Beauty and the Beast in Concert Programme Booklet

SAT 18 JANUARY 2025, 3PM & 8PM ESPLANADE THEATRE

CONTENT PAGE

03 Concert Information

04 About OMM 06 Conductor’s Biography 07 About VOS 08 Programme Notes 12 The Music Makers 13 VOS Chorus 14 Upcoming Concerts 18 OMM’S Donors 19 Support Us

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Presented by Willow Arts Sat 18 Jan 2025, 3pm & 8pm Esplanade Theatre Orchestra of the Music Makers Voices of Singapore City Chorus Joshua Tan, conductor Vanessa Kee, Belle Preston Lim, Gaston Leslie Tay, Le Fou / Beast Eric Larrea, Lumière Akiko Otao, Mrs Potts Singers by The Voice Company MENKEN – Beauty and the Beast: Live to Film Beauty and the Beast Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Howard Ashman © 1991 Wonderland Music Company, Inc. and Walt Disney Music Company

Today’s performance lasts approximately 2 hours, including a 20-minute intermission.

Photographs and videos will be taken at the event, in which you may appear. These may be published in Willow Arts’, OMM’s, or VOS’s publicity channels and materials. By attending the event, you consent to the use of these photographs and videos for the foregoing purposes.

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CONCERT INFORMATION

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST IN CONCERT

ORCHESTRA OF THE MUSIC MAKERS The Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) is a Singapore-based symphony orchestra established in 2008, comprising over 140 highly-trained volunteer musicians.

Although many have chosen careers outside of music, our musicians are dedicated to the high standards of musicmaking and community work which OMM stands for. Under the mentorship of Chan Tze Law, a leading Singaporean conductor and Vice-Dean of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, OMM has become an integral part of Singapore’s classical music scene and has gained international repute for presenting works of epic proportions, including the criticallyacclaimed Singapore Premieres of Bernstein’s Mass, Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre.

OMM was among the most active arts groups in Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving the COVID-19 Resilience Certificate for organising a wide array of digital productions, live

performances, and outreach events between August 2020 to December 2021. Recordings of these digital productions have also been featured at the Expo 2020 Dubai, as well as on the Singapore Airlines Inflight Entertainment System. Highlights of OMM’s 2024-25 season include performances with Lü Shao-Chia, Paul Huang, Stella Chen and Tito Muñoz.

Orchestra of the Music Makers Ltd is supported by the National Arts Council under the Major Company Scheme for the period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

— Arthur O’Shaughnessy, “Ode” Website: www.orchestra.sg Facebook: @orchmusicmakers Instagram: @omm.sg TikTok: @omm.sg

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OM M BOARD AND MANAGEMENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS Lee Guan Wei Daniel, Chairman Assoc. Prof Chan Tze Law Christopher Cheong Susan Loh Jesher Loi Sanjiv Malhotra Edward Neo Toh Xue Qian Prof Bernard Tan, Advisor

MANAGEMENT TEAM PROGRAMMES

DEVELOPMENT

ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT

SPONSORSHIP

Christopher Cheong, Head Nathanael Goh Michael Huang Lee Jinjun Fredrick Suwandi Joshua Tan Oliver Tan Isaac Tah

HUMAN RESOURCE Ang Zien Xu Nathanael Goh Lee Jinjun Lee Yuru Jayson Loo Estee Ng Fredrick Suwandi Kelsey Tan Josiah Teo Kimberlyn Wu

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Isaac Tah, Head Ang Zien Xu Natasha Lee Shi Jia Ao

Edward Neo, Head Christopher Cheong Kenny Ooi Rayner Tan

BRANDING & MARKETING Michael Huang, Head Chan Chen Chua Jay Roon Chloe Goh Elizabeth Ip Josiah Teo

LIBRARY & LOGISTICS Wu Tianhao, Head Lee Jinjun Rei Lim Edward Neo Preston Ng Muhammad Bin Roslee Isaac Tah Joshua Tan Tan Yao Cong

TECHNOLOGY

Chay Choong, Head Lam Yun En Tasya Rukmana

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CORPORATE SERVICES FINANCE

Neo Wei Qing, Head Calvin Dai Edward Neo Shi Jia Ao

AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE Rayner Tan, Head Lam Hoyan Estee Ng

JOSHUA KANGMING TAN A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music (High Distinction), Joshua Kangming Tan was the 2nd Prize winner of the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition, and an awardee of numerous scholarships and awards. For an unprecedented two years running, his performances of Bernstein’s Mass and the opera Don Pasquale were selected as the best classical concert of the year 2018 and 2019 by the Straits Times. Also adept at working with film/multimedia and music, Joshua is a Disney-approved conductor and gave the Asian premiere of Fantasia.

