Singapore Symphony Orchestra Mar 2023

first time Is this your at the SSO?

WELCOME! You’ve begun a richly rewarding musical journey and we want you to feel comfortable at the SSO. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to ask, check out our FAQ!

WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?

We don’t enforce any dress code. Many come in business attire or smart casual outfits, and that’s great.

WHEN SHOULD I CLAP?

Many pieces of music have multiple sections called movements. E.g. most concertos have three movements while symphonies usually have four. Traditionally, applause is only expected at the end of the entire work, rather than between each movement.

If you’re unsure, check our programme booklet, or wait for the conductor to put down the baton at the end, and acknowledge the orchestra and audience.

CAN I TAKE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS?

Video and photography of any kind are not permitted when musicians are actively performing. However, non-flash photography is allowed during bows and applause. Take home a musical memory and tag us on @singaporesymphony!

BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO

2 & 3 Mar 2023, Thu & Fri Esplanade Concert Hall

AND

MAHLER 5

KAHCHUN WONG AND DANIEL LOZAKOVICH

25 Mar 2023, Sat Esplanade Concert Hall

CHLOE CHUA PLAYS MOZART 3

31 Mar & 1 Apr 2023, Fri & Sat Victoria Concert Hall

For the enjoyment of all patrons during the concert:

• Please switch off or silence all electronic devices.

• Please minimise noises during performance. If unavoidable, wait for a loud section in the music.

• No photography, video or audio recording is allowed when artists are performing.

• Non-flash photography is allowed only during bows and applause when no performance is taking place.

Go green. Digital programme books are available on www.sso.org.sg.

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

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Since its founding in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has been Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state.

In addition to its subscription series concerts, the orchestra is well-loved for its outdoor and community appearances, and its significant role educating the young people of Singapore. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings. In 2021, the SSO clinched third place in the prestigious Orchestra of the Year Award by Gramophone.

In July 2022, the SSO appointed renowned Austrian conductor Hans Graf as its Music Director, the third in the orchestra’s history after Lan Shui (1997–2019) and Choo Hoey (1979–1996). Prior to this, Hans Graf served as Chief Conductor from 2020, leading the SSO in keeping music alive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall. More intimate works, as well as outreach and community performances

take place at the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall, the Home of the SSO. The orchestra performs over 60 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. The SSO launched its digital concert hall, SSOLOUNGE, in 2021. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in the concert season.

Beyond Singapore, the SSO has performed in Europe, Asia and the United States. In May 2016 the SSO was invited to perform at the Dresden Music Festival and the Prague Spring International Music Festival. This successful five-city tour of Germany and Prague also included the SSO’s second performance at the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2014 the SSO’s debut at the 120th BBC Proms in London received critical acclaim in the major UK newspapers The Guardian and The Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.

The SSO has released more than 50 recordings, with over 30 on the BIS label. The most recent critically acclaimed albums include a Rachmaninoff box set (2021), Richard Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier and Other Works” (2020), and three Debussy discs “La Mer”, “Jeux” and “Nocturnes”. A Four Seasons album and a complete Mozart Violin Concerto cycle with Chloe Chua and Hans Graf will be released in the near future.

The SSO has also collaborated with such great artists as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Joe Hisaishi, Neeme Järvi, Okko Kamu, Hannu Lintu, Andrew Litton, Lorin Maazel, Martha Argerich, Ray Chen, Diana Damrau, Stephen Hough, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos,

Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham and Krystian Zimerman.

The SSO is part of the Singapore Symphony Group, which also manages the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and the VCHpresents chamber music series, the Singapore International Piano Festival and the biennial National Piano & Violin Competition.

The mission of the Group is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated performing groups, we spread the love for music, nurture talent and enrich our diverse communities.

HANS GRAF Music Director

LAWRENCE RENES conductor

Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes is highly regarded in both the operatic and symphonic spheres, praised for his impeccable ability to balance orchestra and singers and for delivering performances of passion, nuance and style.

