John Tavener’s
Flood of Beauty UK, Singapore
17 Apr, Fri, 7.30pm, Esplanade Concert Hall
Asian Premiere
17 Apr, Fri Esplanade Concert Hall
John Tavener’s Flood of Beauty Produced by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay In collaboration with Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and SYC Ensemble Singers Co-commissioned by the Barbican, London and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra Jason Lai Conductor Allison Bell soprano Marcus Farnsworth Baritone Pei-Sian Ng Cello Nadarajan Kathirgamu sitar Nawaz Mirajkar Tabla Adrian Chiang assistant Conductor Leonard Tan assistant Conductor Conservatory Chamber Singers ONE Chamber Choir SYC Ensemble Singers The Vocal Consort Jennifer Tham Chorus director
Concert Duration: 1hr 30mins All timings are approximate Cycle 1 11 minutes Cycle 2 14 minutes Cycle 3 21 minutes Cycle 4 30 minutes Cycle 5 25 minutes
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CEO’s Message
A Tapestry of Sacred Music
Throughout the ages, across all cultures, sacred music has been the channel through which humans seek the divine and a greater truth. Through song, chant and dance, we also hear and see expressions of inner devotions, supplications, and hopes for peace, protection and plenty. A Tapestry of Sacred Music celebrates the immediacy and universality of this human experience in sacred music. As we present our 7th edition of this festival, we bring together communities near and far, cultures both similar and disparate, in sharing this music. Over four days, the Festival offers glimpses of how communities in Singapore and around the world seek the divine through serene Buddhist chants, exalting Islamic qasidahs, spirited music from South African townships, and shamanistic epic songs from the Manchurian plains. This season, we also contemplate the poetry of the mystic Kabir as well as immerse ourselves in the late British composer Sir John Tavener’s intensely powerful work Flood of Beauty, a co-commission by Esplanade and the Barbican Centre in London. I hope that these encounters with sublime and soul-stirring music from diverse cultures and communities will teach us that, in spite of our differences, we are not that different after all. It is in this spirit that I invite you to join us, with open hearts and minds, and let the music resonate and move you in your own quest for fulfilment. Welcome to Tapestry 2015.
Benson Puah Chief Executive Officer The Esplanade Co Ltd
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The Conservatory Orchestra The Conservatory Orchestra was established in 2003 under Music Directors Chan Tze Law (2003-2006) and Wang Ya-Hui (2006-2009). Currently led by Principal Conductor, Jason Lai (since 2009), the orchestra provides professional training opportunities and performance events for the Conservatory’s orchestral students, exposing them to the music of the 18th through 21st centuries. Each season, the Conservatory Orchestra performs a series of public concerts in Singapore’s major concert halls with programmes that include a cross-section of the standard orchestral repertoire supplemented by new works and lesser-known compositions. The orchestra has performed such concerts under the baton of Christopher Adey, Yip Wing-Sie, Leon Fleisher, Takuo Yuasa, Claus Peter Flor, Eiji Oue, Mark Wigglesworth and Robert Spano while masterclasses / open rehearsals have been led by Maestros Alan Gilbert, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Nelson and Yu Long amongst others. The Conservatory Orchestra performances have included several concerts in the Singapore International Arts Festival in collaboration with members of the London Sinfonietta (conductor Sian Edwards) and a Victoria Concert Hall appearance with Gabor Takacs-Nagy (performing works by Beethoven and Rachmaninoff). Other concerts include a Schumann – Webern Concert in collaboration with Melvyn Tan and members of the Orchestre des Champs-Elysees and an Asian premiere of John Tavener’s final work for soprana, baritone, cello solo, chorus and orchestra, Flood of Beauty, at the Esplanade Concert Hall.
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Jason Lai
Early success came when he won the BBC Young Conductors Workshop in 2002 and was awarded the post of Assistant Conductor to the BBC Philharmonic. His successful tenure with the orchestra gave him the opportunity to work closely with principal conductor Gianandrea Noseda, and to conduct other BBC orchestras and the BBC Singers in various concerts and recordings which have been broadcast on Radio 3, he made his BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic in 2003. Jason was also a prize winner at the Leeds Conducting Competition and has assisted or taken part in masterclasses with Pierre Boulez, Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Claus Peter Flor, Eiji Oue and Robert Spano. This season he will make debuts with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic. He has conducted the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Malaysian Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Hong Kong Sinfonietta where he held the posts of Artist Associate and Associate Conductor. He has also performed with the Ulster Orchestra, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, Bampton Classical Opera, 4
Conductor
Opera credits include Manon with English Touring Opera; Tsarina’s Shoes, Albert Herring, Beggar’s Opera and Penelope with Guildhall Opera; Don Giovanni and L’infedeltà delusa with Bampton Opera; and Serse with British Youth Opera. In addition to his conducting Jason is also a broadcaster and has appeared on the panel of BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and was a judge for the BBC2 classical talent show Classical Star. He was one of the conducting mentors in the BBC2 series Maestro and won the competition with his celebrity student comedienne Sue Perkins. Other TV appearances include Clash for CBBC, How a Choir Works for BBC4 and The Culture Show for BBC2. Born in the UK Jason Lai began his musical studies at the age of eleven and was awarded a scholarship to Chetham’s School of Music to study cello with Raphael Wallfisch and Gillian Thoday. A Hadow Scholarship enabled him to study cello and composition at Oxford University where he also toured extensively with the Allegri Quartet. After becoming a finalist in the BBC Young Composers Award his piece Synopsis was performed by London Sinfonietta. He completed his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was awarded the Fellowship in Conducting.
