PPO 2020/21 Season Calendar

As we embark upon this new decade I feel it is appropriate that PPO have a new logo, one which is a little playful, youthful and yet composed. Logos are more about feeling, rather than what the organization does.

This new logo is like a sculpture which is built up. The letters and forms are not stiff nor upright, they mound around each other just like musicians working in unison to build something spectacular, creating something bigger and more tangible when working as a team.

I hope this new logo will inspire our musicians to be more flexible and experimental to meet future expectations and challenges for music.

- Datin Sri Irene Yeap

Logo design by Peta Yeap

For more info, please contact Mr. Ramesh T +604-2622462 F +604-2622439 M 012-4854733 E admin@penangphilharmonic.org www.penangphilharmonic.org PenangPhilharmonicOrchestra

Ramesh Kumar Sharma Administrator 2012-2020

PPO's Pride and Joy

PPO is grateful to the late Mr. Phua Sin Loke of Bentley Music in the acquisition of our concert piano, the Steinway D pictured above. It was purchased in 2013.

Koay Yee Fei P.R. Coordinator 2020-

The Board and members of PPO would like to express our thanks to our administrator Ramesh who has proven to be indispensable to the organization since the onset.

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra offers our grateful thanks to all our volunteers for their generous contributions.

We take this opportunity to thank Ms Ong Geok Cheng, assistant coordinator of The Penang Philharmonic Chamber Choir (PPCC) for her services towards the growth of PPCC, and our thanks to Mr. Goh Chun Kheng for his time with PPO as a PR coordinator.

We wish Ms Ong & Mr Goh all the best in their future undertakings.

Message YAB TUAN CHOW KON YEOW Chief Minister of Penang As we march together towards the Penang 2030 vision, for Penang to be a family focused green and smart state that inspires the nation, it is a journey which is inevitably linked to Penang’s past achievements as well as her continuing vibrant cultural dialogue.

With a strong presence year after year, the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra continues to contribute to the narrative of Penang’s arts scene by delivering quality performances that all music lovers have come to expect: powerful, intriguing, uplifting and thought-provoking music. Infused with passion to promote classical music for all, the members of the PPO who perform on a voluntary basis are guided by the vision and creativity of the PPO Board in connecting, enriching, inspiring and advancing Penang’s communities through the power of music.

Nevertheless, more has to be and must be done to engage the masses on the far-reaching benefits of music and performing arts. The State Government and its agencies assist PPO by providing funding on an annual basis, but much is still needed from individuals and industry players through regular patronage of PPO performances and corporate philanthropy to make this appreciation of arts, accessible to all.

In sync with the Experience Penang 2020 campaign, I strongly urge fellow Penangites and friends of Penang to experience the magic of our very own voluntary orchestra in their upcoming performances.

My very best wishes for a successful 2020-2021 season!

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Chia Loong Thye Hon. Treasurer Datin Seri Irene Yeap Chairperson

Board of Directors 2020-2021

Agnes James Hon. Secretary

Danny Goon

Lee Fee Khoon

Tan Sri Dato Emeritus Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan 2

Message with well-established educational institutions, we can drive forward growth and inspire more young Penangites to take up creative careers.

Over the past 10 years the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) has directed well-executed ideas that kept it at a prominent place at the centre of Penang’s cultural dialogue. The PPO has found a special chemistry with our Penang community and brought to life, quality music with passion.

Another fresh start for PPO in 2020 is the unveiling of a new logo design that’s forward-thinking and energetic. As a way to further signify a change and an upswing for the transforming orchestra, it’s only right that our logo gets a makeover as well.

I am grateful to the orchestra’s voluntary musicians and choristers for helping to enrich, inspire and advance Penang through the power of music.

The Board and I will continue to work towards re-positioning the orchestra around concepts of innovation, community and engagement.

As we move into a new decade, the PPO Board will continue to be a strong advocate of continuous adaptation that nourishes the rich ecosystem that is fundamental to Penang’s classical music community.

We hope that the State Government and its agencies will work with us and give us the commitment to help us create a new vision for PPO – a vision to uplift the standard of music and continue to be an active part of the cultural fabric of our community.

Though grounded in a heritage of discipline and experience, we embrace initiatives that elevate the orchestra’s identity, virtuosity and energy.

To all Penangites, we ask that you continue to provide your patronage and support for PPO. We look forward to seeing you at our concerts and sharing with you the magical moments at our concerts.

To bring this about, I am committed to working with the State Government to find opportunities for PPO to partner with an institution of higher learning to support the next generation of musical talent. I hope that through collaborations

Join us in our next chapter and we continue to reimagine new pathways for PPO. Datin Seri Irene Yeap Chairperson 3

“A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF PPO”

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2019 was a pivotal year, no more no less, and history will well attest to its highs and lows on both the international and domestic stages.

Here in Penang, the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), was approaching the end of its first decade, and on the cusp of the much-vaunted 2020. How did we do?

T

he PPO of today, is a far cry from its many parents, whoever the claimant. Ten years into its new life, it has blossomed in ways many find hard to imagine. Beset by storms and initial tribulations, it has overcome them all and come up smelling like roses? Well, that may be an apt analogy. It may well be enough to encourage the good men and women both on and behind the stage to march confidently into the second decade with aplomb.

During 2019, we had collaborations with old friends and new.

We had new branch-outs with our Winds Section and the Chamber Choir, and witnessed the relaunch of the PPO Choir.

The Orchestra started its 2019 season on 3 March with “Brahms’ Double”, a full suit under the baton of Prof Chan Tze Law featuring Andrew Ng on Violin and James Ng on Cello.

The programme comprised Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, Haydn’s Symphony in D Major ‘London Symphony N and Brahms’ Double Concerto in A minor, op. 102’.

The Penang Philharmonic Winds under Resident Conductor, Ng Choong Yen played to a full house at the PenangPac on 26 May. There was a 61 piece player list who thrilled the crowd with the likes 5

of Satoshi Yagisawa’s A New Beginning, Swearingen’s Blue Ridge Saga, and popular hits from The Lion King, La La Land and Hairspray.

On 2 July, we hosted the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their North Malaysia Tour, under Conductor Gerard Salonga.

They brought along prodigy Tengku Irfan who mesmerised the audience with Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1. After the interval, the MPO walked down memory lane with hits from Leonard Bernstein, Jimmy Boyle, P Ramlee and Ahmad Merican.

Penangite Pung Aik Khai who now resides in America and is the music director of the CCM Concert Orchestra, CCM Chamber Orchestra and Sound of Joy Choir, made a triumphant return to his hometown on 29 June with Farewell My Concubine. Leading the PPO, into Schumann’s Symphony No 1 in B Major, Op. 38 “Spring” in the 1st half, he introduced Chinese Soprano, Huang Ping in Guan Xia’s Farewell My Concubine after the intermission. It was followed by Li Huanzhi’s Spring Festival Overture, featuring Chinese Opera’s Jiang Hong on the Jinghu, Beijing Central Conservatory of Music’s Sara Heng on the Guzheng and Win Tan Boon Choon of Taiping, on the Flute. It was a cross-cultural performance par excellence!

The Chulalongkorn University Symphony Orchestra, continued our collaboration series with their appearance on 21 July. Under Conductor Nora-ath Chanklum, they played Bach’s Prelude from Suite No 1 in G Major, Bizet’s Carmen Suite No 1, Elgar’s Salute d’amour, Op. 12, and popular hits from Gershwin, Mancini, and compositions by the late King Bhumibol.

But the highlight of the year had to be “Reformation” on 24 August, with Ciaran McAuley conducting the PPO and featuring world-renowned pianist Stephen Hough. Featuring the music of Handel, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, it moved a regular patron 6

of PPO to remark “...Stephen Hough’s performance of Beethoven Piano Concerto no 3 in C minor with the PPO was a wonderful and measured masterclass. Unlike other great concertos which has the soloist enter with pomp and passion at the first downbeat of the conductor’s baton, Beethoven teases and makes our maestro practically sit on his hands for a full three and a half minutes, while Ciaran McAuley and the PPO play a symphonic introduction, before Stephen unleashes his prowess with some showy scales on the Steinway, and launch into the concerto proper. After that the beautiful conversations between pianist, and the various orchestral sections were effective and lively. Brilliant! The whole concerto was entertaining especially the last Rondo-Allegro movement where Beethoven’s composition is light hearted and conjures up for me a balletic performance where tutted ballerinas and elegant guys in tights jump about and pirouette. At the end of his performance, Stephen Hough had the enthusiastic audience literally eating out of his hands ...” The icing on the cake were the encores Stephen Hough graciously pulled out. They were P Ramlee’s Getaran Jiwa and Chopin’s Nocturne. The audience was ecstatic.

Our Chamber Choir under Artistic Directors Lim Ai Hooi and Yong Chee Foon and Asst Conductor Ong Geok Cheng, delighted our patrons with Be Our Guests on 5 October. It was a multi-course meal featuring appetizers, soup, entree. cleanser, salad, local specialities and dessert, all played out in a variety of songs which does prove that music is indeed the food of love.

We cannot wait for 2020!

Dato’ Danny Goon Board Member.