Renes opens the 2022/23 season with a return to Orchestre National de Lyon to conduct a programme of Dessner and Berlioz – reuniting with French Piano Duo Katia and Marielle Labèque. He goes on to Germany to debut with Oper Köln for Paul-Georg Dittrich’s production of Alexander Zemlinsky’s one-act opera Der Zwerg and Stravinsky’s ballet Petruschka which celebrates 100 years since the Opera’s world premiere which was also in Cologne. The rest of the season includes his debut with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and returns to the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

Last season, debut performances included appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra as well as an opera debut with the Finnish National Opera for Christof Loy’s production of Salome. Elsewhere, Renes performed with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and the Swedish Chamber orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luzembourg, Malta Philharmonic and Residentie Orkest.

Other engagements in recent seasons include opera productions in Brussels, Seattle, Lisbon and Santa Fe; and symphonic appearances with many orchestras around the world. He also premiered George Benjamin’s Written on Skin in China with Beijing Music Festival and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in 2018.

Formerly Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera, his repertoire there ranged from Mozart through to the 21st century. An energetic champion of contemporary repertoire, he is particularly associated with the music of John Adams, George Benjamin, Mark Anthony Turnage, Guillaume Connesson and Robin de Raaff.

© CLAUDINE GRIN

Chloe Chua

Chloe Chua (b. 2007) shot to international stardom after winning the joint 1st Prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists.

The young star from Singapore has also garnered the top prize at the 24th Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition, 3rd prize at the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition, as well as accolades at the Thailand International Strings Competition (Junior Category Grand Prize) and the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition (1st Prize, Junior 2017, 3rd Prize, Junior 2015).

Her stunning musicality despite her young age has captured the hearts of audiences around the world, and her performances have taken her to concert halls and orchestras across the U.S.A., U.K., Italy, Germany, Saudi Arabia, China, Thailand and Singapore, in festivals such as the Copenhagen Summer Festival, New Virtuosi Queenswood Mastercourse, Atlanta Festival Academy and the Singapore Violin Festival.

For the 2022/23 season, Chloe has been named Artist-InResidence at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, performing several concerts and recording projects across 2022 and 2023. Upcoming albums include The Four Seasons and the complete Mozart Violin Concertos with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Hans Graf. Her previous recordings include a Piazzolla album with guitarist Kevin Loh.

Chloe has been with Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) School of Young Talents since age 4, and is currently under the tutelage of Yin Ke, leader of their strings programme.

Chloe performs on a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Milan, 1753, on generous loan from the Rin Collection.

“ Chloe is not just Wunderkind, she is a great young artist with a fantastic future.”

– HANS GRAF, MUSIC DIRECTOR

and Dresdner Philharmonie where he additionally will be ‘focus-artist’. The season also includes debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Wong is celebrated by the press for his recent debuts with New York Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool

Philharmonic, and has also successfully appeared with Detroit Symphony, Bamberger Symphoniker, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, New Japan Philharmonic, and Tokyo

Philharmonic Orchestra, where he curated a special gala featuring Toru Takemitsu’s rarely performed Arc cycle.

KAHCHUN WONG conductor

Singaporean conductor Kahchun Wong first came to international attention as the winner of the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2016, praised by Musical America for the “depth and sincerity of his musicality”. Kahchun Wong will take up the position of Chief Conductor for Japan Philharmonic Orchestra from the season 2023/24 after being principal guest the season before.

Highlights of 2023/24 season include reengagements with the Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, the Hallé Orchestra,

Wong believes in the power of music to inspire young musicians mirroring his own journey as a musician from a Southeast Asian country. In 2016, he co-founded ‘Project Infinitude’ with Marina Mahler, the granddaughter of Gustav Mahler. He has also worked closely with Child at Street 11, a nonprofit Singaporean agency supporting many children from underserved and diverse backgrounds. In 2019, together with BRKlassik and Stadtsparkasse Nürnberg, he conceived and led a collaborative television project that raised donations for a nonprofit association for children in Germany.