Allison Bell Award-winning young Soprano Allison Bell is fast gaining a reputation as one of the leading and most exciting opera performers of the 20th and 21st century music. Born in Tasmania, she studied music and history at the University of Sydney, and was an actress at The Australian Theatre for Young P eople. Continuing her studies in Europe she received numerous awards including the La Scala Prize and scholarship to study with Virginia Zeani at the Viñas Competition in Barcelona. She has participated in masterclasses with Joan Sutherland, Magda Olivero, Ghena Dimitrova, Ileana Cortrubas, Gundula Janowitz, Dalton Baldwin, Paul Hamburger and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Opera roles include La Folie (Platée, Rameau), Morgana (Alcina, Handel), Aspasia (Mitridate, Mozart), Mademoiselle Silberklang/Madame Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor, Mozart), Blondchen (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart), Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte, Mozart), Glauce (Medea, Cherubini), Adele (Die Fledermaus, J Strauss), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Ophelie (Hamlet, Thomas), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Offenbach), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette, Gounod), Lakmé (Delibes), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos, Strauss), Waldvogel (Siegfried), Bubikopf (Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Ullmann), Nachtigall (Die Vögel, Braunfels) and Cunegonde (Candide, Bernstein), Pretty Polly (Punch and Judy, Birtwistle), Vole/Sun (The Cricket Recovers, R Ayres). Allison was universally praised for her performance of Sierva Maria in the world premiere of Peter Eötvös’ opera Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne under Vladimir Jurowski, a role she reprised at the National Opera of Lithuania in Vilnius and most recently at the Opéra National du Rhin under Eötvös. She was chosen by the composer as the vocal soloist for Eötvös Retrospectives in Caen, Strasbourg, Budapest and Madrid and for the 2011 released CD Ensemble Linea Play Eötvös which won a Hungarian FONOGRAM award and the Orphée d’Or at the Académie Internationale du Disque Lyrique in Paris. A frequent guest with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and collaborator with Vladmir Jurowski, she was also soloist for the UK premieres of Alfred
Soprano
Schnittke’s Three Scenes, Three Madrigals, and Der Gelbe Klang together with an acclaimed debut performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Wigmore Hall. Most recently with Jurowski she performed Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil and Polly Peachum in Die Dreigroschenoper in Paris and London. With the LPO under Michal Dworzynski she performed Gorecki’s Third Symphony. Other notable performances include Le Feu, La Princesse and Le Rossignol in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges with the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow; Berio’s Chamber Music with Ades/ London Sinfonietta at the QEH, London; Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied in Berlin and Munich; concerts with the Britten Sinfonia at the Museo Reina Sofia Madrid; Pierrot Lunaire with the Northern Sinfonia, Hebrides Ensemble, BBC Concert Orchestra and with Scottish Ballet at the Edinburgh Festival, with choreography by Glen Tetley. Also Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables and the Australian premiere of Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; Claude Vivier’s Trois airs pour un opéra imaginaire with the London Philharmonia Orchestra/Ryan; the world premiere staging of Gerald Barry’s opera La Plus Forte at the inaugural London Contemporary Music Festival; and Fausto Romitelli’s Lost at the Strasbourg Musica Festival. With Ilan Volkov she performed the UK premieres of John Zorn’s La Machine de l’Être with the BBCSSO, Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi with the CBSO Youth Orchestra Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Icelandic Symphony. Most recently Allison toured with the Britten Sinfonia, including her Concertgebouw debut, performing the world premiere of And Once I Played Ophelia by Brett Dean, together with Schoenberg’s String Quartet no 2. Other performances include Pierrot Lunaire at the Mossovet Theatre, together with Berg’s Lulu Suite, Fauré’s Prométhée and Saint-Saëns' Les noces de Prométhée in concerts with Vladimir Jurowski and the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. She will also join Vladimir Jurowski once more for Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil with the Ensemble United in Berlin, as well as perform Giacinto Scelsi’s Khoom with Ilan Volkov/Israel Contemporary Players and the world premiere of John Tavener’s Flood of Beauty with the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican. 5
Photo Credit: Benjamin Ealovega
Marcus Farnsworth
Baritone
Marcus Farnsworth was awarded first prize at the 2009 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the Song Prize at the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Competition. This season he returns to the Wigmore Hall for Songsmiths with Audrey Hyland and will also appear in future seasons with James Baillieu. Recent recital highlights include debuts at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and La Monnaie, Brussels with Mark Padmore and Julius Drake; concerts for the Australian Chamber Music Festival; a UK tour of Schubert’s Winterreise with James Baillieu; Salute to Venice with Graham Johnson for Leeds Lieder; a recital for Opéra de Lille with Simon Lepper; appearances at Wigmore Hall Britten Festival with Malcolm Martineau and Julius Drake and with the Myrthen Ensemble and Joseph Middleton and recitals with Carducci Quartet. Concert plans