Project Re-imagining

ABOUT YST

Inspirational life-affirming music-making is at the heart of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore. Centred in one of the world’s most dynamic countries, the Conservatory is uniquely placed to offer a distinct and powerful contemporary Asian voice.

Founded in 2003, YST quickly established a reputation as Asia’s most exciting international conservatory by bringing together a worldclass faculty and facility to develop excellence in instrumental performance and composition. Building on this strong foundation, the Conservatory has evolved over the past two decades to become one of the world’s most distinctive music schools, diversifying its offerings and continually seeking to connect authentically with its surrounding community. Specialisations added subsequently include Voice, Audio Arts & Sciences, Conducting, Music & Society and Music, Collaboration & Production. Alongside students from Singapore, the Conservatory community is internationally diverse, with representation from over 20 countries and five continents.

Keenly focused on nurturing identity as a driver for excellence, YST’s Bachelor of Music programme offers full financial support for all its undergraduate students, enabled by major gifts from the Yong Loo Lin Trust. The Conservatory’s continuum of offerings further includes Master of Music and Master of Music Leadership degrees, NUSfacing Second Majors, Minors and modules, Continuing Education & Training courses for adult learners, and a Young Artist programme. We host a vibrant performance calendar with around 200 concerts annually, featuring students and faculty alongside international artists and ensembles. Our community engagement and professional integration programme has extensive local, regional and global reach. Students are supported to find their own artistic pathways through exchanges, festivals, competitions and projects. More broadly, our international networks and partnerships further enhance the educational experience and ensure our continued evolution.

ABOUT THE YST ORCHESTRAL INSTITUTE

The YST Orchestral Institute is a creative musicians’ laboratory, designed as an innovative forum for conservatory-level orchestral training. First conceptualized in 2018 by former YST Dean, Prof. Bernard Lanskey, as a way of revitalizing learning and teaching systems within a large ensemble context, the Orchestral Institute has emerged as a dynamic platform in which aspirational orchestral musicians work collaboratively alongside professionals drawn from Conservatory faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as YST partner institutions, from Southeast Asia and beyond. Pioneering interdisciplinary programming, a unique production style, collaborative-composition creation, musician

health & well-being, and an open-dialogue approach to rehearsing are all hallmarks of the Orchestral Institute approach – a philharmonie philosophy which seeks to create a safe ‘play-space’ emphasizing creativity, mutual learning, and skills development appropriate for large ensemble musicmaking, with the ambition of enabling musicians to be even more open, daring, questioning, collaborative and passionate about the music they make together.

Currently under the leadership of YST Conservatory Principal Conductor, Jason Lai; Vice Dean of Ensembles, Brett Stemple; OpusNovus Conductor (and YST Artist Fellow), Dr Lien Boon Hua, and Orchestral Manager, Yap Zi Qi; and working alongside Conservatory students, faculty, staff, and YST Artist Fellows – the Orchestral Institute has created and curated a number of groundbreaking orchestral productions including Telling Beyond Words (2019), and – despite the global pandemic – Springs of Uncertainty (2020), Lichtbogen (2020), Landscapes of Souls (2021), Transfigurations (2021), Dream for Future (as part of SoundBridge Music Festival 2021) and a special collaborative family concert with the Kids’ Philharmonic, Symphonies Simple and Philharmonic Friends (2021), among others, many of which are available for viewing at the YST Conservatory’s YouTube channel.

COMPOSER'S MESSAGE

Project Re-Imagining, conceived in 2021, was precipitated by two things. First, the safety measurements set in place due the pandemic had restricted and limited live performances and the size of the ensemble either on stage or within an enclosed space. Second, the Recording Studio at the Conservatory had installed the Dolby Atmos system which became fully operational after it was finalized in December 2020.