Beauty and the Beast: Live to Film is Joshua’s 8th appearance with OMM. Previous highlights include the Singapore Premieres of Bernstein’s Mass (2018) and Wagner’s Das Rheingold (2023).

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VOICES OF SINGAPORE Voices of Singapore (VOS) is Singapore's largest singing organisation, dedicated to transforming lives through the power of music and choral singing. With over 20 diverse singing groups and more than 1,200 members, VOS engages in various projects and festivals, making a significant impact in the local arts scene.

As an arts charity, VOS combines artistic excellence with community outreach. The VOS State Choirs strive for the highest levels of choral performance, while community outreach choirs serve special needs individuals, the elderly, and at-risk children. Choral music at VOS fosters empowerment, connection, and a sense of belonging within a vibrant community.

Through its initiatives to inspire a Singing Singapore, VOS enhances arts appreciation and positively contributes to Singapore's cultural landscape.

Chong Wai Lun

Chorusmaster Trumpeter-turned-chorister Chong Wai Lun found his calling in serving the music and his fellow musicians as a conductor.

After studying at the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (Hungary), he pursued his Master's Degree in choral conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, Wales (United Kingdom). Upon his return to Singapore, Wai Lun was appointed the Music Director at the International Festival Chorus of Singapore (IFC) from 2015 to 2019. He currently dedicates his time to nurturing the choirs at Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School and Temasek Secondary School.

At the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST), Wai Lun also studied orchestral conducting under the guidance of Jason Lai. Today, he is an adjunct faculty member at his alma mater, directing the YST Chamber Singers.

Wai Lun is also founder and choirmaster of the Symphonia Choralis, a professional freelance choir that collaborates extensively with the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra.

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PROGRA M M E NOTES

D

isney Music has long been the ubiquitous soundtrack of childhood. However, the term “Disney Music” is rather nebulous. It tells us only about the music’s provenance, but nothing about the music itself — how it seems to have universal appeal, how it instantly conjures up images of our favourite films, or how we can unerringly sing back the tunes and lyrics. Part of this magic stems from the brilliant integration of music and narrative.

On its own, music has the power to evoke a range of intense emotions, but this power is greatly enhanced when united with words. From folk ballads to grand operatic traditions, songs have always expertly combined story-telling and music.

Beginning with Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, music has always been an integral part of the Disney universe. In 1989, songwriterlyricist duo Alan Menken and Howard Ashman brought their experience with stage musicals to Disney. Incorporating Broadway conventions and structures into the score, they created the smash-hit The Little Mermaid, which became one of the highest grossing films that year. With this film, Menken and Ashman kickstarted a wave of highly successful Disney animated musicals often termed the “Disney Renaissance”. In their very next film, they continued to unfurl the music into a huge symphonic canvas. Regarded by many as their magnum opus, this was 1991’s Beauty and the Beast.

Alan Menken and Howard Ashman A

lan Menken grew up in a musical household, listening to his father play hit songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Gershwins, and others. Watching Disney’s Fantasia as a child, with its intersection of orchestral music and animated visuals, was a particularly formative experience for him. He recalled, “I started to think about how a chord, how a melody, how the excitement of music influences me. I was just transported by music and very emotionally drawn to it.” He found practising the piano boring, but was drawn towards composition. His parents encouraged him to audition for the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, and Menken found himself right at home in the world of musical theatre.

According to Menken himself, his early career was as frenetic as one might expect of a young freelance musician in New York City. He “worked as a ballet and modern dance accompanist, a musical director for club acts, a jingle writer, arranger, a songwriter for Sesame Street, and a vocal coach”. His breakthrough came when he worked with playwright Howard Ashman in a musical, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, in 1979 and followed that up with Little Shop of Horrors in 1982 – which broke box office records.

This brought Menken and Ashman to the attention of Walt Disney Studios, and they were engaged to write the music and lyrics for The Little Mermaid soon after.