this season and beyond include Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Christus and bass arias) on tour with the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh; John Tavener’s Flood of Beauty with the Britten Sinfonia at Barbican Hall, London and in Singapore; Equal Voices, a new commission by Sally Beamish, with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda; Fauré’s Requiem with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Leeds and Nielsen Symphony No 3 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo. Opera plans include singing Kelvin in Fujikura’s Solaris in Paris, Lille and Lausanne and, in the 2015/16 season, he will make his debut with Welsh National Opera. Recent highlights include Guglielmo’s Così fan tutte, English Clerk in Britten’s Death in Venice and Novice’s Friend in Billy Budd for English National Opera; the title role in Britten’s Owen Wingrave for the International Chamber Music Festival, Nuremberg; Eddy in MarkAnthony Turnage’s Greek for Music Theatre Wales on a UK tour, including at ROH 2 and in concert, Kilian Der Freischütz with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis; Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring with the BBC SO and Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Early Opera Company and Christian Curnyn at Wigmore Hall. Marcus has also recently sung Britten’s War Requiem with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Jesus, in Elgar’s The Apostles at the 2014 Three Choirs Festival; Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ and Son, in the world première of David Sawer’s Flesh and Blood with the BBCSO; Brahms’ Requiem for Aldeburgh Music; Thomas Larcher’s Die Nacht der Verlorenen on a European tour and recording; Dvořák's Te Deum with the RLPO; Monteverdi’s Vespers on a European tour with Emmanuelle Haïm; Haydn’s Paukenmesse with the BBC SSO and Bernard Labardie; Nielsen’s Symphony No 3 with the LSO and Davis and Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King with the Wermlands Opera Orchestra, Karlstad and on a UK tour with the Hebrides Ensemble. Marcus was a chorister at Southwell Minster and read music at the University of Manchester, graduating with a first class honours degree. He completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in July 2011, where roles included Guglielmo, Sid, Oreste in Cavalli Giasone and Meredith in Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen!. 6
Pei-Sian Ng
Cello
Pei-Sian Ng was the Commonwealth Musician of the Year in 2007 and the winner of the Gold Medal and First Prize at the 55th Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition held in London. He has performed concertos with major Australian symphony orchestras, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Oulu Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia ViVA, City of Southampton Orchestra and Adelaide Youth Orchestra, and has performed around the world at venues including Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Konzerthaus (Berlin), Lincoln Centre and Carnegie Hall. Born in Sydney in 1984, he began studies in Adelaide with Barbara Yelland and later with Janis Laurs at the Elder Conservatorium of Music before winning the prestigious Elder Overseas Scholarship to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Pei-Sian Ng completed his studies under Professor Ralph Kirshbaum during which he was awarded the RNCM Gold Medal, the highest prize given by the college. He has appeared in important music festivals including the Brighton, Edinburgh, Manchester International Cello Festival, Kronberg Academy, Mecklenburg-Vorpormmern Festival and Adelaide International Cello Festival. Ng performed Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Cello Concerto with The Festival Orchestra under the baton of the Academy Award-winning composer. Ng also performed alongside Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Cho Liang Lin and Renaud Capuçon. Last season, Ng gave the Asian premiere performance of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Variations with the Orchestra of Music Makers, Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under Arvo Volmer as part of the 2014 Adelaide International Cello Festival and Brahms’ Double Concerto with Co-Concertmaster Lynnette Seah and the Singapore Symphony with Okko Kamu. Recent highlights include a performance of Dvořák's Cello Concerto with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and also Kalevi Aho’s Double Cello Concerto with his twin brother Pei-Jee Ng and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). Pei-Sian is currently Principal Cellist of Singapore Symphony Orchestra and is part of the faculty at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Pei-Sian Ng performs on a 1764 Giovanni Antonio Marchi cello, Bologna.
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Nadarajan Kathirgamu
Sitar
Nadarajan Kathirgamu (Rajan) has been playing the sitar for over 13 years, in which he has been developing the nuances of the various sitar techniques derived from many gharanas (styles), like Jaipur, Beenkar, Senia and Mian Achpal. These were made possible because of his training under various renowned gurus like Ustad Usman Khan and his disciples, disciples of Pandit Debu Chaudhuri and disciple of Ustad Ahmad Hussain Khan. His versatile style incorporates various techniques which allows him to explore other genres of contemporary music. Rajan has participated and played in many concerts organised by the People’s Association and is a member of the Singapore Indian Orchestra and Choir. He has played in major concerts such as Romance of India – Taj Mahal, Asia Major, and Footprints, as well as performed in the opening item of Chingay Festival 2012, the music of which was composed by the late Iskandar Ismail.