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PENANG PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA: A GROWING FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH! 8

Stephen Hough & Ciarรกn McAuley Concert Performace in Sept. 2019

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P

enang is a brilliant city with a great heritage, a cosmopolitan population, wonderful food culture and an artistic community that is vibrant and diverse, so much so, that as an artist I imagine it’s hard at times to impress. That being said, brilliance visits such a place willingly and this month the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra has a treat prepared for the city’s musical fans. PPO presents a program featuring the world renowned pianist Stephen Hough, whose list of musical accolades spans from regular appearances with the world’s top-tier orchestras, to being a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and the first classical music recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.

Stephen is also an award winning poet, writer, painter and composer and the sheer breath of his artistic activities has led the Economist magazine to name him one of only twenty living polymaths in the world. It will only be his pianistic ability on display this time, but perhaps he too will be coaxed back to Penang time and time again, as have I. Musicians often talk of the Three B’s: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms but for me, Penang is the Three D’s: Dumplings, Durian and Dhal.

On the musical bill is a Germanic program spanning from the baroque to the early romantic period, presenting Handel’s Water Music Suite, Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3 and Mendelssohn Symphony No.5, the ‘Reformation’ symphony. Whilst the Beethoven and Mendelssohn may be well known to music lovers, the Handel is somewhat more obscure and with the support of Culture Ireland, I am delighted to present this piece in arrangement by the Irish composer Hamilton Harty.

Whether you are a classical music novice, a PPO regular or an all-round music enthusiast, this concert makes no other promises than to excite and risk all. I have had the privilege of conducting many times in Malaysia and this is the first and only time I have written such an open letter to the city. PPO and Penang are now attracting musicians the likes of which are few and far between and perhaps this ‘reformation’ will be the catalyst for a new and exciting concert venue in the years to come. We look forward to welcoming you to the concert.

Ciarán McAuley (Guest Conductor) August 2019 10

2020/2021 PROGRAMME

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2020 ORCHESTRAL

WINDS

Scheherazade

Folk

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO)

Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW)

Chan Tze Law, Conductor Foo Mei Yi, Piano Bartosz Woroch, Violin

Chris Ramos, Conductor Thomas Leleu, Tuba

3 May 2020 (Sunday) @ 3pm.

Venue : Dalat International School

1 March 2020 (Sunday) @ 3pm Venue Dewan Sri Pinang

Programme

Programme

Paris Sketches – Martin Ellerby Shenandoah – Frank Ticheli Tuba Concerto Spring Festival – Chen Yi 2nd Suite in F – Gustav Holst Star Wars: The Force Awakens – John Williams, arr. Bocook

RAVEL Piano Concerto in G Major RIMSKY-KORSARKOV Scheherazade E. YSAYE Sonata no.6 op. 27

ORCHESTRAL WINDS

“Surprise”

5 July 2020 (Sunday) @ 3pm Venue : Dewan Budaya, USM

“Unforgettable” 24 April 2020 (Saturday) @ 8pm.

Venue : TBC

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO)

Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW)

Ng Choong Yen, Conductor Philip Arkinstall, Clarinet

Ng Choong Yen, Conductor

Programme

Programme

MOZART Don Giovanni Overture WEBER

Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73

HAYDN Symphony No. 94 in G Major

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2020 ORCHESTRAL

WINDS

TBC 22 August 2020 (Saturday) @ 8pm Dewan Sri Pinang

Memories of Movies

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO)

Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW)

Ciaran McAuley, Conductor Stephen Hough, Piano

Ng Choong Yen, Conductor

3 October 2020 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : Dewan Budaya, USM

Programme

Programme

Wagner Overture to Rienzi Beethoven Choral Fantasy Dvorak 8

PP POTPORRI PP Potpourri 2020

31 October 2020 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : Penang Philharmonic Auditorium, The Star Pitt St

CHAMBER CHOIR PPCC

Penang Philharmonic Members

“WE ARE ......”

26 September 2020 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : Penang Philharmonic Auditorium,

The Star Pitt St

CHORUS

Programme

“When Nature Sings”

Penang Philharmonic Chamber Choir (PPCC) Lim Ai Hooi, Conductor Yong Chee Foon, Conductor Tan Jin Yin, Conductor

28 & 29 November 2020 (Sat @ 8pm & Sun @ 3pm) Venue : Penang Philharmonic Auditorium,

The Star Pitt St

Programme

Penang Philharmonic Chorus (PPC) Mak Chi Hoe, Conductor

Programme 13

2021 ORCHESTRAL

ORCHESTRAL

Divergence

Mozartiana

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO)

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO)

Datuk Mustafa Fuzer Nawi, Conductor Albert Tiu, Piano

Tan Por Song, Conductor Elias David Moncado, Violin

Programme

Programme

WINDS

WINDS

Unforgettable

The Adventure of Music

Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW)

Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW)

Ng Choong Yen, Conductor

Ng Choong Yen, Conductor

Programme

Programme

13 March 2021 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : Dewan Sri Pinang

31 July (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue: Penang Pac

WAGNER The Flying Dutchman Overture LISZT Piano Concerto BRAHMS Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

MOZART Titus Overture BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D Major,

Op. 61 RAVEL Pavane for a Dead Princess TCHAIKOVSKY Orchestral Suite no. 4 Mozartiana

24th April 2021 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : tbc

21st August 2021 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : tbc

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2021 CHORUS

ORCHESTRAL

TBC

Little Russian

11 & 12 September 2021 (Sat @ 8pm & Sun @ 3pm) Venue : Penang Philharmonic Auditorium,

The Star Pitt St

2nd October 2021 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : Dewan Sri Pinang Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) Ng Choong Yen, Conductor Mindaugus Jankauskas, tenor

Penang Philharmonic Chorus (PPC) Mak Chi Hoe, Conductor

Programme

Programme

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony no. 2 in C minor, Op.17 Little Russian

CHAMBER CHOIR PPCC

PP POTPORRI

TBC

PP Potpourri 2021

Penang Philharmonic Chamber Choir (PPCC)

Penang Philharmonic Members

Lim Ai Hooi, Conductor Yong Chee Foon, Conductor Tan Jin Yin, Conductor

Programme

25 September 2021 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : Penang Philharmonic Auditorium,

The Star Pitt St

30 October 2021 (Saturday) @ 8pm Venue : Penang Philharmonic Auditorium,

The Star Pitt St

Programme

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Ben Ng Choong Yen Resident Conductor PPO

Born in Penang, clarinetist and conductor Ng Choong Yen serves as Resident Conductor of the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra since 2013, also enjoys his career as band director in several high schools in Penang and Perak.

He is a graduate of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, where he was awarded a full scholarship. While studying at the conservatory as a clarinet major, Ng also studied conducting and was later selected to the Advanced Conducting class under tutelage of Prof. Chan Tze Law. He also performed in masterclasses conducted by conducting icons Zheng Xiaoying of China and Eiji Oue of Japan. Recently, he has been selected to participate in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Conducting Workshop in USA conducted by Prof. Mark Gibson from

College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.

As a Resident Conductor, Choong Yen has worked with some international acclaimed artists such as Yoshiko Ikemura, Abidah Noor, Sean Ghazi, Gus Teja, Jin Ta, Anchee Aksornteang. His upcoming engagement concert is with Mindaugus Jankauskas, tenor from Lithuania.

Choong Yen’s latest achievement is setting up a wind orchestra, Penang Philharmonic Winds under umbrella of PPO, to provide a platform for local talented winds players to perform with renowned artists. PPW is building up its repertoire range from classical band music to contemporary compositions with upcoming concert engagement with a French tuba soloist Thomas Leleu and conductor Chris Ramos from USA. 16

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Tann Soon Pin Concertmaster

Tann Soon Pin is an accomplished pianist and violinist. She obtained her Fellowship and Licentiate in Piano Performance from Trinity College of Music London, Licentiate from Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music London, Licentiate of the London College of Music, and a Licentiate Diploma in Piano Teaching from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. She also holds a Licentiate Diploma in Violin Performance from Trinity College of Music, London.

Soon Pin started studying both the piano and violin at a very young age. She started performing on stage at the tender age of four. During her junior primary years, she was actively involved in piano and electone performances and competitions. She has on many occasions represented Penang to compete in the National competitions.

She also successfully auditioned to join the Yamaha National Junior Original Concert (JOC), currently known as the Junior Special Advanced Course (JSAC).

During secondary school, Soon Pin was constantly involved in Chinese Orchestras, playing the Erhu. Besides playing in her 18

school’s Chinese Orchestra, she was also a member of the Chong Yee Chinese Orchestra and the Hui Yin Seh Chinese Orchestra. Soon Pin also plays the Guzheng, and has participated in numerous Guzhen competitions.

She obtained a scholarship to major in Violin and minor in Piano at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in 1991, where she studied the violin under Mr Wen Chen. Unfortunately, her studies in Hong Kong only lasted three months and Soon Pin had to come back to Penang due to unforeseen circumstances.

in 1989. She then led the orchestra for three other opera productions by The Arts Council of Penang, namely The Merry Widow (1996), Carmen (1997) and The Land of Smiles (1999).

Soon Pin was engaged as an adjunct violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and toured with them to Japan in 2004. Later, she has also successfully auditioned and obtained a position at the NSO. However, she chose to stay and build her career in Penang.

In 2005, she had the privilege to perform with the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonics under the baton of Cord Garben in Penang and in KL.

In 1993, she was the second violin leader during Brunei Asian Camp, where she was the first Malaysian to be selected as a section leader. She also participated in the Commonwealth Youth Orchestra in KL in 1998.