The idea was to reduce the size of these three orchestral works to fit the criteria governing the size of an ensemble. The music would then be recorded using the technology of Dolby Atmos to provide an alternate listening experience to closely replicate the sensation of listening to a large-force ensemble performance in a concert hall. At the same time, while reducing the size of an orchestra to fit into the much smaller instrumental size allowed on stage, there was an opportunity to re-think the narrative of the music, and so edits were incisively excised to reflect a more reflective artistic direction for these works. After the reduction of the instrumental forces was completed, it was announced that the performing stage and the recording studios no longer restrict

the size of the instrumental forces. The restriction on the number of audiences allowed in the concert hall was also lifted. With that, another opportunity presented itself to re-orchestrate these painstakingly edited works back into the full-size orchestration that inspired the music in the first place. The final iteration of these 3 works was eventually realized by mid-2022. Have an enjoyable and pleasant evening.

Associate Professor Ho Chee Kong Vice Dean (Academic Programmes & Quality Enhancement)

Composition

HO CHEE KONG

COMPOSER

Singaporean composer

Dr. Ho Chee Kong is Associate Professor and was the founding Head of Composition and faculty member at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. His international commissions and works for both Western and Chinese ensembles have been performed at festivals and concerts such as the Singapore Encore (USA), the Singapore Arts Festivals, International Bela Bartok Choral Competition (Hungary), International Performing Arts Festival and Asia Choral Days (Japan), Aberdeen Music Festival (Scotland), 36th Internazionale Festival: Antidogma Festival (Italy), Contemporary Music Showcase (Hong Kong), Asia Music Festival (South Korea), Eleazar de Carvalho Festival (Brazil), Asian Composers League Conference and Festival (Japan), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Electroacoustic Music Festival (Canada), the International Arts Festivals (Australia, New Zealand), National Day Celebrations and many others.

Ho’s music has been described as “…lush, absorbing…”, “…evocative… imbued with an Asian aroma, distinctive yet subtle”, “…warm, exotically vibrant…”, “… atmospheric and cinematic feel, breathtaking…”, and “…distinguished by a strong power of the narrative and exotic instrumental colours”.

Ho has also presented papers at various conferences in the area of music composition studies, and worked on research relating to music in modern society, music and organization, and music in multi-media productions. In 2009, he presented a paper titled, Composition Lessons–A Perspective from Southeast Asia, at the Reflective Conservatoire Conference at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He was an invited speaker at the Convene in Singapore Seminar, organized by the Singapore Exhibition and Conference Bureau, Singapore Tourism Board and the National Arts Council. In 2006, he was an invited Panel Speaker at the Nanyang-Inspired Chinese Orchestral Music Symposium. In 2012, he presented a paper titled, Searching the Heart of Nanyang, at the International Reflective Conservatoire Conference at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In the same year, at the Performer’s Voice Symposium held in Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, he presented a paper titled, Nanyang Music with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra by

Composition Students. Ho’s profile as a composer is also listed in Singapore, The Encyclopedia, a National Heritage Board publication by Editions Didier Millet.

Ho serves on various arts advisory committees locally and internationally. He was elected VicePresident and Regional Director for Asia/Oceana on the Board of the International Computer Music Association and was the Artistic Director and Co-organizer for the International Exchange Composers Concerts between Singapore and Japan in 2005 and 2006 respectively. In 2003, he was the organizing Chairman for the 29th International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) held for the first time in Southeast Asia at the National University of Singapore. He is the founding President of the Composers Society of Singapore, which is a country member of the Asian Composers League. HO was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the Asian Composers League Executive Committee in 2012 and was the Chair of the organizing committee for the Asian Composers League Festival and Conference 2013 held in Singapore. He served on the Board of Directors for the Singapore School of the Arts and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, and is currently a board member of the Ding Yi Music Company.

“Here is a rare and perfect marriage of Western and Chinese music, done right for once.”