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Nawaz Mirajkar
Tabla
Hailing from a proud lineage of musicians, Nawaz Mirajkar began playing the tabla at the age of seven under the tutelage of his father, Ustad Mohammad Hanif Khan Mirajkar. A Guinness Book record holder for drumming non-stop for over 27 hours, he was featured in Kaatril `Oru Geetham, a television programme which aired on channel Vasantham in 2013, in which he travelled across various states of India for inspiration and created a composition based on his experience and interpretations. Nawaz has worked with world-renowned musicians including jazz pianist Louis Banks, award-winning sitarist Samuel J Dass, flamenco maestro Antonio Vergas, Dick Lee, sitarist Ustad Usman Khan, famous slide guitarist Pandit Brijbhushan Kabra and vocalist Bombay Jayashree. He has performed and conducted workshops all over the world, in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and the US. As a composer and conductor, he was worked on diverse productions, including Damaru, which highlighted his versatility and talent in blending traditional Indian classical and folk music with motifs and rhythms from different world music cultures. When he is not performing, he is inspiring a young generation of aspiring percussionists at the Temple of Fine Arts, where he has been a tabla teacher since 1996, and at SOTA where he is an adjunct teacher. Nawaz is a recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award.
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Adrian Chiang
Assistant Conductor
Adrian is currently pursuing his Master of Music (Conducting) degree at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Professor Jason Lai (Principal Conductor of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra) under a scholarship from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Adrian currently leads and conducts many well-established wind ensembles in Singapore. He dedicates a big part of his time working in schools with youths in their formative band years, directing bands in both primary and secondary schools such as Catholic High Secondary, CHIJ (Toa Payoh) Secondary, Raffles Girls’ School, as well as the entire family of Maris Stella High Primary and Secondary Schools in addition to its Alumni Wind Ensemble. At the post-secondary level, he works with young adults from the Victoria Junior College Symphonic Band, Singapore Polytechnic Symphonic Band, Singapore Management University Symphonia, and the Philharmonic Youth Winds. Under his direction, all of his bands have attained top awards at both local and regional festivals. On top of his conducting engagements in Singapore, Adrian has also been invited overseas as a judge and clinician. Adrian also conducts the Philharmonic Winds, one of Singapore’s most outstanding wind ensembles, for outreach performances and concerts, on top of rehearsing the group for overseas guest conductors. Prior to being a full-time conductor, Adrian Chiang was the Orchestra Manager of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for seven years. His love for conducting grew over the years, developed over the course of a wide range of professional conducting studies with respected figures such as Lan Shui, Allan McMurray, Eugene Corporon, Robert Reynolds, Tom Lee, Richard Craig, Richard Floyd, Frank Ticheli, Dennis Fischer, Laszlo Norbert Nemes, Christopher Hughes, Hardy Mertens, and Bundit Ungransee.
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Leonard Tan
Assistant Conductor
Leonard Tan is Assistant Professor of Music at the National Institute of Education-Nanyang Technological University, Principal Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and Music Director of the Philharmonic Winds. He earned his doctorate from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied orchestral conducting with David Effron, Arthur Fagen and Murray Sidlin. He also participated in seminars by Leonard Slatkin, Cliff Colnot and William Jon Gray, and conducted the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, University Orchestra, and Conductor’s Orchestra. His doctoral dissertation, supervised by noted scholar Estelle Jorgensen, was awarded the prestigious Dean’s Dissertation Prize for its “exemplary scholarship, brilliant execution and defense.” He played the violin and tuba in his formative musical years and received foundational training in music from Leong Yoon Pin as well as through the Raffles Junior College Music Elective Programme. A Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music and Trinity College London, he holds an MA from Nanyang Technological University and a First Class Honours from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts-University of Wales. He has studied orchestral conducting in masterclasses with Leif Segerstam and Alexander Polischuk in Russia, where he worked with the St Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, and with Johannes Schlaefli in Zurich, where he worked with Academic Orchestra Zurich. Performances under his direction have been lauded by local and international critics. Indiana’s The Herald Times noted his “artful conducting” while Singapore’s The Straits Times described his Asian premiere of John Corigliano’s Third Symphony as “masterfully helmed.” He conducted Singapore Symphony Orchestra musicians in a Singapore-Japan Composers Exchange Concert, Singapore National Youth Orchestra musicians at the Ong Teng Cheong concert, and assisted in a production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Equally comfortable with wind orchestras, he has introduced several important wind works for the Singaporean audience. He is also committed to conducting music by Singaporean composers. Leonard has conducted at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, Carnegie Hall, Musical Arts Centre, and Sydney Opera House. He has also adjudicated in festivals in the United States and Asia. As a scholar, he has presented papers at the Sibelius Academy and Teachers’ College Columbia, published in leading peer-reviewed scholarly journals, examined PhD thesis for the University of Malaya, and lectured at the University of the Pacific, University of Kansas, Indiana University, and Nanjing University of the Arts. He has also served as guest faculty in conducting at the University of Hawaii.