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Howard Ashman was very influential in the creative direction for Beauty and the Beast, and was likened by some to be “something of a shadow director”. He came up with the idea of having the Beast’s servants turned into anthropomorphic household objects, injecting levity into what started out as a two-person story that seemed too serious for an animated film. Belle’s father and Gaston were also invented to flesh out the story.

While the duo’s creative output seemed to be on a clear upward trajectory, their personal life was unfortunately much more turbulent. While Menken and Ashman were working on Beauty and the Beast, Ashman was struggling physically and emotionally with his AIDS diagnosis, which he had kept secret for years. Ashman eventually confided in Menken, who later poignantly stated that the score for Beauty and the Beast “is forever tinged with the idea of undying love and the movie was deepened by the personal drama that was being played out behind the scenes”.

The beauty and fervour of Menken and Ashman’s music propelled Beauty and the Beast to win multiple awards, including two Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, and was listed in the American Film Institute’s list of 25 greatest movie musicals.

Their legacy endures today. Kristen Anderson-Lopez, co-composer of Frozen shared, “there’s absolutely not a single composer writing today who doesn’t think about Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast every time they sit down to write a song… We’re just playing on a playground that Menken and Ashman built.”

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© DISNEY

PROGRA M M E NOTES

While their target audiences were rather different, Menken said he always thought of The Little Mermaid as the follow-up to Little Shop of Horrors, and that they “wrote Little Mermaid for exactly as adult an audience as Little Shop”. The stunning success of Mermaid resulted in the duo being engaged for Beauty and the Beast.

PROGRA M M E NOTES

The Music A

lan Menken’s score for Beauty and the Beast features an eclectic combination of classical, operatic, and musical theatre influences.

Keen listeners might pick up on some immediate similarities — the shimmering Prologue is informed by Saint-Saëns’ Aquarium; Belle (the classic ‘I Want’ song) takes inspiration from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony; the tune of Be Our Guest recalls a theme from Mahler’s Third Symphony; and Gaston showcases the wittiest operetta tropes with its word-play and rhymes.

But on a deeper level, Menken draws on opera and Broadway’s usage of themes to tell a story. There are clear musical themes that are introduced and reprised at key moments in the story. The two major themes performed by the orchestra are for the ‘Curse’ and for the ‘Beast’, both introduced in the Prologue. Themes for Belle, Gaston, and the household objects are introduced in their respective feature songs, and the title song, Beauty and the Beast is also utilised as a love theme.

These themes recur and transform as the story and characters develop.

Menken explained these deliberate decisions, “it’s a classic fairy-tale story, so there were certain elements that came with [the project]. We had to start with a sense of Operetta, and an [homage to] French musicals for the very Maurice Chevalier-influenced character of Lumière.

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Menken’s compositional prowess is especially apparent in the last act of the film, after the Beast lets Belle return home. By reprising and mixing themes and styles, he enhances the moods and narrative tensions. In the climactic battle at the castle, the comedic scenes are accompanied by the whimsical Be Our Guest. But as we cut to the serious battle between Gaston and the Beast, the music darkens accordingly, with the different characters’ themes clashing.

The musical and dramatic tension continues to build as the soaring and passionate Transformation begins. The orchestra recalls a line from Belle’s own song — “Here’s where she meets Prince Charming…” — before the Prologue returns, now triumphant and mixed with Beauty and the Beast, symbolising the breaking of the curse. This deliberate weaving of story and score can be found throughout the film.

The songs of Beauty and the Beast have rightfully become classics, and are frequently sung at diverse settings from the concert hall to karaoke parties. The enduring popularity of the score and film is a testament to Menken and Ashman’s mastery of storytelling through music.

Programme notes by Christopher Cheong 11

PROGRA M M E NOTES

And it was a real return to the very classically-based Disney animated film… it really reached full flowering in Beauty and the Beast.”

THE MUSIC M AKERS MUSIC DIRECTOR Chan Tze Law

ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR Seow Yibin

VIOLINS

Wilford Goh, Concertmaster Kimberlyn Wu, Principal Second Violin Yvonne Lee, Associate Principal Ang Dun Jie Lucas Bee Chanz Boo Nicole Chan Chan Ning Chloe Chee Jacob Cheng Kayler Chu Chui Yingqi Chloe Goh Nathanael Goh Goh Ying Xiang Esther Lam Jaslyn Lee Lieu May Yen Ariel Lim Loi Si Xian Estee Ng Alicia Jeanelly Pasa Nugroho Poh Jer Lin Natalie Tan Rayner Tan Josiah Teo Gary Teoh Xu Hongyun Natalie Yee