Soon Pin is currently the concert master of the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO). With the PPO, she has led and performed in all the orchestra’s numerous concerts. She is also involved in several chamber concerts organised by the Penang Philharmonic, performing both as a chamber musician and soloist.

Soon Pin is the concert master of the Penang Symphony Orchestra (PSO) where she has been a member since 1984. With the orchestra, she has toured Australia in 1985, Taiwan in 1989, Thailand in 1993 and China in 2007. She was concert master for the concert tour to Australia in 1993 and Japan in 1996.

Besides teaching piano and violin, Soon Pin is frequently involved as an accompanist, performing at various recitals, charity concerts and for examinations. At present, Soon Pin is a violinist with the PYLY String Quartet.

She joined the opera Cosi Fan Tutte, organised by The Singapore Polytechnic, 19

Judy Oh Siew Keow Co-concertmaster

Born and educated in Penang, Judy Oh Siew Keow started her violin lessons at a young age with a leading local violinist, Ms Koe Siew Eng, who now teaches and resides in the United States of America.

She completed her Grade 8 violin studies before going to Christchurch, New Zealand , to further her studies in Business Administration. Whilst in Christchurch, her love for music prompted her to continue her violin lessons with several local violinists.

She also participated in many chamber concerts. Upon her return to Penang after completing her studies, she pursued her love for music and went on to obtain her Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music, London, (LRSM) in violin teaching.

Besides being an accomplished violinist, Judy also worked in the corporate sector as the Regional Manager for Royal Selangor for over 35 years, spearheading the operations in the Northern region of Peninsular Malaysia, until her retirement in 2010. She found good job satisfaction and a well-managed company which resulted in her long service with Royal Selangor.

Early encounters in orchestra playing from the time she was in primary school sparked her love for orchestra music.

Judy has continued till the present day.

She has played a pivotal role in the continuing success of the Penang Symphony Orchestra and the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra, where she was the Concert Mistress till 2012 when she stepped down to pave the way for younger musicians. Presently she still plays an active role in both orchestras as the coconcert mistress. Throughout her years of involvement in the two orchestras, she has gained vast experience playing under numerous guest conductors and with numerous soloists from local and abroad.

In recognition of her vast contribution and involvement in the promoting of classical music in Penang, Judy was conferred the award Darjah Johan Negeri (DJN) by the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Pulau Pinang on 14 July 2018, in conjunction with the Governor’s Birthday celebrations.

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Penang Philharmonic Orchestra

RESIDENT CONDUCTOR Ng Choong Yen FIRST VIOLIN Concertmaster Tann Soon Pin

SECOND VIOLIN Principal Foo Xiaoxuan

VIOLA Principal Lynn Khoo

Co-concertmaster Judy Oh

Chan King Bin Chan Yue Lynn Kee Ming Zhan Lai Jo-Vyn Law Sze Han Lee Zhi Han Liz Oong Ooi Hui Jinn Seah Ying Zhi Auderey See Toh Seow Xue Hui Edmund Tan Tan Zi Ling Jade Elisha Chow Ying Aaron See Tan Yean Chang

ShirleyTan Yan Ching Ooi Kee On Wang Pack Yee Takaaki Suzuki

Edison Boon Foo Xiaoyu Ho Sing Tein Deborah Kay Dominic Kay Dorothy Kay Khor Wei Fernn Yvonne Lee Lee Jo Wei Tan Wei Kang Peter Lo Goh Yuann Tyng Khor Kar Hoe

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VIOLONCELLO Principal Kathleen Coolbaugh Lim Saw Lan Ong Jing Rou Pung Xin Yao Tan Tzu Pin

CONTRABASS Principal Tan Tsu Mei

CLARINET Principal Ng Choong Yen

TRUMPET Principal Kevin Lowe

Moses Cheng Jiin Chorng Ong Jing Mian

Lim Fu Yan Lim Yan Chao Jimmy Tan

Gan Chee Keong

FLUTE Principal Louise Goss-Custard Minato Seno Abigail Soo Qiao Wei OBOE Principal Lee Chun Howe Ow Teik Siang

BASSOON Principal Lim Teng Aik Tee Jin Xuan Kenneth Yeoh Jian Yan FRENCH HORN Principal Chris Ramos Dave Yost Christine Chen

TROMBONE Principal Lee Chee Yean Delvan Khor Ong Aun Guan William Tan TUBA Principal Zen Lee TIMPANI Principal Khoo Kai Wei PERCUSSION Lee Kar Shin

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PENANG PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

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Gabriel De Leon

Khoo Kai Wei

Goh Yuann Tyng, Khoo Kar Hoe

Achton Chan

Achton Chan, Tan Yan Ching, Gabriel De Leon, Teh Jin Xuan

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Lim Saw Lan, Kensuke Kaitani, Tan Tor Song

Michael Kong, Pung Xin Yao, Lim Saw Lan, Kathleen Coolbaugh, Foo Tzer Wu

Loo Yan Hui, Garrett Miller, Chris Ramos, Dave Yost, Chanaborn Panmuan 27

Ng Choong Yen & The String Beauties Joyce Low Ng Chia Wen Dorothy Kay Lisa Chung

Gabriel de Leon Dorothy Kay Vincenzo de Leon

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Khor Wei Fernn, Yvonne Lee

Pung Xin Yao

Minato Seno

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Moses Cheng & Lynn Khoo

Edmund

Nicholas Liew, Minato Seno, Lim Fu Yan, Asthon Chan, Lim Teng Aik, Chan Hoe Yin

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Sukol Sirisak, Tan Tsu Mei

Moses Cheng, Ong Jing Mian

Lim Teng Aik

Lee Chun Howe 31

Foo Xiaoyu, Edison Boon

Hong Sing Tein, Lee Jo Wei

Tann Soon Pin

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Ow Teik Siang, Kenny Ooi

Lim Teng Aik, Tee Jin Xuan

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Lim Saw Lan, Stephen Johnson

Nelson Wong, Ow Teik Siang Foo Xiaoyu

Liz Oong

Ooi Kee On

Lim Fu Yan, Charity Yong

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Jerrard Lai Kin Hin, Joseph Lai Kah Hin

Jerrard Lai Kin Hin, Jonathan Lai Mun Hin Teh Xu Han

Khoo Kai Wei

Kee Ming Zhan, Lee Zhi Han

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Penang Philharmonic Winds

Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW) was established in 2018. It was set up as a platform for winds, brass and percussion musicians.

The members are from various schools like Heng Ee High School, Chung Hwa Confucian High School, Dalat International School and working adults. The PPW conducts masterclasses as well as music exchange programmes. They perform different genres of music from classical to modern.

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Penang Philharmonic Winds RESIDENT CONDUCTOR Ng Choong Yen FLUTE Edison Boon Ham You Chen Minato Seno Abigail Soo Teh Zhi Qi Marissa Yost Louise Goss-Custard

TENOR SAXOPHONE DJ Yost

CLARINET Bong Shu Theng Melwin Cheng Ryan Choi Ji Soo Kang Thomas Lee Lim Fu Yan Lim Yan Chao Jimmy Tan Isaac Goh Cheng Ern

TRUMPET Jocelyn Chan Gan Chee Keong Kevin Lowe Kuan Yu Fung Leow Joo Ming Daniel Lim Elton Ooi Jonathan Park Tan Tsu Mei Esther Tse Lye Zhi Yuan

BASS CLARINET Christopher Ooi ALTO SAXOPHONE Henderson Ooi Hong Sing Yong Shu Yin Joseph Teh Zhe Xi Wong Kah Seng

BARITONE SAXOPHONE Edward Yeoh Hong Enn BASSOON Kenneth Yeoh Jian Yan

HORN Chris Ramos Christine Chen Dan Jun Xian Dave Yost EUPHONIUM Ong Leng Delvan Khor 37

TROMBONE Lee Chee Yean Ong Aun Guan William Tan Lim Zheng Ying Lee Yao Yuan Leow Joo Kheng Liew Choon Foong TUBA Zen Lee Chan Xing Lin Boey Li Wen Ong Shao Jie TIMPANI Khoo Kai Wei PERCUSSION Ang Wei Keong Jerrard Lai Jonathan Lai Joseph Lai Lee Kar Shin Tann Soon Pin Teh Xu Han Chan King Bin STRING BASS Moko Lau

Ong Aun Guan, Lee Chee Yean

William Tan, Teh Khai Yuen

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Garrett Miller, Chris Ramos, Dave Yost, Chanakorn Panmuan

Lye Zhi Yuan, Kevin Lowe

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Tann Soon Pin

Henderson Ooi

Louise Goss-Custard 40

Abigail Soo, Bong Shu Theng, Teh Zhi Qi

Goh Yuann Tyng

Lim Fu Yan 41

, Thomas Lee

Penang Philharmonic Chamber Choir PPCC 42

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"THE MOST PRECIOUS IS THE TRUST THAT WE HAVE DEVELOPED WITH EACH OTHER, UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTING EACH MEMBER FOR WHO THEY ARE INDIVIDUALLY, AND GROWING FRIENDSHIPS." - Ms Lim Ai Hooi

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A

fter a rigorous round of auditions in December 2016, we selected 26 outstanding singers, and in January 2017, the Penang Philharmonic Chamber Choir (PPCC) was founded. This marked the start of a beautiful connection between Singapore and Penang.

Since its initiation, our PPCC members have been conscientious in their rehearsals, gamely exploring a cappella choral works in various languages and genres. My Music Coordinators have also been diligent in improving their individual musical abilities.