As a protégé of the late Kurt Masur, Wong had the privilege of sharing the podium with him on multiple occasions. He received a Master of Music degree in orchestral and operatic conducting at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin.

KAHCHUN WONG AND DANIEL LOZAKOVICH

© ANGIE KREMER

DANIEL LOZAKOVICH

violin

Daniel Lozakovich, whose majestic musicmaking leaves both critics and audiences spellbound, was born in Stockholm in 2001 and began playing the violin when approaching seven years old. He made his solo debut two years later with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Teodorovic Spivakov.

Lozakovich opened the current season with his debut appearance at the BBC Proms, performing Brahms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is the season’s Artist-inResidence with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, performing concertos and recitals across the season. Other important dates include Oslo Philharmonic under Klaus Mäkelä, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg and tour dates with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. He makes his debut with Filarmonica della Scala, working for the first time with Riccardo Chailly. Further afield, he is making his debut in South Korea, both in recital and with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

A highly sought after recitalist, having performed in some of the world’s most prestigious venues, Lozakovich has made appearances at the Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Tonhalle Zürich, Victoria Hall Geneva, Conservatorio

G. Verdi Milan and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Lozakovich is a regular at international music festivals and enjoys collaborations with the likes of Emanuel Ax, Renaud Capuçon, Shlomo Mintz, Mikhail Pletnev, Khatia Buniatishvili, Maxim Vengerov and many others.

Lozakovich studied at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with Josef Rissin from 2012, and from 2015 has been mentored by Eduard Wulfson in Geneva. Lozakovich plays the “ex-Baron Rothschild” Stradivari on generous loan on behalf of the owner by Reuning & Son, Boston, and Eduard Wulfson and plays the Stradivarius Le Reynier (1727), generously loaned by LVMH / Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

JOHAN SANDBERG/DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

HANS GRAF

Music Director

With the distinguished Austrian conductor Hans Graf, “a brave new world of musicmaking under inspired direction” (The Straits Times) began at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, where he was appointed Chief Conductor from the 2020/21 season, and Music Director from the 2022/23 season.

Graf was formerly Music Director of the Houston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Basque National Orchestra and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. He is a frequent guest with major orchestras around the world including the orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Vienna, Leipzig Gewandhaus, DSO Berlin, Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw, Oslo, Hallé, London, Royal Philharmonic, the Bavarian, Danish and Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestras, Budapest Festival, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian National, and the orchestras of Melbourne, Sydney, Seoul, Hong Kong and Malaysian Philharmonic. Graf has led operas in the opera houses of the Vienna State Opera, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Strasbourg, Rome and Zurich. In 2014 he was awarded the Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis for Strauss’s Die Feuersnot at the famed Vienna Volksoper, where he returned in 2021 to lead Rosenkavalier.

Hans Graf's extensive discography includes all the symphonies of Mozart and Schubert, the complete orchestral works of Dutilleux, and the world-premiere recording of Zemlinsky’s Es war einmal. Graf’s recording of Berg’s Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony won the GRAMMY and ECHO Klassik awards for best opera recording.

Born near Linz in 1949, Graf is Professor Emeritus for Orchestral Conducting at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg. For his services to music, he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government, and the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Republic of Austria.