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Jennifer Tham
Chorus Director
Jennifer has been directing the Singapore Youth Choir (now the SYC Ensemble Singers) since 1986. Under her guidance, the SYC has earned several prizes and awards, as well as a reputation for being the composer’s choir, malleable to the demands of contemporary choral music. Jennifer is also Artistic Director of the Young Musicians’ Society, the arts company responsible for the Asia South Pacific Symposium on Choral Music (2001) and its offshoots, the First Aid for Choirs and Conductors Workshop Series, and the Kodaly Seminar Asia for music pedagogues. Jennifer has taught choral conducting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and given workshops and short courses to conductors at home, in Japan and Indonesia. She has chaired and spoken on panels at conferences and symposia in Singapore, Argentina, Denmark, Estonia and Sweden; and was the principal lecturer at the 2008 Lithuanian Conductors Summer Academy, hosted by the Lithuanian Choral Union and the Ministry of Culture. She has presented lectures and reading sessions on Singapore choral music at symposia in Croatia and USA, and conducted the Asia Pacific Youth Choir in a programme of contemporary music of this region at the 10th World Symposium on Choral Music (Seoul, Korea, 2014). For the International Federation for Choral Music, she co-coordinates the Asia Pacific Working Committee; and also serves on the World Choir Council, representing Singapore. In 2012, Jennifer was conferred the nation’s highest artistic accolade, the Cultural Medallion.
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Conservatory Chamber Singers Jennifer Tham, Choral Director
Chamber Singers is an elective module offered by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, open to all National University of Singapore (NUS) students. The choir is made up of students majoring in literature, engineering, psychology, science, computing, business, social work, and music. With such diverse interests and backgrounds, the one thing that brings them together is their love of singing and choral music.
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ONE Chamber Choir Lim Ai Hooi, Choral Director
ONE is a young adult choir under the baton of Ms Lim Ai Hooi, one of the region’s most prominent choral directors. Established in June 2009, ONE currently consists of 35 singers, all of whom are choral enthusiasts with rich choral performing experience. After successfully conducting her maiden 7 by ONE concert in May 2010, the choir entered a partnership with the Song Lovers Choral Society (SLCS), formerly known as Lee Howe Choral Society, to form the “youth wing” of SLCS. In June 2012, ONE was invited as a guest choir for the 1st Portuguese Summer Choral Festival, organised as part of the annual Festas de Lisboa event. Apart from performing Mozart’s Requiem for the opening concert, ONE also performed at various landmarks in Lisbon, notably the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. In 2013, ONE took part in the Andrea O. Veneracion International Choral Festival in the Philippines and emerged first place in the Chamber Choir category. In 2014, ONE started a new annual concert series where they explore new genres of music with overseas clinicians, collaborating with Maestro Werner Pfaff from Germany. The choir was also featured in the Opening Ceremony of the 1st Singapore International Choral Festival in a joint performance with the SYC Ensemble Singers. In December, the choir put up a full length concert titled Seasons – The Earth in Motion in the Esplanade Concert Hall as part of Esplanade’s Voices – A Festival of Song. With a vision to bring a new dimension to choral performances, ONE’s mission is to challenge conventional choral delivery to present a uniquely ONE experience. ONE hopes to engage, entertain and explore new themes and concepts with our audience in every performance. 14
SYC Ensemble Singers Jennifer Tham, Choral Director
The SYC Ensemble Singers was formed in 1964 as the Singapore Youth Choir, a national choir for young singers. Renamed in 2004, the choir today is an adult chamber ensemble whose singers hail from all walks of life, united in a passion to perfect their musical craft. Throughout its history, the choir has been considered a trailblazer and the flag bearer of choral music in Singapore, being the first Singapore choir to win an international competition (1974). It was also the first choir to receive the President’s Charity and Singapore Excellence awards (1997 and 2000 respectively). In 2000, it served as the choir for a recording of the reorchestrated national anthem. Led by Jennifer Tham since 1986, the choir is known for its strong programming and advocacy of contemporary music. The works of living composers are repertory staples, with new music being commissioned regularly. The choir has premiered not only works of Singaporeans (including several by pioneer composer Leong Yoon Pin), but also a spectrum of international composers, including Alberto Grau (Venezuela) and Vytautas Miskinis (Lithuania). By giving voice to the music of today, the choir hopes to preserve a space for the musicians of tomorrow.