However, to me, the most precious is the trust that we have developed with each other, understanding and accepting each member for who they are individually, and growing friendships. These values, and the love we have for each other, is also what the choir strives to express during our concerts and performances, and convey that to our audience as well.

In the blink of an eye, three years have passed. Perhaps because I am a Penangite myself, I feel a special bond with the PPCC, and always look forward to our rehearsals together.

I am immensely proud of how far our members have come since the inception of PPCC, and would also like to express my gratitude to my Co-Artistic Director, Mr Yong Chee Foon, for his support and dedication in working with PPCC. Looking forward, we will bring our values of tenacity and “heart work� into 2020 and beyond, creating our own uniquely PPCC journey.

Ms Lim Ai Hooi Choral Director

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the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a Bachelor's Degree in Accountancy. After several years in the financial sector, he moved on to pursue his passion - Choral art. In 2016, he graduated with a Masters in Music Choral Conducting from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Currently the conductor of several school choirs in Singapore, his choirs have performed well in the Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging of Choirs, achieving several Gold and Gold with Honours awards.

His choirs have also ventured overseas to participate in several international competitions where they received numerous accolades with Gold and Silver medals. In 2013, he was awarded a Distinction for Conductor Award at the 4th International Krakow Choir Festival in Poland.

Yong Chee Foon Conductor

He is also the Associate Artistic Director of Sourcewerkz Pte Ltd, a Singaporean choral events company that organises choral festivals around the world. His stand for good music education for the younger generation has led him to lead more than 2000 youths who have sung under his baton in the past decade.

Yong Chee Foon is an accomplished conductor from Singapore. A pianist by training, his passion for choral music developed when he first joined the Victoria Junior College Choir and then, the Victoria Chorale. He first graduated from

He desires to inspire young singers, through choral music education, to live life with passion and achieve excellence in all aspects of life whilst remaining appreciative to all who have made a difference to them.

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singer Stephan Klemm. She studied piano under Ng Soo See and guitar under Acoustic Guitar House LAM. Recently, Jin Yin has just received an offer to be a lecturer in school of Arts, Music Department of USM. Her stage work includes Chinese musical Liu Ru Shi with professors of Music Academy NNU in China, The Yellow River Cantata with Malacca Pay Fong Schools Alumni Association, and the role of Sonia Glawari (The Merry Widow) with a Belgian stage director Benoît De Leersnyder in Thailand. She was also featured in number of concerts in China, and as a young musician in concerts in Malaysia sharing the stage with opera singers from Flanders Opera Studio, Belgium. In China, she has joined the NNU Music choir and was actively participating in numbers of choir competitions and group performance tours. She is also a member of the Messengers and Penang Chamber Choir and has participated in numerous Sacred Music performances.

Tan Jin Yin Choral Coordinator for PPCC Soprano Jin Yin received her Master of Arts in Vocal

Performance from Nanjing Normal University (NNU) China, and Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy and Performance from Universiti Sains of Malaysia (USM). She studied under opera singer Professor Lu Qi, Khoo Hooi Lay and Chin Loke Chun. She followed workshops and master classes with world-renowned vocal coach Loh Siew Tuan, well-known Lieder accompanist Graham Johnson, accompanist Hein Boterberg from International Opera Academy Belgium, pianist Michael Hampton, pianist Roy Holmes and Chicago Lyric Opera’s star Soprano Stacey Tappan, Dutch opera singer Annett Andriesen, and German opera

Jin Yin has won prizes in several competitions.

She has been awarded a scholarship to study in NNU in Chin Yong Youth Vocal Competition 2016, 3rd Prize in The 6th Bangkok Opera ASEAN International Singing Competition 2014, Gold Prize in Chin Yong Youth Vocal Competition 2014, 2nd prize in Malaysia National Vocal competition 2013, 3rd prize in year 2012 and 4th prize in year 2011.

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Ong Aun Guan, Lee Chee Yean

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Soprano Belicia Yeap Qiao Bei Brenda Poh Jia Wen Carine Soon Ying Sze Goh Yi Xuan Lee Hsieh Ying Lee Xiao Yun Noor Afifa Mohd Hanafiah Pung Xin Yao Teh Chia Huei

Alto Caryn Lim Mae Lyn Grace Mah Ern Chze Joyce Goh En Xin Khaw Shao En Lau Wei Theng Lee Hsieh Yie Ong Geok Theng Ong Wan Xin Sin Su Zen

Tenor Chow Hong Wei Edwin Choo Hong Yee Galvin Ooi Yeow Boon Josh Ee Cung Ming Ng Khin Hooi Roy Quah Zhi Ming

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Bass Dicky Larson Elween Loke Wei Jie Jeremy Cheong Han Wei Kellvintren Loo Gunasegaran Teh Kean Hooi

Penang Philharmonic Chamber Choir

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"THE POWER OF COMMUNITY SINGING WHERE PEOPLE FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE CAN COME TOGETHER IN A SAFE SPACE TO CREATE, TO SHARE, TO LEARN FROM ONE ANOTHER, TO INSPIRE OTHERS AND TO BE INSPIRED BY OTHERS - IS A BEAUTIFUL THING." - Mak Chi Hoe

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S

aturday December 14th, 2019 marked a significant milestone for the Penang Philharmonic organization. The newly formed Penang Philharmonic Chorus gave their debut concert entitled ‘KOM!’ to a rapturous reception by the Penang public. The chorus, numbering over 50 singers did themselves proud despite only having 8 short months of rehearsals, sang with stunning artistry, integrity and with a lot of joy and heart. The repertoire was varied - from Bruckner to Fjeilheim, in a wide variety of different languages and styles. I have had the most wonderful time working with the chorus, week after week, developing a good and close relationship with the singers and seeing them grow, was a most beautiful thing. It was really down to their hard work, passion and team spirit which ultimately made this concert so successful - a great testament to all that we can achieve extraordinary things, if we all work together.

As a choral conductor, it was important for me to establish right from the start, a clear vision and ethos how my work was going to be based upon - that singing is a right for all, and that everybody should be given an opportunity, platform, skills and nurturing to sing and to make music. The power of community singing where people from all walks of life can come together in a safe space to create, to share, to learn from one another, to inspire others and to be inspired by others - is a beautiful thing. More importantly, the chorus have lots of fun each week! The chorus had learnt to embrace this ethos and it was wonderful to see the members supporting each other during the combined and sectional rehearsals, also to empower the members to embrace leadership to encourage peer support.

I am truly grateful and thankful to the PPO Board and Datin Irene Yeap for the encouragement, support and for entrusting me with this opportunity to come back to Penang - my hometown, to contribute back to the community where I had received so much support myself during my early years. I look forward to the next season of the PPO Chorus and the magic that awaits me in each rehearsal because for me, it is not only the destination that matters, but the journey.

Mak Chi Hoe Artistic Director/ Conductor 53

Mak Chi Hoe with father

Choristers in action 54

Penang Philharmonic Chorus

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Mak Chi Hoe SOPRANO 1

ALTO 1

TENOR

Belicia Yeap Qiao Bei Choo Hooi Shuan Koet Tian Wei Lee Xiao Yun Lee Yen Hsuang Looi Hoong Yuk Low Mei Leng Mak Hui Ying Mary Lee Eu Sim Kuan Siew Chin

Ang Siau Thian Chow Ming Miu Cassandra Tan Zhao Ying Lim Fei Ai Loh Geok Lan Roshini Chandran Loo Seat Ai

Adrian Gan Chee Kheong Chow Hong Wei Humphrey Yeap Leong Poh Josh Ee Cung Ming Melvin Loh Hong Chuan Ng Khin Hooi

SOPRANO 2 Adeline Teoh Sin Yea Adelyn Chee Lee Hwa Belloni Lee Yun Jie Boo Siao Fong Florence Guok Huei En Juliana Khoo Saw Ee Leang Ming Siew Ooi Wei Tan Yi Ling Yee Lee Lian

ALTO 2 Carole Orchard Laura Chum Sook Fon Lee Fee Khoon Jessica Lim Ai Leng Mah Su Mei Pung Xin Yao Liaw Chiew Tung

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BASS Chia Tong Yong Chiew Jing Jie Chong Kock Khuan Victor Loo See Choon Joel Lim Du Bois Philip Yeoh Thye Chai Steven Cheah Kwan Mien

1 1 1 1 2 2 2

Penang Philharmonic Chorus

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Penang Philharmonic Chorus

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ince its inception in April this year, PPC has grown into a body of enthusiastic and confident singers set ablaze by our dynamic choral conductor cum educator Mak Chi Hoe, who flies in weekly (or tries to, what with his busy schedule) from Kuala Lumpur.

To begin with, the members are from a diverse background of age, (spanning some sixty years) musical experience and all else, but all with a love for singing. Through near-weekly sessions, Chi Hoe brought us through pitch and rhythmic recognition, and touches on music concept learning with a combination of Kodaly and Dalcroze methods.

The basic mechanics for a good tone production were gradually and systematically introduced.

We were constantly reminded that, to quote him.......

“When you make a contract with me, every time you sing you are committed to make a beautiful sound.”

Details of phrasings, dynamics, subtle shadings of nuances, intonation, balance of tone all seeped in as we were learning our songs ......nothing was spared. It was hard work, yes, but all done amidst great laughter coupled with seriousness and intent. The sessions were long, sometimes a gruelling three hours, but they never seemed to be so because he made the learning process so enjoyable and so much fun. Chi Hoe’s sense of humour, laughter and liveliness are so spontaneous, so infectious, they can only spill over to us.