The Orchestra

HANS GRAF

Music Director

RODOLFO BARRÁEZ

Associate Conductor

CHOO HOEY

Conductor Emeritus

LAN SHUI

Conductor Laureate

EUDENICE PALARUAN

Choral Director

WONG LAI FOON

Choirmaster

FIRST VIOLIN

(Position vacant) Concertmaster,

GK Goh Chair

Kong Zhao Hui1

Associate Concertmaster

Chan Yoong-Han2

Fixed Chair

Cao Can*

Chen Da Wei

Duan Yu Ling

Foo Say Ming

Jin Li

Kong Xianlong

Cindy Lee

Karen Tan

William Tan

Wei Zhe

Ye Lin*

Zhang Si Jing*

SECOND VIOLIN

Tseng Chieh-An Principal

Michael Loh Associate Principal

Nikolai Koval*

Sayuri Kuru

Hai-Won Kwok

Chikako Sasaki*

Margit Saur

Shao Tao Tao

Wu Man Yun*

Xu Jueyi*

Yeo Teow Meng

Yin Shu Zhan*

Zhao Tian*

VIOLA

Manchin Zhang Principal

Guan Qi Associate Principal

Gu Bing Jie* Fixed Chair

Hyunjae Bae

Joyce Huang

Marietta Ku

Luo Biao

Julia Park

Shui Bing

Janice Tsai

Dandan Wang

Yang Shi Li

CELLO

Ng Pei-Sian Principal, The HEAD Foundation Chair

Yu Jing Associate Principal

Guo Hao Fixed Chair

Chan Wei Shing

Jamshid Saydikarimov

Song Woon Teng

Wang Yan

Wu Dai Dai

Zhao Yu Er

DOUBLE BASS

Yang Zheng Yi Associate Principal

Karen Yeo Fixed Chair

Olga Alexandrova

Jacek Mirucki

Guennadi Mouzyka

Wang Xu

FLUTE

Jin Ta Principal, Stephen Riady Chair

Evgueni Brokmiller Associate Principal

Roberto Alvarez

Miao Shanshan

PICCOLO

Roberto Alvarez Assistant Principal

OBOE

Rachel Walker Principal

Pan Yun Associate Principal

Carolyn Hollier

Elaine Yeo

COR ANGLAIS

Elaine Yeo Associate Principal

CLARINET

Ma Yue Principal

Li Xin Associate Principal

Liu Yoko

Tang Xiao Ping

BASS CLARINET

Tang Xiao Ping Assistant Principal

BASSOON

Liu Chang Associate Principal

Christoph Wichert

Zhao Ying Xue

CONTRABASSOON

Zhao Ying Xue Assistant Principal

HORN

Gao Jian Associate Principal

Jamie Hersch Associate Principal

Marc-Antoine Robillard Associate Principal

Hoang Van Hoc

TRUMPET

Jon Paul Dante Principal

David Smith Associate Principal

Lau Wen Rong

TROMBONE

Allen Meek Principal

Damian Patti Associate Principal

Samuel Armstrong

BASS TROMBONE

Wang Wei Assistant Principal

TUBA

Tomoki Natsume Principal

TIMPANI

Christian Schiøler Principal

Mario Choo

PERCUSSION

Jonathan Fox Principal

Mark Suter Associate Principal

Mario Choo

Lim Meng Keh

HARP

Gulnara Mashurova Principal

With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments. Kong Zhao Hui performs on a J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, c. 1750, donated by the National Arts Council, Singapore, with the support of Far East Organization and Lee Foundation. Chan Yoong-Han performs on a David Tecchler, Fecit Roma An. D. 1700, courtesy of Mr G K Goh. Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

Guest Musicians

BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO AND MAHLER 5 | 2 & 3 MAR 2023