VIOLA

May Loh, Principal Shannon Chan Joan Fun Gao Wei Skyler Goh Lam Hoyan Lee Su Lynn Jayson Loo Nathalie Nguyen Jonan Tan Oliver Tan Samuel Tan Toh Xue Qian

CELLO

James Ng, Principal Trinh Ha Linh, Associate Principal Joy Chen Lavinia Chu Sharon Ham Koh Liong Tiek Charis Low Edward Neo Jasmine Sim Isaac Tah Stacy Tah

DOUBLE BASS

Julian Li, Principal Hyoseok Lee Lee Mian Jun Alvin Liew Alwyn Loy Pan Jiaying Kevin Seah

CONTRABASSOON Kee Ruihan

HORN

Xavier Tan, Principal Bryan Chong Harsharon Kaur Chloe Lau Nigel Leong Ong Hwee Ling

TRUMPET

Lau Wen Rong, Principal Lee Jinjun David Marley

TROMBONE

Don Kow, Principal Hendrik Kwek

BASS TROMBONE Aldwyn Tan

FLUTE

Cheryl Lim, Principal Alvin Chan Kelsey Tan

TUBA

OBOE

HARP

Shawn Yap

Seow Yibin, Principal Tay Kai Tze

Charity Kiew, Principal

ENGLISH HORN Tay Kai Tze

Jane Foo Clarence Lee

CLARINET

GUITAR

Benjamin Wong, Principal Miao Kaiwen Daniel Yiau

KEYBOARDS

Daniel Chai

BASS GUITAR Lee Mian Jun

BASS CLARINET Daniel Yiau

TIMPANI

Yuru Lee, Principal

E-FLAT CLARINET Miao Kaiwen

BASSOON Shi Jia Ao Kee Ruihan

PERCUSSION

Thaddeus Chung, Principal Lim Rei, Associate Principal Gordon Tan Keyon Toh

DRUM KIT

Brenson Yam

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VOS CHORUS CHORUS MASTER Chong Wai Lun

REHEARSAL PIANIST Sharon Ham

SOPRANO

Cornelia Wong Dione Gabrielle Au Estelle Ng Evelyn Mondala Gwendolyn Wong Ho CinQin Jessica Leong Katelyn Fink Kumiko Ishii Lim Seh Li Low Ai Ling Lyane Heng Nicole Lee Kah Hui Sureeporn Ho Tan Shiao Yeh Thilaiga Ramakrishnan Yu Wanling

VOS Board of Directors Catherine Tan, Chairperson Christopher Cheong Kit Ho Tan Shook Wah

ALTO

Agnes Tjandra Andrea Tan Carene Choy Corliss Tay Dian Marissa Dorcas Low Germaine Leong Jasmine Lam Jessy Ng Jewelle Woo Linda Heng Pamela Phua Shruthi Jessica Tara Teo Tay Hwee Ling Yee Mun Ooi Yeoh Jeok Eng

VOS Team

TENOR

Clifford Au Yong Derrick Kam Edward Koh Enoch Chong Gerald Paul Tan Jeremy Joel Tan Nick Walker Pauli Haakenson Quek Chiow Lin Charlie Shane Seah Wesley Wu

BASS

Andrew McDonnell Chong Wai Lun Elliot Koh Joel Lee Johannes Tan Louis Cheok Matthew Ng Nicholas Goh See Thong Hwee Yen Phang Yohan Tupili

Darius Lim, CEO and Artistic Director Mervyn Ye, General Manager Gabriel Ching, Manager (Projects and Venues) Dione Gabrielle Au, Manager (Choral Programmes) Serene See, Design Manager Roe Curie, Marketing Manager Lim Jing Xiuan, Senior Artistic Coordinator Justin Goh, Artistic Coordinator Daniel Goh, Artistic Coordinator Tay Hwee Ling, Assistant Manager (Communities) Ho Ching Yee, Assistant Manager (Choral Programmes) Stephanie Boon, Assistant Manager (Choral Programmes) Jane Kwa, Senior Executive (Development & Partnerships) Eve Tan, Executive (Projects and Venues) Sharham Sridhar, Executive (Projects and Venues) Fatin Humaira Binte Mohd Ashik, Executive (Marketing and Communities) Rachel Wang, Executive (Choral Programmes) Joyce Tay, Finance Executive

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