Thus we grew from strength to strength. Each practice was structured to move a little step up. Each sectional practice, ably handled by our three committed leaders (Belicia, Laura and Sarah) in the absence of Chi Hoe, was constructed to consolidate our songs. At the end of eight months we were ready, initial doubts were swept aside, for our debut recital. The audience was delighted, and so were we!

On the whole, we managed to capture the mood and style of the pieces with enthusiasm and ease. This we owe to Chi Hoe’s clear and precise and 58

conducting which was comforting. It gave us the confidence which, at times, was otherwise questionable. He was decisive about what he wanted and somehow had the uncanny ability and means to draw it out of us.

The improvised Ugandan lullaby was a magical soothing chant enhanced by the occasional bell, a contrast to the romping Buffalo Girls which was delivered with great panache. The ladies were almost angelic in Paradisum, but it was really the men who stole the limelight with their 2 songs.

Shoshone was a sweet declaration of youthful love, the other a longing outcry for a Dame, both sung with convincing showmanship.

It has been a wonderful eight months and I must say, with my myriad choral experiences over the decades, this has been more than fulfilling. PPC looks forward to learning and working further with our Penang-born gem, and my wish is that we can all give our full commitment to build upon what we now have. We owe it to Chi Hoe and to ourselves....we can only work as a team.

- Lee Fee Khoon, Board Member & PPC member.

I have watched the Penang Philharmonic Chorus develop from its inception to its debut concert. At its conception there were those who said it could not be done with ‘more senior voices’. If the aim is to create a choir capable of winning national and international competitions that is probably correct.

But the chorus group was very fortunate to have Mak Chi Hoe appointed as its Artistic Director cum Conductor. His belief that all enthusiastic singers should be given a chance, his musical knowledge and ability to train voices is fundamental to the success of the choir. Starting with a diverse range of people with a wide range of musical ability his enthusiasm and humour has allowed the choir to learn and develop at an astonishing pace.

At times during rehearsals the thought of a concert in December seemed like a pipe dream. Yet the chorus gave the audience a delightful concert with a program almost as diverse as the choir’s members. I can’t wait for their next concert.

- Alan 59

What struck me most about the performance was the energy and the strong connection between the singers and the conductor, they seem to breathe as one. I was quickly drawn by this force and was completely immersed in their performance. The choice of songs were good as it catered for the varied taste of the audience. My favourite number was (Tulo Tulo) an African lullaby. The unique improvisation created a meditative, mysterious atmosphere with the sound of the bell interspersed in between. It was so mesmerizing! The spiritual song (Elijah Rock) really rocked. (In Paradisum) by the ladies was beautifully angelic. On the other hand (There is nothing like a dame) by the men was fun and cheeky.

(Buffalo Gals) really captured the spirit and teasing fun of cowboys and cowgirls courting in a barn dance.

My heartiest congratulations go to the teamwork of the singers, and a big salute to the talented, energetic, passionate conductor who has brought a new breeze into the Penang Choral scene!

- MM Chow “The PPC’s debut concert was infectiously energetic, with songs that we found ourselves humming the next day. Though newly formed in early 2019 mainly from amateur Penang singers, the 50-strong chorus showed its already broad range with a programme that included Latin motets, Appalachian spirituals and golden-age musical numbers. What they sometimes lacked in precision, they more than made up in enthusiasm and feeling, led by their charismatic director Mak Chi Hoe.” - Jean-Claude and Quee Lin Du Bois

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PYLY String Quartet

PYLY Chamber Group 61

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Chan Tze Law Conductor Chan Tze Law is Music Director of Singapore’s Metropolitan Festival Orchestra and the award-winning Orchestra of The Music Makers. In 2018 he received the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore’s Artistic excellence award for his service to the Singapore music community.

Chan has appeared with major orchestras and soloists in the Asia pacific region.

His performances of Mahler’s 8th symphony with the Orchestra of the Music Makers and Sing50 concerts with the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra and Lang Lang were named ‘Best concerts’ by Singapore’s Sunday Times and Germany’s Der neue Merker observed that “listeners felt they have concluded a great journey of time and spirit”. The West Australian lavished praise on his performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring describing it as “a tour de force.” American Record Guide remarked that he led Mahler’s Resurrection symphony “with a full understanding of the Mahler idiom”. More recently, Chan’s performance of Elgar’s The Music Makers was described

by Classical Voice America as ‘breathtaking walls of sound and intimate moments of haunting beauty’.

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As a pedagogue, Chan is Vice-Dean and Associate Professor of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, and is widely credited for his founding role of the conservatory, its orchestra and New Music Ensemble. Chan was the founding chief conductor of the Australian International Summer Orchestral Institute. He has also given masterclasses in conducting at the Peabody Institute, USA, and Royal Academy of Music, London. In 2019 he served on the selection committee of the Oxford University Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference and in 2020 was invited to conduct at the National Music Camp by the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Concerts and CD recordings conducted by Chan have been broadcast on Australia’s ABC Classic FM, UK’s BBC Radio 3 and featured on Singapore Airlines Krisworld In-flight Classical Music selection. In January 2020 he conducted the long awaited Singapore premiere of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the opera. Chan’s CD recordings are available on Spotify and iTunes.

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Mei Yi Foo Pianist Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Victoria Hall in Singapore.

Winner of the 2013 BBC Music Magazine’s Best Newcomer award, Mei Yi Foo is recognised internationally as an innovative pianist with a diverse and eclectic repertoire. Described as ‘an artist with courageous individualism’ (Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen), Mei Yi’s concerts are lauded for their ‘liberating’ and ‘virtuoso display’ (The Times) that show ‘astounding perfection and creativity’ (Unsuk Chin).

A prolific concert soloist, Mei Yi has appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, London Chamber Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Remix Ensemble and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed at the world’s most eminent festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, Ultraschall Festival Berlin, Huddersfield Festival and the Punkt Festival in Norway. Her recent and future highlights include appearances at the Wigmore Hall, Tokyo Opera City Hall, Royal Albert Hall, 65

As a new music advocate, Mei Yi works regularly with living composers including Dai Fujikura, Richard Baker, Chris Harman and Unsuk Chin. She was also the featured artist at Southbank Centre’s ‘Music of Today’ series in 2017. Her awardwinning album ‘Musical Toys’ featuring the world-premiere recording of Unsuk Chin’s complete Piano Etudes, and her chamber concerto CD ‘ConNotations’ with the Britten Sinfonia have been met with unanimous critical acclaim.

A native of Malaysia, Mei Yi resides in the UK after completing her studies at the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music in London with Yonty Solomon, Chris Elton and Alexander Satz. Currently she holds a teaching position at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Mei Yi was also awarded the medal of Setiawan Tuanku Muhriz for her contribution towards art and music in her home country.

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Bartosz Woroch Pianist Polish-born violinist Bartosz Woroch is a prize winner at major international competitions such as Pablo Sarasate in Spain and Michael Hill in New Zealand.

As a soloist Bartosz has appeared with orchestras across the world, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonic, Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony and Polish Radio Orchestras with conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Libor Pešek, Lukasz Borowicz and Henk Guittart. For the past three seasons, he has led, directed and appeared as soloists with the Sinfonia Cymru, culminating in the orchestra’s first ever international collaboration, ‘Small Nations Big Sounds’ Festival, of which he was Artistic Director.

Lublin Philharmonie, the Edinburgh Fringe, Verbier, West Cork Festivals, and collaborated with a variety of artists such as Pekka Kuusisto, Sting, Caroline Palmer, Uri Caine, Nicholas Daniel, Walter Delahunt and award-winning director Tom Morris.

Recently, Bartosz released his debut CD, ‘Dancer on a Tightrope’ as well as a concerto disc ‘ConNotations’ with the Britten Sinfonia and Mei Yi Foo. Both recordings have been met with unanimous critical acclaim.

Bartosz studied at the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, the Hochschule der Kunste Berne and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he was guided by Marcin Baranowski, Monika Urbaniak-Lisik and Louise Hopkins. Bartosz is currently a violin professor and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Bartosz performs widely across Europe at venues including Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, The Palais des Beaux-Arts, Radio France Festival, 67

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Chris Ramos Band Director Currently a band director at Dalat International School in Penang, Malaysia.

the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque and the Health Sciences Center Orchestra, both community orchestras, and volunteered extensively as a musician at church.

He teaches music courses across grades 6-12, including various classical and jazz ensembles and classes in music theory.

He received his Master of Music in wind conducting from the University of New Mexico where he studied with Eric Rombach-Kendall, Jorge Perez-Gomez, and Chad Simons. While at UNM he directed the basketball bands, guest conducted the various concert and marching bands, and assisted with teaching courses in conducting as well as assisting with the administration of the university’s band program. He also completed extensive coursework in musicology and ethnomusicology, where he won a research award for his work that combined his interests in border studies and band.

He received his Bachelor of Science in music education and Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Texas A&M University-Commerce where he studied conducting and music education with Phillip Clements, Allan Goodwin, and Scott Lee Atchison, and piano with Luis Sanchez.

While at TAMU-C Chris was a member of the university’s pioneering Honors College, the Alpha Chi Honors Society, and he was the assistant director of the Piano Academy at the university.