FIRST VIOLIN

Vesselin Gellev Guest Concertmaster

Wilford Goh

Lim Shue Churn

SECOND VIOLIN

Helena Dawn Yah

VIOLA

Yeo Jan Wea

CELLO

Lin Juan

Wang Zihao

DOUBLE BASS

Hans Olov Davidsson Guest Principal

Julian Li

BASSOON

Marcelo Padilla Guest Principal

HORN

Esa Tapani Guest Principal

Bryan Chong

Alan Kartik

TRUMPET

Nuttakamon Supattranont

David Johnson

KAHCHUN WONG AND DANIEL LOZAKOVICH | 25 MAR 2023

FIRST VIOLIN

Jing Wang Guest Concertmaster

SECOND VIOLIN

Ikuko Takahashi

DOUBLE BASS

Julian Li

FLUTE

Wang Tong

BASSOON

Marcelo Padilla Guest Principal

HORN

Austin Larson Guest Principal

Bryan Chong

TRUMPET

Nuttakamon Supattranont

CHLOE CHUA PLAYS MOZART 3 | 31 MAR & 1 APR 2023

FIRST VIOLIN

Igor Yuzefovich Guest Concertmaster

DOUBLE BASS

Robin Kesselman Guest Principal

FLUTE

Wang Tong

BASSOON

Huang Cheng-Yu Guest Principal

HORN

Austin Larson Guest Principal

Bryan Chong

TRUMPET

Nuttakamon Supattranont

We look forward to seeing you in the air again

An elevated experience awaits on board the world’s most awarded airline

BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO AND MAHLER 5

CHLOE CHUA PLAYS BRUCH

2 & 3 Mar 2023, Thu & Fri

Esplanade Concert Hall

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Lawrence Renes conductor

Chloe Chua Artist-In-Residence/violin*

BRUCH MAHLER

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26

Intermission

Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor

24 mins

20 mins

68 mins

Concert Duration: approximately 2 hrs 10 mins (with 20 mins intermission)

CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT'S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.

Intermission autograph signing with Chloe Chua at the Foyer, Level 1. A

MAX BRUCH (1838–1920)

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1866–1868)

I II III

Vorspiel. Allegro moderato Adagio

Finale. Allegro energico

Of the four great German violin concertos (the other three by Beethoven, Brahms and Mendelssohn), Bruch’s First Violin Concerto is described as “the richest and the most seductive”. Bruch went on to compose two other violin concertos but neither would come close to achieving the popularity of the ingenious first. Success did not come easily to the composer, however. The concerto had a lengthy gestation period, with sketches dating back to 1857, 11 years before its official premiere. He confided in his former teacher Ferdinand Hiller in a letter, “My Violin Concerto is progressing slowly – I do not feel sure of my feet in this terrain. Do you think that it is in fact very audacious to write a Violin Concerto?” He eventually sought the advice of Joseph Joachim, the violinist-composer who also assisted Brahms and Dvorák with their concertos. The piece was completed in 1868 and was premiered by Joseph Joachim himself. For Bruch, melody was “the soul of music” and the violin was the best instrument for “singing”. His Violin Concerto No. 1 is what has kept his name firmly in the repertoire since the day of its premiere.

Vorspiel Instead of following compositional conventions slavishly, Bruch omits the usual orchestral exposition as well as the proportions of usual concertos. The concerto opens with an unusual Vorspiel (“prelude” in German), which serves as a lengthy introduction to the second movement. Rather than being the weightiest movement of the work, it is less structured and more fantasy-like than the first movements of

most concertos. The piece starts off slowly as Bruch makes room for two expansive melodies: the strong first theme and a very melodic second theme. The movement ends as it begins, with the virtuosic cadenzas more prominent than before. A single low note from the first violins connects the piece with the second movement.

Adagio The heart of the concerto. It is warmly lyrical and exceptionally rich in melodic inventions. A powerful display of Bruch’s gift of melody, he assigns three heartfelt themes that are gradually taken up by the orchestra with increasing fervour as the violin becomes increasingly passionate and agitated. The poised and elegiac melody carries the music on a tide of emotion.

Finale The quiet suspense of the finale’s opening is broken by the grand entrance of the violin featuring a jaunty theme with Gypsy flair. This movement is fun, with contrasting interludes of soaring nobility. The piece eventually comes to a powerful accelerando, bringing the music to a highspirited conclusion.

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

World Premiere

5 Jan 1868, Bremen (Joseph Joachim, violin)

First performed by SSO

21 Sep 1979 (Kim Nam Yun, violin)

Programme note by Lin Tonglin

GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911)

Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor (1901–1902)

PART I

Trauermarsch

Stürmisch bewegt

PART II

Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell

PART III

Mahler composed the piano score of his Fifth Symphony during the summer months of 1901 and 1902 and did the initial orchestration during the fall of 1902, but thereafter he continually revised the work. According to his wife Alma, “from the Fifth onward, he found it impossible to satisfy himself; the Fifth was differently orchestrated for practically every performance.” After the official world premiere in Cologne in 1904, with Mahler conducting the Gürzenich Orchestra, there were numerous important changes, and the same pattern followed performances in Amsterdam (1906), Vienna (1908) and Munich (1909). Shortly before his death, Mahler declared, “I have finished the Fifth. I actually had to re-orchestrate it completely. Evidently the routines I had established with the first four symphonies were entirely inadequate for this one – for a wholly new style demands a new technique.”