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The Vocal Consort nelson Kwei, Choral director
The Vocal Consort (TVC) was founded in September 2001 with the aim of being a leading community choir for the public to share in their love for singing while promoting community bonding. Being acknowledged for its achievements, TVC soon became associated with the Siglap South Community Centre (Centre of Excellence for Performing Arts) in 2006. Established as one of Singapore’s premier choral group, its talented members range from students to working professionals who come together to share their passion for choral singing, under the direction of accomplished local choral director, Professor Nelson Kwei. Since its inception, TVC has been actively involved in numerous collaborations with national arts groups such as the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, and national events such as the Singapore Arts Festival. TVC can also be seen carolling at various prominent locations in Singapore, such as Concorde Hotel and the Esplanade Concourse, during the Christmas seasons. TVC continues to explore different genres of choral music in its bid towards choral excellence. As such, there are currently four choirs housed under TVC: the Main Chorus, Coro di Signori, Youth Choir and The Chamber Chorus. TVC also strives for opportunities to perform and compete abroad to gain international exposure so as to raise the choral standards of its members. In 2013, being the 10th year since it embarked on its journey of international competitions, TVC decided to participate in the A Voyage of Songs 2013. This time, the choir competed impressively when the Main Chorus and Coro di Signori both emerged as winners in their respective categories. The Coro di Signori then went on to clinch the Festival Grand Prize in the challenging Grand Finals, marking the choir’s latest victory in the international choral scene. 16
Flood of Beauty
Orchestra
First Violin
String Quartet (Dome)
Percussion 1 (Dome)
Adam Wu
Brenda Koh Siu Han Violin 1
Chen Yang
Li Jingjing
Lai Yi Xuan Violin 2
Sun Huanhuan
Mervin Wong Viola
Percussion 2 (Dome)
Li Guantong
Wu Fan Cello
Liu Xiao Xu
David Loke Kai Yuan
Flute
Percussion 3 (Dome)
Dao Hong Nhung
You Wenjing (+piccolo)
Melodie Ng, Ministry of Bellz
Gabriel Lee
Kim Danyi (+piccolo)
San Win Htike
Percussion 4 (Group 4 West)
Zhang Sen Hsieh Yu-Ling
Oboe
Zheng Xinyi
Simon Lee Jun Hao Second Violin
Zhao Shu Yu
Chikako Sasaki
Tambura Sucheta Bhattacharya
Hsieh Li-Chung
Clarinet
Yvonne Lee Sooi Cheen
Miao Kaiwen
Rehearsal Pianists
Xin Yu
Yue Ziqi (bass clarinet)
Shane Thio
Askar Salimdjanov
Megaria Halim
Lin Ying-Chu
Bassoon
Andrew Ng Wen Hao
Yuan Xiaoxiao
Surtitles Operator
Liu Zhaolong
Zhang Zhaoqi (+contra bassoon)
Debbie Gan
Viola
Trumpet
Victor Brandon Williams
Lau Wen Rong
Li Yue
Lee Jin Jun
Chen Ying
Teerapol Kiatthaveephong
Xu Rui
Lim Hui Min
May Loh Qiao Qian Jiang Yukun
Trombone Don Kow Kang Yue
Cello
Timothy Kok Tse En
Christopher Mui
Aldwyn Tan Chor Guan
Wang Zihao Dylan Lee Mihn Tang
Piano
Liu Yanyu
Clarence Lee
Theophilus Tan Hiao Tsung Loh Hsiao Shan
Grand Organ Evelyn Lim
Double Bass Zhang Jianze
Timpani
Kim Kyunghyun
Chang Tzu-En
Sun Chenguang Brandon Wong Chang Chze
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FLOOD OF BEAUTY GROUP I
Chorus
GROUP II
GROUP III
Soprano
Soprano
(Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Chamber Singers) Soprano Mi Ou Lee Jolene Leong Li Wei Wei Rachel Lim Lo Yee Ng Jing Yun Roe Curie Elissa Sayampanathan Melanie Seet Cassandra Sim Wang Ji Xu Xi Alto Sunanda Baradwaj Cassandra Chong Cheryl Lek Li Churen Sherilyn Lim Jollin Tan Tan Shi Yu Teo Poh Yin Toy Jia Ling Zheng Bowen Tenor Felix Ang Benjamin Aw Fang Zhi Kuah Sing Yee Liew Kongmeng Theo Moolenaar Alden Pong Malcolm Ravindran Benjamin See Roger You Bass Benjamin Cheng
Lee Wanrong (ONE) Dionne Lim (ONE) Lim Ming Boon (SYC) Lye Siying Ong Jia Qi (SYC) Portia Tan (TVC) Vivienne Tan (SYC) Vigo Toh (TVC) Louisa Vilinne (ONE)
Ang Swee Ngee (TVC) Cherie Chai (ONE) Chow Xue Wen (SYC) Choy Siew Woon (SYC) Amelia Lee (SYC) Hillary Lee (SYC) Lim Pei Yu (SYC) Sumithri Venkatasubramaniam (ONE) Tay Seow Boon (SYC)
Yao Huijun (SYC)
Jean Teo (SYC)
Alto
Alto
Cheng Wen Ya (TVC) Charlotte Cheong (SYC) Karen Cheong (SYC) Fiona Chia (TVC) Choy Siew Lin (SYC) Nathania Chua (ONE) Ng Xiang Wen (ONE) Tenor Chen Zhengyu (ONE) Ryan Foo (TVC) Calvin Goh (SYC) Kong Delin (SYC) Lim Zhi Kang (ONE) Jeremy Ling Ong Zhi Yuan (TVC) Sun Boxi (TVC) Bass Szecindyo Chewandi (SYC) Foo Yu Kang (ONE) Hong Zhengyang (SYC) Kenny Khoo (SYC) Samuel Lee (SYC) Ong Wei Meng (ONE)
Chua Kai Xuan (ONE) Nicolette Foo (SYC) Gloria Goh (SYC) Victoria Heng (TVC) Angela Lee (SYC) Belle Ng (ONE) Pammela Ng (ONE) Heather Tan (ONE) Tenor Ang Ziyuan (ONE) Baek Jongwoo (TVC) Chua Jian Yong (TVC) Aldo Joson (SYC) Tan Song Ern (SYC) Michael Yudistira (SYC) Bass John Rae Cortes (SYC) Foong Hak Luen (TVC) Anthony Lie (ONE) Brian Lim (SYC) Benlee Tan (SYC) Joseph Tay (SYC) Danny Wong (ONE) Yao Tian (TVC) Albert Yeo (SYC)
Chua Jiasheng Hoe Tze Han Huo Chuanle Daegyun Jeong Kenneth Lu
(ONE) ONE Chamber Choir
Puripat Paesaroch
(SYC) SYC Ensemble Singers
Shaun Quek
(TVC) The Vocal Consort