Chris also enjoys playing french horn and piano across classical and jazz settings, and he enjoys finding innovative and engaging ways of making music and art with others.

Dedicated to the development of the surrounding community, he also conducted 69

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Thomas Leleu Tubist The first tuba player to have ever won the award “Revelation Instrumental Soloist of the Year” at the annual French Grammy awards, the Victoires de la musique classique.

He has developed with the firm the 2250 TL “ French Touch ” tuba which he is currently playing.

At only 32 years of age, Thomas Leleu is considered as the “world star of the tuba” (Europe 1, TMC – french national TV). This iconoclastic artist stands where genres mix: a classical soloist, passionate about world music, modern music and pop… « This absolute tuba genius (La Nouvelle République), acknowledged by his peers, already has an impressive career. In his hands the tuba reveals all its richness, fineness and complexity, a range that may seem endless, where it can finally find a new breath, a new youth.

He joined the Conservatoire de Paris (the CNSM) at age 17. After a three-year training course he obtained the first prize for tuba and a degree awarded with distinctions. In 2006, he went on an international exchange at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold (Germany) with Hans Nickel.

Thomas has founded several unique and unprecedented ensembles with a tuba : Thomas Leleu Sextet (tuba and string quintet), tubaVScello, TL Trio (tuba, piano, vibraphone). In 2017 he created the show The Tuba’s Trip (jazz and popular music) staged by Claude Tissier (ex Cirque du Soleil).

He is since 2011 a “Melton Meinl/Weston Artist – Ambassador Buffet Crampon”.

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Thomas Leleu earned awards in several competitions throughout the world such as in Markneukirchen – Germany, Jeju – South Korea, and Luxembourg. He has been principal tubist with the Marseille Philharmonic Opera since he turned 19. In 2012 he won the “Revelation Instrumental Soloist of the Year” at the annual French classical music award, the Victoires de la musique classique. In 2017, he is “ Stars of tomorrow ” on Arte channel in Berlin invited by Rolando Villazon. In 2019, his album “ Stories… ” is nominated in 3 categories at the Opus Klassik in Germany (German Grammy).

Thomas is also regularly invited to perform at festivals and in Concerts Hall around the world (more than 30 countries) with many orchestras such as: Konzerthaus Berlin, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), Brandenburgische SommerKonzerte (Germany), Mito Settembre Musica (Italy), International Festival Kissinger Sommer (Germany), Junge Sinfonie Berlin, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong City Hall, Esplanade Concert Hall (Singapore), Radio France-Occitanie-Montpellier Festival, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Jeju Symphonic Orchestra (South Korea).

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Ciarán McAuley Conductor Arturo Toscanini, Südwestdeutsches

Ciarán McAuley is the former Resident Conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and a former Assistant Conductor to BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Kiel Opera.

Kammerorchester, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orkest van het Oosten, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra and he has workshopped new commissions for BBC SSO and Norrköpings Symfoniorkester.

He has also collaborated with contemporary music specialists such as Red Note Ensemble and Michele Marelli, in premiering works by Detlev Glanert and Marco Stroppa and he has worked with soloists the likes of Fabio Di Càsola and Stephen Hough.

He was a finalist in the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and was a prize winner in the Arturo Toscanini Conducting Competition and Deutscher Dirigentenpreis. He is a former recipient of the Ricordi Conducting Prize and Bryden Thomson Trust Award and he has held conducting fellowships at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Deutsche Dirigentenforum and at Tanglewood Music Festival.

During his tenure with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Ciarán conducted subscription, ballet, family, film and pops concerts and served as conductor to the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and as cover conductor to the likes of Fabio Luisi, Mark Wigglesworth and Roberto Abbado.

He has conducted ensembles such as Camerata Salzburg, Filarmonica 73

Ciarán studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Clark Rundell and at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Johannes Schlaefli. He attended masterclasses with WDR and MDR orchestras, Tonhalle Orchester and the RSNO and trained with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and David Zinman.

“PENANG CAN MAKE MONEY OUT OF THE ARTS IF IT DOES IT RIGHT” -Stephen Hough World-renowed pianist

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“Stephen Hough’s steady ascent to the summit of his profession exhibits equally supreme mastery of his instrument and the deep humanity from which it has flowered.”

Recitals in 2019/20 span the US, Europe and beyond, including performances at the Taiwan National Concert Hall, The Cliburn, Caramoor, London’s Royal Festival Hall (International Piano Series) and Wigmore Hall (chamber residency featuring Steven Isserlis, Renaud Capuçon and Michael Collins, among others).

(International Record Review) Stephen Hough’s concerto highlights in 2019/20 include performances with the New York, Dallas, Toronto, Singapore, Iceland and BBC Scottish symphony orchestras, the Slovak Philharmonic, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Malmö Symfoniorkester and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment he performs Liszt’s First and Second piano concertos, and in May – June 2020 he tours Beethoven’s Third, Fourth and Fifth piano concertos in China, performing with the China Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony orchestras among others.

Recent appearances include the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras, Finnish Radio, City of Birmingham and Tokyo symphony orchestras, London Philharmonic and China Philharmonic orchestras, and the Wiener Symphoniker.

Hough was appointed CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours. A laureate of the MacArthur Fellowship and Royal Philharmonic Society Award, his catalogue of over 60 CDs has garnered accolades including eight Gramophone Awards. His celebrated iPad app The Liszt Sonata was released

by Touch Press in 2013. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Wigmore Hall, Musée du Louvre, London’s National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Genesis Foundation, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. His first novel, The Final Retreat, was published by Sylph Editions in March 2018, and in August 2019 his Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More was published

by Faber & Faber.

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orld-renowned pianist Stephen Hough was in Penang recently to perform his first-ever concert in the state. He chats with Penang Monthly about life on the road, the realities of a career in the arts, and of course, his love for music.

Stephen Hough is used to being solo – both on and off stage. Strolling alone through a side entrance of Dewan Sri Pinang in an unassuming blazer over a plaid shirt, Hough may have been easily mistaken for a visitor or tourist; and while he has played both roles at one time or another in Penang, on that evening of August 24, he was much more.

Hough performed with the Penang Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), delighting the audience with his interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

The lack of an entourage, or indeed even an assistant, is a bit unnerving if one has a hint of the list of extraordinary achievements this British-born maestro has accomplished thus far.

Besides being one of the world’s leading concert pianists, Hough is an accomplished composer and author – his fourth book Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More was published around the time of the PPO concert – and has had his

paintings exhibited more than a handful of times since his first solo exhibition in 2012; though the latter is something he tends to leave out off his biographies.

In 2009 The Economist named Hough one of 20 living “polymaths” in the world.

A polymath is defined as a person of wide knowledge or learning, and it is a term which Hough jokes he had to look up as well. Allured by Penang after a short holiday here two years ago, Hough decided to return to the country, and to perform outside of KL. His manager arranged for a concert in George Town.

For the Love of Music Hough’s musical talent was evident very early in life. At the age of five, he was practising so much that his mother had to persuade him to take much needed breaks in-between. “My mother would say, ‘Stop practising, go out and play!’ But I didn’t want to do anything else. I just wanted to practise with all of my being,” he says.

Hough’s talent naturally evolved into a profession – he has been a classical pianist for an astounding three decades now, after having jumpstarted his performing career at 22.

From Vienna, Glasgow and Warwick to Örebro and Fishtail in Montana, Hough performs up to 100 concerts around the 76

world each year. Prior to his concert in Penang, Hough was in London at the BBC Proms where he performed Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 on Queen Victoria’s gold leaf piano in conjunction with the 200th anniversary of the monarch’s birth.

It was the first time the instrument – gifted to Queen Victoria in 1856 by the esteemed Erard instrument-making firm – has been played outside Buckingham Palace.

wonder then.

“People enter competitions like entering the lottery or something where there’s a prize involved. But this is serious stuff because if you win, your life is no longer your own. A lot of students don’t think that through,” Hough says.

Though singers and artistes are often painted with a glamorous hue, life on the road is not nearly as enticing as it is portrayed to be, Hough says. “There’s also all the travelling, so we’re talking nine to 10 months a year that I would be away from home in London.” Recalling a conversation he had with a student at The Juilliard School, a private performing arts conservatory in New York City of which he is a faculty member, Hough delves into the realities of a performing soloist.

“He was going on about entering this competition and I asked, ‘Well, do you want to win?’ and he looked at me, astonished. I repeated my question.

‘Do you want to play 100 concerts a year?

Do you want to never see your friends?

Do you want to be constantly travelling?

Do you want to learn six new concertos in the next two months?’ He started to

But despite the never-ending hotel rooms (which are sometimes the only part of the city he sees other than the concert hall), days spent at airport terminals and missing home, Hough feels called to a life in the arts. “You have to love it. Like any job, you don’t always want to do it every day. But you have to see it as a vocation, really, in some way,” he says.

Performing in Penang George Town’s humble Dewan Sri Pinang hardly measures up to the best concert halls and prestigious arts centres around the world. The multipurpose hall has limited seating and is very challenging when it comes to acoustics. Hough, however, waves all that away.

“I like to play in different surroundings.

I was in India a couple of years ago with the Symphony Orchestra of India and that was fascinating. And I think here, there are so many young people in the orchestra and I love that. I’m thrilled when

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I see young people playing,” he says with a smile.

