiving its World Premiere, was American-influenced. An alumnus of the University of Kansas, his two-movement work supposedly followed the progress of the national orchestra from its inception to present prominence.

Odyssey, its impressionist first part introduced a two-note motif with the interval of a falling minor third, and there was an extended cello solo from Principal Ng Pei-Sian serving as development. This was followed by the fast-paced Ecstasy, using an inversion of the earlier motif as a kind of retort. Its jazzy dynamism, with flying pizzicatos and a riff-like clarinet solo from Li Xin, was reminiscent of Bernstein but tinged with a local flavour.

An outstanding stand-alone piece, it also dovetailed perfectly into the general programme. What followed was John Adams' Violin Concerto (1993) with Singaporean violinist Kam Ning as the exuberant soloist. Coincidentally, the first two notes of her entry were almost identical to the two-note motif of the preceding work. According to Goh, it was a case of pure serendipity, and the path soon diverged with Kam's extremely taxing solo part taking off into a different orbit.

Almost improvisatory in feel, her violin soared above the fast chugging built upon a rhythmic ostinato, and this ever-evolving notion of recreating variations continued into the central slow movement's Chaconne entitled Body Through Which The Dream Flows. How she sustained interest through its langorous and somnolent path was a feat, which meant in compensation the final Toccare had to be a hell-for-leather romp.

Supported by scintillating strings, hyperactive electronic keyboards and a timpanist working overtime, its feverish pace trumped everything that had come before for a fast and furious finish. It was more Americana for Kam's encore, where she was thrillingly partnered by cellist Ng in Edgar Meyer's bluegrass hit Limerock.

The second half belonged to Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which was conducted by Tan from memory. This score orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal includes most of the musical's dance numbers and some songs but not performed in sequence. As with much of the earlier music, the audience was brought on an enthralling ride, which included the snapping of fingers, a police whistle, the obligatory fugue and in the rumbling Mambo, two shouts of “Mambo!”.

Hitherto lukewarm in previous attempts, the orchestra did put more effort this time in its vocalisations. It would be in the songs Somewhere and I Have A Love, now wordless, where the music itself would have the greatest traction.

The concert had a neat built-in encore, Adams' Short Ride In A Fast Machine, an extended orchestral fanfare that luxuriated in his fast minimalism, building in pace and revving away to some distant checkered flag. It was all over in four minutes. Catch your breath, and be left in the dust to smell the fumes.