– There and Back, Best Classical Work 2019, The Straits Times

CHAN TZE LAW

CONDUCTOR

Singaporean conductor Chan Tze Law is Associate Professor and a founding faculty member of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. Chan lectures in conducting and as Vice Dean oversees Career Orientation and Community Engagement (COCE) dimensions at the conservatory, including Continuing Education and Training (CET).

Chan holds bachelor and doctoral degrees in conducting as well as a master’s degree in management. A former student of conducting luminaries Christopher Adey and Norman Del Mar, his pedagogical experience includes founding of the Australian International Summer Orchestral Institute as its chief conductor, as well as masterclasses in conducting at the Peabody Institute, USA, Royal Academy of Music, UK and the Queensland Conservatorium, Australia. He has

served on the selection committee of the Oxford (University) Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference and in 2020 conducted at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp. Since 2017 he also copresented in Prof Kenneth Paul Tan’s ‘Tune in to leadership’ at the annual Senior Management programme of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

Chan has conducted at major European music festivals and led orchestras and soloists in China and the Asia Pacific region. His performances of Mahler’s 8th symphony with award-winning Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) and Sing50 concerts with Lang Lang and the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra (MFO) celebrating Singapore’s Jubilee were named ‘Best concerts of 2015’ by Singapore’s Sunday Times. In the Mahler symphony 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 “Tze Law (Chan) did wonders from the podium. It was a tour de force” and Chan’s performance of Elgar’s The Music Makers in Taiwan was described by Classical Voice America as ‘breathtaking walls of sound and intimate moments of haunting beauty’.

In 2020 he made history when he conducted OMM and an international star cast at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay to critical acclaim in Die Walküre, Singapore’s first ever production of a Wagner ring cycle opera with Opera (UK) proclaiming that Chan “elicited a multitude of expressive nuances and drew immense power without force from his musicians.”

Chan made his Singapore conducting debut with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2001. He is music director of Singapore’s MFO and the awardwinning OMM and was bestowed the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore’s award for Artistic excellence for his contributions to the Singapore music community in 2018. Chan’s concerts and CD recordings has been featured on Singapore Airlines Krisworld In-flight Classical Music selection, broadcast on Australia’s ABC Classic FM, UK’s BBC Radio 3 and can be heard on Spotify and Apple Music.

QIN LI-WEI

CELLO

‘Mr. Qin has a great deal going for him, including a meltingly beautiful tone, flawless centred intonation and an ironclad technique’ –New York Times

An exclusive Universal Music China Artist, Li-Wei Qin has appeared all over the world as a soloist and as a chamber musician. After achieving great success at the 11th Tchaikovsky International Competition where he was awarded the Silver Medal, Li-Wei has since won the First Prize in the prestigious 2001 Naumburg Competition in New York. “A superbly stylish, raptly intuitive performer ” (Gramophone Magazine, January 2015) was the description of the cellist’s Elgar and Walton concerti recording with the London Philharmonic.

During the 15/16 season, Li-Wei made his debut with the Finnish Radio Orchestra/Lintu, the Vienna Radio symphony Orchestra/Rabl, and the Malaysian Philharmonic/Ashkenazy. He also appeared with the Melbourne Symphony/Sir Andrew Davis for their residency in Shanghai as well as the China

Philharmonic 2016 European tour. Other engagements including returns to the Queensland Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, NCPA Symphony and Auckland Philharmonic Orchestras.

Two times a soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei has enjoyed successful artistic collaborations with many of the worlds great orchestras including all the BBC symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles philharmonic, London Philharmonic, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the NDR-Sinfonierorchester Hamburg, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Basel Symphony, the Prague symphony, the Osaka Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, the Sydney Symphony and Melbourne Symphony among many others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Marek Janowski, Jaap Van Zweden, Jiri Belohlavek, Jan Pascal Totelier, Hans Graf, Yu Long, the late Machello Viotti and the late Lord Menuhin. Li-Wei has also appeared with chamber orchestras such as the Kremerata Baltika, Sinfonia Vasovia, the Munich, the Zurich, the Australian Chamber Orchestras.