Hough’s affable nature is widely-known; be it pausing his warm-ups to chat with a production assistant about the latter’s dance ambitions or rejecting help in dusting down an old practice piano. In his written reflection on the concert, guest conductor and former Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra resident conductor Ciarán McAuley, who also built the concert programme around the esteemed soloist, lauded Hough’s reputation of being a genuine gentleman and that he had “met and exceeded… expectations”.

When asked about Penang’s potential in growing its arts scene, Hough points to his hometown as an example of what benefits the performing arts can bring. “Money spent on the arts is never wasted money.

Apart from their intrinsic value, culture is very, very profitable if used right. London makes huge profits out of its cultural exports and imports; people coming for theatre, concerts and so on. Penang can make money out of the arts if it does it right,” he says, adding that the arts could also stand as a great unifying factor for Penang’s diverse communities.

Hough hopes that cities like George Town continue to explore different, flexible ways of making concerts, performances and art events a norm for everyone. “It should become a way of coming together with your friends; being able to say ‘I’ll see you at the concert tonight’ or ‘How about a drink or dinner afterwards, or before or even during (the concert)!’. I think something all cities need to explore more is the way people come out to the concerts. Making music like this brings people together, so the arts become human enrichment. And, after all, what else is there in life?” he muses.

Going The Distance Hough credits hard work for making his long career in music possible, but a love for music, he stresses, cannot be overlooked.

“It’s no good forcing somebody to practise.

It’s a very delicate matter because, of course, every child is different and some children will need encouraging. But never forcing. I’ve seen too many lives destroyed (because of this) and it just doesn’t work.

Many people go through the grades and then, it all finishes. I’d rather want them to have their whole life loving music,” he says.

Musicians who aspire to become soloists must also ask themselves if they have

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something unique to offer the audience. “[As a musician,] do you have enough to say? And also, do you have longevity for a career to span 30, 40 or even 50 years?

I think that this is often missed with young people. You can play the piano, but do you have a reason to communicate? In the end, somebody has to want to do it, because if they don’t want to do it, why would they have something to say?” he asks.

I have no regrets! As a pianist, you are very self-contained in a good way, I think.

I like the fact that it’s all me, on the stage in a recital; that I don’t have to rely on a good collaborative pianist. If you’re a violist performing a Brahms sonata and you may have the best interpretation, but if you have a lousy pianist, it’s a bad performance. But for me in a recital, it’s entirely my responsibility,” he says.

Still, talent alone will not do. Hough adheres to a practice of no distractions when it comes to music. “I’ve left the piano at 2am feeling physically ill for so many years because I was working so hard. If you are going to make it, you turn off your phone, and you concentrate because the music deserves it,” he says.

Of course, performing with orchestras is different, but Hough maintains that he enjoys the range of possibilities he has with his instrument. “I like the fact that [by myself] I am an orchestra; that I have all the possibilities under my two hands. And no other instrument really has that. The harp or guitar are the only two that come close, but they also have such limitations in the strings and what you can actually do.

The piano is selfcontained. I wouldn’t want to play anything else,” he says.

An accomplished artiste in many respects, but one does wonder if Hough would have chosen another instrument for himself if given the chance to do it all again. “Oh,

Andrea Filmer is a freelance journalist who has lived in the US and Australia but, for reasons unknown to herself, finds it impossible to call anywhere but Penang home.

Article is reproduced from The Penang Mounthly Magazine with kind permission from The Penang Institute

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Datuk Mustafa Fuzer Bin Hj.Nawi ( P.M.W ) Conductor Internationally Datuk Mustafa Fuzer has led NSO at ASIAN Orchestra Week 2004 Tokyo & Osaka Japan, Singapore Esplanade and the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra Bosnia in 2004.

Since 2000, Datuk Mustafa Fuzer has been appointed Chief Conductor and Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Malaysia and has since received great acclaim for his work in Kuala Lumpur. This has led to extraordinary collaboration with the Yayasan Seni Berdaftar where Datuk Mustafa Fuzer has been appointed the Conductor of the International Piano Festival at Istana Budaya for five seasons from 2000 – 2004.

Datuk Mustafa Fuzer also has established a national reputation as a teacher of violin and conducting and his many distinctions include guest at Malaysian universities such as UiTM, UPM, ASWARA, UM, UMS and UCSI.

His close collaboration with the Embassies has brought memorable concerts with International Soloist such as Mari Fujiwara, Shigenori Kudo, Alexander Ostrovski and his highly acclaimed operatic conductor appearing with the Lyric Opera Malaysia amongst others, Puccini’s Tosca premiered for the first time at the Istana Budaya in 2003 and Franz Lehar’s Merry Widow in 2004.

In 2010 Datuk Mustafa Fuzer was appointed Music Director of PERMATA SENI MUSIK (PSM), a special programme for gifted children in music and continues to support the discovery and furtherance of musical talents all over Malaysia.

On the 1st of February 2018 in conjunction with the Federal Territory Day Celebration, Datuk Mustafa Fuzer was awarded PANGLIMA MAHKOTA WILAYAH (P.M.W) which carries Datukship for his distinguished service in Malaysian music industry and the PERMATA SENI MUZIK ( PSM ).

Under his leadership, NSO has made notable live-recordings and concerts with Malaysian prominent artist such as Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, Datuk Jamal Abdillah, Datuk Ahmad Jais,WINGS Rockestra, Ella, Emy SEARCH, Anuar Zin and YUNA. 81

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Albert Tiu Pianist Born in Cebu, Philippines, Albert Tiu has been called “an artist of uncommon abilities” by American Record Guide. His latest Centaur recording, “Grand Russian”, pairing Tchaikovsky’s Grand Sonata and Rachmaninoff’s First Sonata, was cited in ARG: “Even with some legendary competition in this repertoire, Tiu stands tall with his interpretations and technical accomplishment.” A previous disc, “The Classical Elements”, featuring twenty pieces grouped under Earth, Air, Water and Fire, was rated 5 Stars in International Piano and praised by Fanfare for a “fascinating recital containing some stunning playing.” His 2010 tribute to Chopin and Skryabin, “Nocturnal Fantasies”, featuring pairs of similarly-titled works by both composers, was dubbed “one of the all-time great piano recordings” by Fanfare.

Currently an Associate Professor of Piano at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, Tiu is a prizewinner of competitions in Calgary (Honens), Santander (Paloma O’Shea) and Helsinki (Maj Lind). He won First Prize in the 1996 UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa.

Chopin), and “Bee Flat” (the two Sonatas in B-flat by Beethoven). He has performed with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Hamburg Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic and Winnipeg Symphony. In 2005, he gave the Singapore premiere of Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

His “Tiudents” have distinguished themselves in competitions and festivals around the world, and have pursued further studies in North America and Europe. Aside from teaching, he has adjudicated in international piano competitions in France, Denmark, New Zealand, Thailand and Indonesia.

Other recent recording projects include collaborations with violist Zhang Manchin in the Brahms Viola Sonatas, and with tenor Alan Bennett in Schubert’s “Winterreise”, both on Centaur; with violinist Kam Ning in “Road Movies”, a Meridian disc featuring American composers; and with cellist Qin Li-Wei, in two discs on Decca of Beethoven and Rachmaninov.

He is addicted to Angry Birds, a constant source of humour in the family and in his studio, but somehow he still manages to practice some piano.

Known for his innovative programming, he has presented thought-provoking thematic recitals, like “Chopin: Before & Beyond” (works that influenced Chopin and works inspired by 83

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Tan Tor Song As a prolific music educator and performer, Penang born Tan Tor Song is one of the most successful youth orchestra conductors in Germany. For the last 30 years his orchestras have been winning 1st prizes and top awards regularly at German state and national competitions. Under his baton the Westphalian Symphony and Chamber Youth orchestras have concertized all over the world. Most recently under the auspices of the Goethe Institute, the Westphalian Chamber Youth Orchestra was invited to Helsinki for Finland’s 100th year independence celebrations. Here, Tan conducted the world premiere of Enjott Schneider’s “Dances from the land of trolls”, an orchestral suite commissioned and composed for this occasion. From 2008 to 2012 he was the conductor of the Mozart Orchestra in Münster.

Apart from conducting orchestras, Tan is the head of strings at the Westphalian School of Music, one of the oldest and prestigious music schools in Germany.

He also teaches violin didactic and methodology at the University of Muenster. He has been giving conducting masterclasses at the state music academies of Hamburg and North-Rhine-Westphalia.

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Many of his violin students are national prizewinners and members of some of the leading orchestras in Germany. One of his first orchestral experiences was in the early 1970s playing the violin in the then Penang Philharmonic Society’s orchestra, conducted by Rev. Bro. Michael Paulin and later on, by Dato Woon Wen Kin. Both were his violin teachers, the former (along with Louis Lim) in the beginning and the latter until 1981, when Tan left for his further studies at the Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany.

Among his violin teachers were Oscar Yatco, Atilla Aydintan, Andre Gertler and Yfrah Neaman and in conducting, Karlheinz Bloemeke, Kurt Sanderling and Jorma Panula.

