18 JUNE 2017 SUN | VICTORIA CONCERT HALL
VCH ORGAN SERIES: PETER AND THE WOLF Michael Knudsen, organ ACT 3 Theatrics / Very Special Theatrics Adriel Yap, organ builder LOUIS VIERNE “Final” from Organ Symphony No. 1, Op. 14 Meet-the-builder interview SERGEI PROKOFIEV arr. Heinrich Grimm Peter and the Wolf
MICHAEL KNUDSEN Born 1988, Michael Min Knudsen is a Danish organist. He was raised as a treble singer in Roskilde Cathedral’s boys’ choir where he received his first music training. He began playing the organ at the age of 13. After private lessons with the cathedral’s organist, Finn Evald, and two years of initial organ studies at the Roskilde Church Music School, he was accepted at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2009. He obtained a master degree in organ performance in 2014, after having studied with Bine K. Bryndorf and Hans Fagius. Knudsen’s repertoire consists of Early Music up to contemporary music. His particular interest in the German Romantic organ repertoire led to further studies for an artist diploma with Arvid Gast. Along with his studies in Copenhagen, Knudsen accompanied the boys’ choir in Roskilde for services as well as on tours to the USA, England and other countries. During his studies, Knudsen was introduced to the French-style harmonium and he taught French harmonium playing at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 2014 to 2015 as part of Hans Davidsson’s research project. Knudsen has played duo concerts for harmonium and piano together with the German pianist Marie-Luise Bodendorff. He is a member of the board of directors at the Jesus Church (Copenhagen) harmonium collection. In 2015 Knudsen played the harmonium part for a newly composed opera as part of the Copenhagen Opera Festival. Knudsen has participated in several international competitions. Furthermore, he has participated in several masterclasses with renowned organists and organ academies in Sweden, Germany, Italy and England. He plays concerts in Denmark and Germany on a regular basis. Knudsen was awarded the Amager music festival’s talent prize in 2012 and in 2015 he was a semi-finalist in the International Buxtehude Competition.
FOREWORD PIECING TOGETHER PETER AND THE WOLF In our teaching and creative work, we have learned that all of us have special needs. The challenge is to discover and develop special abilities. The artistes in VST are gems. Trust is a privilege. Because they easily allow us into their sometimes mazy world we are able draw them out into the imaginative world where Peter, the Wolf and all the other characters reside. Performing on stage can be a thrilling or a crushing experience (sometimes both at the same time). Hundreds of gazing eyes can either lift you or flatten you. Music is a universal language. However, dramatising scenes ruled only by music (with snatches of storytelling) requires tremendous discipline. The ears have to be sharp, co-ordination balanced, body language crisp, emotions fluid, and all this in relation to the space and others in the ensemble. Determination, hard work and the desire to share an enchanting story have brought us to this stage. Our heart-felt appreciation to VCH Home of the SSO for this opportunity; artistes, crew and creative team for building this showpiece as one unit; parents and care-givers for the trust and dedication; supporters for the belief; VSA Singapore for this exciting journey together; and you, the audience for your uplifting presence. Thank you for this privilege. R Chandran & Amy J Cheng Directors of ACT 3 Theatrics & Very Special Theatrics
ACT 3 THEATRICS Established in July 1984, ACT 3 Theatrics is Singapore’s first professional theatre company. The primary focus of the company is to promote theatre, life skills and literacy through drama for children and people with special needs. In line with this the company produces and stages theatre performances, runs a range of arts programmes in mainstream, SPED schools and Early Childhood Education centres, and mentors educators in the use of drama as a teaching tool. In January 2017, ACT 3 Theatrics, in conjunction with Very Special Arts (VSA) Singapore, established Very Special Theatrics – an inclusive performing company.
VERY SPECIAL THEATRICS The mission of Very Special Theatrics is to provide special needs and mainstream artistes a platform to train, develop, create and perform together while cultivating a vocation in the arts. Peter and the Wolf, under the VCH Organ Series, is the company’s second public performance, following the debut of Birds & Butterflies in February.
CAST (in order of appearance) Peter Lee Wen Jie, Timothy Gabriel Butterfly #1 Kevin Yeong Kwok Keong Butterfly #2 Lee En Ci Samuel Bird Pauline Yap Shu Poh Duck Aqiyah Binte Mohamed Halid Cat Shawn Tan Kai En Grandpa Chang Kheng Song Cavan Wolf Yap Yi Kai Hunter #1 Wong Cheok Hon Hunter #2 Choo Jun Wei Storyteller & Voice of Grandpa Voice of Peter & Duck Voice of Bird & Cat
Remesh Panicker Joshua Allen Rui Xiong German Lim Pei Hsien Elizabeth
CREATIVE TEAM Director R Chandran Stage Manager Sherri Ashlee Toh Designer Angelina Lourdes Make-up Kenneth Chia/Ming Xue Qi Cheryl Acting Coaches Amy J Cheng & Perry Shen Wenyang Music Score Prompter Liu Yonglun
VSA SINGAPORE TEAM Executive Director Maureen Goh Programme Executive Victoria Ding Project Intern Bhavisha Chandroo Methani Project Intern Michelle Fonseca
ADRIEL YAP Born in Singapore, Adriel Yap has degrees from the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University and is trained to teach Music and Geography at the National Institute of Education. After teaching at an independent school, he left Singapore in 2005 to be an organ builder with Harrison & Harrison of Durham, England. Since then Yap has worked on many instruments including those of Westminster Abbey, the Royal Festival Hall, St Alban’s Abbey and Kings College Cambridge. In 2015, he overhauled the J W Walker pipe organ in the Freemasons Hall on Coleman Street. Yap started accompanying church services on the organ at age 14. He studied with Evelyn Lim in Singapore and continues to have organ lessons in the UK with James Parsons. He achieved the Certificate of the Royal College of Organists in 2012 and has won prizes in organ competitions. He is a founding member of the Singapore Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and is its first Programme Director. In the UK, he serves on the Advisory Committee of the Incorporated Association of Organists and in local organists’ associations.