In recital and chamber music, Li-Wei is a regular guest at the Wigmore Hall and for the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, New York. He has appeared at the BBC Proms, the Rheinghau, the

City of London, the Schlewigs-Holstein and the Mecklenburg Festivals. Li-Wei has collaborated with musicians such as Daniel Hope, Nabuko Imai, Misha Maisky, David Finckel, Wu Han, Vladimir Mendelssohn and Peter Frankel, among many others.

Li-Wei’s recordings on Universal Music/Decca include the complete Beethoven Sonatas, Works of Rachmaninov with pianist Albert Tiu, Dvořàk Concerto with Singapore Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lan Shui and Elgar/Walton Concerti with the London Philharmonic. Most recently, courtesy of Universal Music, Li-Wei’s 2013 live concert with the Shanghai Symphony and Maestro Yu Long has been released on Sony Classical.

Born in Shanghai, Li-Wei moved to Australia at the age of 13, before accepting scholarships to study with Ralph Kirshbaum at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. He was invited to join the BBC ‘New Generations’ scheme in 2001 and in 2002, Li-Wei received the Young Australian of the Year Award. Other major invitations included appearances at both the 2008 Beijing Olympics (New Zealand Symphony), 2012 London Olympics and the Davos World Economics Forum (Basel

Symphony Orchestra).

Prior to teaching at the YST Conservatory, Li-Wei was a professor of cello at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. He is also a guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music in China.

Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr and Mrs Wilson Goh.

LI BAOSHUN

ERHU

Li Baoshun started learning violin from his brother at the age of seven and learning erhu since eight-year old. In 1983, he gained entry into the China Conservatory of Music and studied under renowned string master Liu Mingyuan and was trained by Zhao Yanchen, Jiang Fengzhi, Lan Yusong, Wang Guotong, Zhang Shao, An Ruli and Ji Guizhen respectively. In 1978, he entered the Fuzhou Military Airbase Cultural Troupe. After his graduation in 1987, he joined the China Central Chinese Orchestra and was its erhu sectional principal in 1988. In 1995, he was the Acting Concertmaster of the China Central Chinese Orchestra. In the same year, he was appointed the Concertmaster of the Asia Orchestra comprising of musicians from China, Japan and Korea.

Li Baoshun has shown his talent in music since young, claiming many prizes along the way. He has been invited to perform in many big-scale performances locally and overseas, including Asia,

Europe and the United States. He has frequently performed as a soloist with many orchestras, conductors and composers from China and overseas. Li Baoshun joined the SCO in late 1997 and is currently the Concertmaster.

ZHOU XIAODONG

TONMEISTER

Assoc Prof Zhou Xiaodong is Head of Audio Arts & Sciences (AAS) and founding Recording Studio Manager at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. His work has been crucial in the design, establishment and operation of the Conservatory Recording Studio since YST’s founding.

Over the past few years, Xiaodong has engineered more than 400 live concerts and studio sessions with musicians and ensembles including Qian Zhou, Renaud Capuçon, Ning Feng, Nobuko Imai, Qin Li-Wei, Leon Fleisher, Albert Tiu, Thomas Hecht, Phoon Yew Tien, Siow Lee Chin, Zhang Manchin, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, T’ang Quartet, Teng Ensemble and Metropolitan Festival Orchestra. He has also recorded for prominent recording labels including Decca, Ablaze, Centaur and KNS. Among those recordings, La Noche-21st Century

Music for Flute and Harp won CD of the Year in Singapore (2011), and Grand Russian-Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata and Rachmaninoff Sonata No. 1 won CD of the Year in Singapore (2018). Beethoven Cello Sonata was nominated for Best Classical Album by the Australia Recording Industry Association (2010), and Salvador Brotons: The Complete Works for Flute, Vol. 1 won the Universal Music Awards (2017).