After living the last 40 years abroad,Tor Song is glad and keen to share his knowledge and experience with the Penang musicians. He finds it befitting that the aspiring talented young violinist Elias David Moncado is the soloist in this evening’s concert as he had himself been a guest soloist with the Penang Philharmonic and Symphony orchestras and the Malaysian National Orchestra on numerous occasions in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Elias David Moncado Violinist As a soloist he has performed with numerous orchestras like Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Philharmonic Orchestras of Freiburg and Heidelberg, Philharmonie Baden-Baden, Zagreber Solisten, Penang Symphony Orchestra Malaysia, Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc, Polnische Kammerphilharmonie Sopot, Torun Symphony Orchestra Poland, Yamagata Symphony Orchestra Japan and Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra Japan with conductors such as Fabrice Bollon, Johannes Knapp, Wolfgang Trommer, Wojciech Rajski, Christoph Wyneken, Olivier Holt, Gabriel Adorján, Mariusz Smolij, Ken Takaseki and Nicolás Pasquet.

19-year-old German-Spanish-Malaysian violinist Elias David Moncado is the youngest ever winner of the 1st grand prize as well as 10 special prizes at the International Karol Lipinski Violin Competition in Poland.

Additionally, he is a major prizewinner of international competitions such as PaulHindemith-Wettbewerb Berlin, Concours Flame Paris, “Young Paganini” Legnica, Poland, Telemann-Wettbewerb Poznań, Poland, Louis-Spohr-Wettbewerb Weimar, Concorso Postacchini Fermo, Lions-Musikpreis Deutschland, Concours International de l’Orchestre du Maroc and International Sendai Violin Competition Japan.

At the age of 7, he became junior student with Prof. Latica Honda-Rosenberg at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and later at the Julius-SternInstitut of Universität der Künste Berlin. He was a junior student of Prof. Zakhar Bron since January 2016 at the Interlaken Classics Akademie. He is currently a student at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with Prof. Pierre Amoyal. At the age of 10 he was the youngest ever recipient of the Europäischer Hoffnungspreis in the history of the European Cultural Foundation Pro Europa. At the age of 12, he made his debut at the Berliner Philharmonie with the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin.

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He was a soloist at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Kissinger Musiksommer, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburger Sommer, Next Generation Festival Bad Ragaz, Printemps Musical des Alizés, Essaouira, Morocco, Royal Opera House Muscat, Oman, Marschner-Festival Hinterzarten, crescendo Festival Berlin, Salle Alfred Cortot Paris, Teatro Ristori Verona, Alte Kirche Fautenbach Achern and Mozartfestival Schloss Schwetzingen. He appeared on rbb Berlin, WDR Köln, France 3, SWR2 and BR Klassik.

As a prizewinner and scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben Hamburg, he plays a violin by Giambattista Rogeri of Brescia (around 1700).

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Mindaugas Jankauskas Tenor Mindaugas Jankauskas - was born in Lithuania. More recently, M. Jankauskas has sung with the Berliner Sinfonieorchester (at the Berlin Philharmonic /Berlin/Germany), the Orquesta Sinfónica Ciudad de Oviedo (at teatro Campoamor /Oviedo/Spain), the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (at the Moscow Conservatory Grand Hall / Moscow/ Russia), the Orchestra Sinfonica G.Rossini (at Rossini Theater /Pesaro/ Italy; and Pergolesi Theater /Jesi /Italy), the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra, the Latvian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (at Latvian National opera Rīga/Latvia), the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (at the National Philharmonic Vilnius/ Lithuania), the St. Petersburg Northern Sinfonia Orchestra (at the St.Petersburg Philharmonic /St. Petersburg/Russia), the Orquestra da Ópera na Academia e na Cidade (Lisbon/ Portugal) and others. He has also worked with conductors Lior Shambadal, Mārtinš Ozolinš, Walter Attanasi, Gianluca 89

Marciano, Vincent de Kort, Cyril Diederich, Sesto Quatrini, José Maria Moreno, William Maxfield, Karsten Januschke, Arthur Arnold, Franz Wassermann, Fabio Mastrangelo, Daniele Agiman; stage directors Emilio Sagi, Cristina Mazzavillani Mutti, Jean-Claude Berutti, Vasilij Barchatov, Oskaras Koršunovas, Gintaras Varnas, Vincent Boussard; His repertoire includes Conte Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Camille de Rosillon in Die lustige Witwe (Lehar), Baldwin, Count Zedlau in Wiener Blut (J.Strauß), Jaquino in Fidelio (Beethoven), Don Basilio/Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Soldier in Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Ullmann), Alfred/Dr.Blind in Fledermaus (J.Strauß), Jan Janicky in Der Bettelstudent (Millörcke), Don Riccardo in Ernani (Verdi), Pastore in Orfeo (Monteverdi), Mozart in Mozart and Salieri (Rimsky-Korsakov) and others.

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Philip Arkinstall Clarinerist Philip has been the associate principal clarinet of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2009 and was principal with the Malaysian Philharmonic for 11 years before that. After completing his Bachelor of Music at The Sydney in Conservatorium under Peter Jenkin he went on to win the ABC young performers award in 1997 playing the Francaix Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and was the 2MBS radio performer of the year in 1996. Philip has appeared both as soloist and as guest principal with every Australian orchestra and has appeared as principal with the Australian World Orchestra on tours of Australia and India. He has recently played concerti with the Corpus Medicorum, the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic and the Zelman Cowan orchestra and was a frequent soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic during his tenure there in repetoire ranging from Mozart to Henze, Copland, Weber, Strauss, Bruch, Stamitz, Bernstein and Stravinsky amongst others. His playing has been reviewed as “ mellifluous, engaging and assured ”.

In 2019 he played Bernstein’s Prelude Fugue and Riffs backed by Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra combined with the MSO to huge ovation. He has also appeared with Joe Hisaishi and played Englishman in New York and Mad About You with Sting on his 2011 Australian tour.

appeared at the Townsville, Huntingdon and Port Fairy festivals and performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, The Goldner Quartet, Eggner trio, Auer quartet , Wilma and friends as well as the Australia Ensemble, and many contemporary ensembles including Arcko, Alpha Ensemble and Australysis groups. He is a founding member of the Melbourne Ensemble which has appeared at the MRC and Woodend Arts Festival and will be the MSO’s Ensemble in residence for 2020. Since 2012 he has appeared regularly with and toured South America and Europe with the sensational Camerata Bern of Switzerland under the leadership of Antje Weithaas.

Philip is particularly proud to be a founding member of Plexus , a trio with violinist Monica Curro and pianist Stefan Cassomenos, that has commissioned and given world premieres across Australia to over 100 new works largely by Australian composers in its 5 years of existence and whose concerts are broadcast regularly on ABC radio.

Philip has given masterclasses across Australia and Asia under the MPO umbrella and in South America for Camerata Bern and teaches the clarinet through Melbourne University.

He has tutored at the National Music Camp, the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Melbourne Youth Orchestra and has conducted various small ensembles at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in Kuala Lumpur and across Malaysia.

Philip’s is a busy chamber musician and he has collaborated with some of the world’s finest musicians and ensembles in that realm. He has 91

Mercy Charity Concert May 2019 PYLY String Quartet & Michelle Quah Singing Studio May 2019 A New Beginning Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW) May 2019 Chopin – Before & Beyond Piano Recital By Albert Tiu July 2019 The Viola Lovers Chulalongkorn University Symphony Orchestra, Bangkok Thailand July 2019 Don’t Stop The Music Penang Philharmonic Winds (PPW) Sept 2019 Be Our Guest Penang Philharmonic Chamber Choir (PPCC) Oct 2019 KOM! Debut Recital – Penang Philharmonic Chorus (PPC) Dec 2019 92

Guest of Honour Dato’ Seri Nazir Ariff bin Mushir Ariff congratulating Pung

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Pung Aik Khai with Soprano Huang Pin & Chinese Artistes

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra is a non-profit organisation. As a community based voluntary orchestra supported by the State, players come from all walks of life to share their love of music with passion to play in variety of music genres.

PPO builds bridges not just between musicians but also cultures. We hope to entice more musicians to join us on this music journey.

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Donations Received by Penang Philharmonic for 2018 & 2019 Penang State Govt Dato Toshiaki Oshimo (Fumakilla Malaysia Berhad) Mr. Pung Choon Song Datuk Seri Nazir Ariff Bin Hj Mushir Ariff Lee Eng Hock & Co. Sdn Bhd Amy Siew Choo Heah Mr. Ooi Poay Lum Janice Yeap Liew Kee Dato’ Anton Herbert Weiler The Khaw-Na Ranong Family Pauline Tan & Dick Yong Alison Fraser Tommy Koay Acknowledgements The Star @ Pitt St Dewan Sri Pinang E & O Hotel, Penang The Prestige Hotel, Penang PenangPac Hin Bus Depot Derwent Valley Concert Band, Tasmania, Australia Australian Hon Consulate - Dato’ Dr Lim Huat Bee Chulalongkorn University Symphony Orchestra Royal Thai Consulate General, Penang Dalat International School, Tg Bungah, Penang Penang Institute Bentley Music, Penang Jeffrey Boeckman Hin Hua High School Band, Klang, Selangor Malihom Private Estate, Penang PPO would like to extend our grateful thanks to Phoenix Printers for their enormous help to make this book possible

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Our resident conductor Ng Choong Yen with guest pianist Foo Mei Yi

Penang Philharmonic Orchestra Instruments

Yanagisawa TWO1 Tenor Saxophone

Yamaha Euphonium YEP-201S

Yamaha Tuba YBB-201S

Yamaha Bass Clarinet YCL–221 II

4 piece Adam's Symphonic Gen II copper hammered soncer Timpani 23", 26", 29" & 32" Purchased in October 2017 96