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John Tavener AN APPRECIATION OF A MYSTERY WITHIN THE WAVES OF BEAUTY
The first sentence of the liner notes for a recording of British composer John Tavener’s popular work for cello and orchestra, The Protecting Veil, says it all, “To listen to Tavener’s music is to confront mystery.”1 Indeed. The experience of listening to Tavener’s Flood of Beauty has been likened to that sense of awe that overwhelms one when entering a building of immense grandeur. Flood of Beauty calls for immense forces – orchestra, vocal and instrumental soloists and an ensemble of traditional Indian instruments – and at its world premiere at London’s Barbican Hall in 2014, left reviewers astounded. Said the New Statesman: “When we enter a particularly impressive building, such as a cathedral, instinct tells us to stand still and take it in. Revolving on the spot, we grope towards an understanding of the overarching scheme governing all the vaulting arches, both comforted and awed by the sheer scale of human endeavour that contains us. With Flood of Beauty, John Tavener created a piece of music that evokes this very feeling.”2 Perhaps such a description should not surprise. Whether it his music (The Protecting Veil and the Ikon of Light for instance) or the way he looked (gaunt and with “long, straight Jesus-hair”3), Tavener (1944 – 2013) conjured, and conjures up “mystery”: as a religious truth; as something beyond understanding; as something profound and inexplicable. In the late 1960s, the composer Sir Arthur Bliss (1891 – 1975) thought Tavener had “gone haywire” when he saw the score of Tavener’s oratorio, The Whale.4 In 1997, Tavener’s Song for Athene reached an international audience when it was sung at Princess Diana’s funeral. In 2000, he was knighted for his services to music. Following his death in 2013, UK’s Daily Telegraph editorial commented that Tavener “brought to the public the serious, the beautiful and the holy.”5 In fact, since his youth, religion, the spiritual and the divine had always served as primary sources of inspiration for Tavener. Here, the BBC Music Magazine has compared Tavener with the great Baroque composer J S Bach “for whom art and faith have been inseparable companions in a rocky journey.”6 How then does one begin to approach to the music of Tavener? Does one need to be of a particular faith or religious denomination to fully appreciate his art or can one just let the music flood one’s senses? Presbyterian beginnings and Catholic Mysticism: A touch of subversion from The Whale to Therese Born in 1944 in north London, Tavener spent most of his childhood playing the organ either in Presbyterian churches or at the chapel of Highgate School where he studied. His father was an organist at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Hampstead and his family attended a Presbyterian church. Later on however, Tavener 19
Photo Credit: Simone Canetty-Clarke
studied composition at London’s Royal Academy of Music with the composer Sir Lennox Berkley (1903 – 1989) who was a devout Catholic. Tavener first gained public attention in the late 1960s with his oratorio, The Whale, which was based on the biblical story of the prophet Jonah. Its premiere at a high profile concert in 1968 that also marked the debut of the London Sinfonietta and the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall of London’s Southbank Centre resulted in Tavener being hailed by The Guardian as “The musical discovery of the year”. It was also during this time – from the late-1960s to mid-1970s — that Tavener turned away from his Presbyterian upbringing and embraced Catholic mysticism, finding new musical possibilities in the ritualistic elements of Roman Catholicism. The works from this period, such as In Alium (1968) and Ultimos ritos (1969 -1972) have been noted to contain “a theatricality … that was entirely characteristic”7 while Tavener claimed that he was reacting against the “po-faced serialists” of that time.8 This period of Tavener’s encounter with Catholicism culminated with the controversial opera Therese (1979) about the agonising death of St Therese of Lisieux. The work however was a critical failure. This proved to be a watershed period for Tavener: Therese’s long gestation was accompanied by a musical and spiritual crisis from which he would emerge renewed through his conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 1977. Orthodoxy: From The Protecting Veil to a Song for Athene Some commentators have noted that the music from this phase of Tavener’s life had an even “greater spiritual focus and intensity”9 than before. Most of the works written during this phase of his life were – with few exceptions – vocal or choral, heavily influenced by Orthodox liturgical texts, Russian and Greek writers and themes and the music mirrored “the stark, sluggish severity and ancient tonal structures of that church …” 10 For many, it was the works written during this period that areTavener’s most enduring, popular and accessible. Scored for cello and string orchestra in 1988, The Protecting Veil, with its sustained long melodic lines and shimmering harmonies that are punctuated by