Xiaodong has been the audio production director for the Singapore Violin Festival, Singapore International Violin Competition, and Singapore National Day Concert with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (2018 and 2019). He was also the recording engineer of the Singapore national anthem in 2019, and has been a sound consultant for the Singapore Dance Theatre and Metropolitan Festival Orchestra. He is the author of the Chinese-language book, The Recording Engineer’s Handbook, a member of the AES and Singapore Acoustics Society, and also gives classes in music production technology at Eunoia Junior College (Singapore).

Xiaodong graduated from the M.A. in Audio Science and Acoustics programme at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

PROGRAMME NOTES

The three orchestral works were re-imagined and accompanied by a poem enacting a narrative that binds them together.

Between the shadows of light, I breathe for us

Releasing lights while I dance in darkness

Faceless in the morn, restless at dusk

Torn in the howls of winds as I sing in calmness.

Beyond waves of sanity, they sleep for us

Shades lending fire while they cry in numbness

Lifeless in motion, trembling at rest

Drawn in the whirlpool of sounds they swim in madness.

Rising above the sunlight, I see for you

Lifting the ground while you dance in lightness

Dreamless in the night, restful at last Given life’s breath you exhale lasting happiness…

HO CHEE KONG

There and Back

Originally commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra for the violin and cello in 2018, it was conceived with the two soloists, Siow Lee Chin (violin) and Qin Li Wei (cello), having an evocative and close dialogue between each other and with the orchestra, mirroring our thoughts and struggles within and outside of ourselves: being THERE but here; being BACK here but there.

He called again last night. One minute, he was talking wistfully about the way things could be again, and in the next minute he plunged into raw existentialism. “Those feelings are back again”, he said. Those feelings. Those haunting, harrowing feelings of dread and emptiness interspersed with mad euphoria; of every dream distorting into nothingness and everything at once. That feeling of wishing to escape from the past, and present, and everything altogether, wrapped in a veil weighing him down as he shuffled on a moebius strip. Trudging forward yet always returning. In vain hopes of untangling his thoughts, I asked him to start from the beginning. Silence. Then, a shuddering intake of breath, and a small voice: “But where is that?”

HO CHEE KONG Passage – Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra

Passage was the third work commissioned in 2012 by the National Arts Council for the Singapore Arts Festival (SAF), the previous two works being commissioned in 2001 and 2008. Performed by Qin Li Wei (cello) and the Orchestra of Music Makers (OMM) conducted by Chan Tze Law, the work narrated a nightmarish vision that navigated through 8 stages of being beginning with 1) The Sign and Vision; 2) Awakening Spirits; 3) Divining the Mist; 4) The Earth Speaks; 5) Shadows of Spring; 6) Sighting the Chosen; 7) Heralds of Fate; and finally, a calmer 8) Spring Dreams the Chosen.

His nightmares are back. Again and again , he lives through there in the future and back again. The vivid images, different each time–a twist here, a turn there–but the nightmares always end the same. Sometimes, he sees through others’ eyes; sometimes, he’s disembodied like an outsider looking on . Night after night, he wakes up in a cold sweat. “Like descending into an abyss ”, I remembered him saying, “like reaching out to save but I can’t even see my hands.” I told him that we can’t win every battle. Heavily, he said: “Then what’s the point of knowing ?”

HO CHEE KONG Of Passion and Passages

Composed in 2007, this commissioned threemovement work narrates how one takes trials and struggles in stride and eventually finds the delicate balance through awareness and quiet determination.

He lapsed into silence. I heard his breaths slow to a regular rhythm, a familiar in-and-out of pensive release. The feelings aren’t going away, not completely; but gradually moving out of the abyss and melting into the wallpaper of life. The struggles never end, that each day presents yet another peak to scale, another challenge to overcome. I said, each step forward brings us closer to knowing who we are. He said he didn’t know how long the cycle would just repeat. “I don’t either,” I said. “But so what? We live.”

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