PROGRAMME NOTES
“Final” from Organ Symphony No. 1, Op. 14 Louis Vierne (1870 – 1937) Louis Vierne, a French composer and organist, was born with congenital cataracts which made him legally blind. At an early age, he showed a great gift for music and at age 16, was able to study at the Paris Conservatoire. At 22, he became Charles-Marie Widor’s assistant at St. Sulpice and at 30, he assumed the principal organist position at the Notre-Dame Cathedral, a post he held until he died of a heart attack while playing a recital on the organ at Notre-Dame. Composing for the famous Cavaillé-Coll organs of the time and continuing in the symphonic style of César Franck and Widor, Vierne completed his first organ symphony in 1899. Vierne called the Final, the most famous movement of this work as his “Marseillaise”, referring to the French national anthem, an anthem to freedom.
Peter and the Wolf Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953) Arr. Heinrich Grimm Sergei Prokofiev was a prolific composer, pianist and conductor during the Soviet era. His most well-known work is Peter and the Wolf, a symphonic fairy tale for children, written in 1936. That year, Prokofiev received a commission to write a musical symphony for children, introducing them to the instruments of the orchestra. After several drafts, he finally wrote a story of a young boy named Peter and his adventures capturing a wolf: Peter lives with his grandfather at the edge of a forest. Peter has a cat; there is a duck that lives in the pond; and there is a noisy bird in the trees. There is, of course, grumpy grandpa, who tells Peter to stay out of the woods. One day, a big, bad wolf shows up. The cat scrambles up the tree and escapes, but the duck gets swallowed up by the wolf. Peter comes to the rescue; armed with a rope, he goes after the wolf. He gets the bird to distract the wolf, and slips the rope around the wolf's tail, trapping it. Some hunters who have been tracking the wolf appear. They help Peter tie up the wolf. Peter convinces them not to shoot the wolf but to take him to the zoo instead. As the parade of hunters, boy, cat and bird deliver the wolf to the zoo in a grand exuberant march, one can hear the duck quacking in the belly of the wolf!
Programme notes by Margaret Chen
Sat, 2 Sep 2017, 2pm and 4pm Sun, 3 Sep 2017, 2pm Victoria Concert Hall Singapore Symphony Orchestra Joshua Tan, conductor Magic Circle Mime Company Delight your kids with the popular orchestral tale of Peter and the Wolf, as “told” by the theatrics (and antics) of acclaimed mime artists from Magic Circle Mime! Come experience the story as it unfolds ‘live’ on stage and help us outwit the fearsome wolf that threatens the orchestra and audience! Tickets: $40 & $30 Family of 4 packages: $144 & $108 www.sistic.com.sg All Concerts for Children are suitable for ages 4 and above.
THE KLAIS ORGAN First installed in 1987, the Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ was purchased through fundraising efforts from the then-newly formed SSO Ladies’ League as a replacement for the St. Clair organ that had been built some 50 years earlier in 1931. The St. Clair organ was named after Major W. G. St. Clair, founder of the old Philharmonic Society and the first editor of the Singapore Free Press, and its façade was retained after the installation of the Klais organ. In 2010, with the redevelopment of the Victoria Concert Hall and Victoria Theatre, the organ – consisting of a total of 2,012 pipes – was methodically removed piece by piece, repaired and stored in climate-controlled warehouses during the refurbishment period.
We would like to thank the following organisations and individuals for donating towards the restoration of the Klais Organ. Lee Foundation, Singapore Goh Yew Lin Far East Organization Ho Ching Mrs Christina Ong Low Check Kian Tan Kong Piat (Pte) Ltd Tow Heng Tan Bernard Tan Tiong Gie Winston Hauw Michael Koh Ann Kheng Richard P Armstrong Joseph Grimberg One North Capital Pte Ltd Tan Corporate Advisory Pte Ltd United Overseas Bank Ltd
Leong Wai Leng Wing Tai Holdings Limited Yeoh Chee Yan ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited Paul A. J. Supramaniam Auric Pacific Group Limited Heidrick & Struggles Bryan Manaf Ghows Santa Lucia Asset Management Andreas Sohmen-Pao Tan Boon Ngee American Women’s Association Chng Hak-Peng Dr Warren Lee’s Paediatrics Growth & Diabetes Centre Pte Ltd
ABOUT THE KLAIS ORGAN Mechanical Stop and Keyboard Action Windpressure: Manuals: 100mm Pedal: 120mm 3 Manual Combination Pedals Builder: Klais, Bonn 1987
GREAT
SWELL Hautbois Basson Scharff Sesquialter Octavin Blockflöte Principal Vox Coeleste Gamba Rohrflöte Tremulant
8’ 16’ 4 Ranks 2 Ranks 2’ 4’ 4’ 8’ 8’ 8’
Couplers: I/Ped II/Ped II/I II/II 16’
Cromorne 8’ Trompete 8’ Mixture 4 Ranks Larigot 1 1/3’ Superoctave 2’ Traversflöte 4’ Octave 4’ Offenflöte 8’ Principal 8’ Quintaton 16’ Tremulant PEDAL Trompete 8’ Posaune 16’ Rauschpfeife 3 Ranks Choralbass 4’ Bourdon 8’ Octave 8’ Subbass 16’ Principal 16’