dramatic interjections, was the work which made Tavener a household name among classical music lovers worldwide. An earlier four-minute choral work from 1982, The Lamb, remains a Christmas favourite while the mentioned Song of Athene from 1993 is memorable for the way its melody blends the solemnity of a chant with lyrical contemporary idiom, and impactful in the way the melody is heard over a deep sustained bass. The popularity of these works allowed Tavener to reach a worldwide audience. But, to be popular was never on Tavener’s agenda as he told the BBC Music Magazine just before his death, “I seem to have a God-given talent for connecting with people, and I’m grateful for that. But I have never cynically written with that intention …. ”.11 The Universalist: The Veil of the Temple, Requiem and Floods of Beauty In the late 1990s, Tavener further expanded his outlook on life and religion, seeking inspiration from other sources and traditions, in particular those from the East: Hindusim, Islam and even Shamanism. While remaining an Orthodox Christian, Tavener embraced the Universalist belief that all organised religions are simply different interpretations of the same underlying forces. 21
It was this final phase of his life that saw the outpouring of the monumental masterpieces: the seven-hour The Veil of the Temple from 2002; the Requiem from 2007 which draws from the Latin Mass, the Upanishads, the Koran; and the ambitious Flood of Beauty written between 2006 and 2007 without any commission or intended performance. Set to the over 100-stanza poem Saundarya Lahari by the revered Hindu philosopher and theologian Adi Sankarachacarya, Flood of Beauty is a work in which Tavener envisaged an aural and musical experience like no other before: for its performance, he had specified that the groups of instruments and choirs “should be as far apart as possible, surrounding the audience so that the music whirls around the building”.12 Following Tavener’s death, Flood of Beauty was subsequently co-commissioned by Singapore’s Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay and UK’s Barbican Centre after Chester Music, Tavener’s publisher, had approached Esplanade and other major international performing arts venues to commission the work so as to enable its publication and performance worldwide. Flood of Beauty received its world premiere in 2014 by the Britten Sinfonia under Martyn Babbins; its Asian premiere is held at Esplanade’s A Tapestry of Sacred Music. The reviewer for New Statesman at the Barbican concert felt that the work, “for all that it is noisy and strange to the ear” was undoubtedly part of what Tavener saw in his quest as a composer: to search for “the uncreated music of God”.13 Music, Death and Life Plagued by ill health throughout his life, Tavener once made a comparison between his compositions and that of death: “Almost every piece I write is, in a sense, kind of viewing death in different lights.”14 On hindsight, there is more than a grain of truth to Tavener’s words. As acclaimed Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko who premiered Tavener’s Requiem – a mass for the dead – said once: “…His music is on a totally different time scale from the one we use in our everyday lives – it’s music about eternity, meditation, the exploration of your own soul and the journey we are all on. To really get inside John’s music, you need to extract yourself from the hurried, rushed and crazy world of today and listen to your own inner voice.”15 Perhaps, at the end of it all, Tavener’s music remains universal in its appeal because each of his works is an invitation for the listener, regardless of belief, to just contemplate and reflect: on his or her own existence and then, on the meaning of the world that is all around us. Programme Notes by Phan Ming Yen
Adolphe, Bruce and Tavener, John, liner notes for The Protecting Veil, Sony Classical, SK 62821, 1998
1
Crampton, Caroline, ‘Sound and Vision: John Tavener’s Flood of Beauty’, New Statesman, 9 October 2014, http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/10/sound-and-vision-john-taveners-flood-beauty
2
White, Michael, ‘A Time for Reflection’, BBC Music Magazine, December 2013
3
John Tavener quoted in ‘A Time for Reflection’, ibid
4
Telegraph View, ‘Heavenly Music’, Daily Telegraph, 12 November 2013 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/10443805/Heavenly-music.html
5
White, ‘A Time for Reflection’
6
Moody, Ivan in ‘Sir John Tavener: A World of Light’, Gramophone, January 2014
7
Moody, ibid
8
Stewart, Michael, liner notes for Svyati: Steven Isserlis plays the music of John Tavener, BMG Catalyst, 09026-68761-2, 1997
9
10 11
White, ‘A Time for Reflection
John Tavener quoted in ‘A Time for Reflection’
12
Tavener, John, programme notes for Flood of Beauty
13
Crampton, ‘Sound and Vision: John Tavener’s Flood of Beauty’
Barr, Robert, ‘John Tavener, Composer and Seeker, dies at 69’, Associated Press, 13 November 2013, https://www.yahoo.com/music/s/john-tavener-composer-seeker-dies-69-175240574.html 14
15
Vasily Petrenko quoted in ‘Remembering the Composer’ from ‘Sir John Tavener: A World of Light’
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