That “new style” stemmed in large part from Mahler’s new-found and deep acquaintance with the music of Bach, a style that conductor Bruno Walter called “intensified polyphony”. Compared with his earlier symphonies, the orchestral fabric has become more complicated – more instruments playing more different lines

at the same time. Mahler’s style is now generally less lyrical, more angular and hard-edged. Hymns of love, childlike faith and quasi-religious messages tend to be replaced by moods of tragic irony, bitterness and cynicism.

The Fifth Symphony is in five movements, further grouped into three large units, with a huge scherzo serving as the fulcrum to a pair of movements on either side. The opening movement starts with a funeral march, a type of music found in all of Mahler’s symphonies except the Fourth, Eighth and Ninth. To the ponderous, thickly scored tread of the march is added a gentle lament in the strings. Suddenly the music erupts in wild, impassioned strains. The ever-changing, kaleidoscopic aspect of Mahler’s orchestration is heard in its fullest expression. Eventually the funeral march music reasserts itself, and after a nightmarish climax, the movement disintegrates in ghostly echoes of the trumpet call.

BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO AND MAHLER

The second movement shares many qualities with the first, both emotionally and thematically. Easily identifiable variants and transformations of the first movement’s melodic material can be found. The turbulent, stormy mood continues and is even intensified. Paroxysms of violent rage race uncontrolled in some of the most feverish music ever written. Quiet interludes recall the funeral lament of the first movement. Towards the end of the movement gleams a ray of hope – the brass proclaim a fragment of a victory chorale, an anticipatory gesture that will find its fulfillment in the symphony’s closing pages.

to imagine Mahler’s Austrian landscapes, the peasant dances and the bustle and joy of life. The role of the principal horn becomes nearly that of a concerto soloist.

The despair and anguish of Part I are abruptly dismissed by the life-affirming third movement, Scherzo (Part II) – the longest and most complex scherzo Mahler ever wrote. The tremendous energy that infuses the scherzo segments alternates with nostalgic and wistful interludes in waltz or Ländler rhythm. Though the movement is not meant to be programmatic, one is tempted

Part III consists of the fourth movement, Adagietto and the Finale. In the Adagietto, scored only for strings and harp, we return to a romantic dream world familiar from Mahler’s earlier works, a world of quiet contemplation, benign simplicity, inner peace and escape from harsh reality. The Adagietto is surely the most famous single movement in all Mahler, a phenomenon dating back to its prominent use in the popular film Death in Venice (1971). The love story in that film was homosexual, distant, and unfulfilled, but into the Adagietto, composed in 1901, Mahler poured all the passionate love he felt for Alma Schindler, who would become his wife a year later. Evidence that this movement served as a “love letter” to Alma is found at the top of the first page of the Adagietto in the personal score of conductor Willem Mengelberg, one of Mahler’s closest associates: “This Adagietto was Gustav Mahler’s declaration of love for Alma. Instead of a letter, he sent her this in manuscript form; no other words accompanied it.” At the bottom of the page are the words: “He tells her everything in tones and sounds.” Gilbert Kaplan, in an extensive essay published in 1992, points out that “it was this symphony that dominated their first summer together, and Alma played a personal role in its creation. While Mahler was scoring the symphony, Alma would copy it out. … She later made a fair copy of the whole score.”

“This Adagietto was Gustav Mahler’s declaration of love for Alma. Instead of a letter, he sent her this in manuscript form; no other words accompanied it.”

A single note from the horn dispels the romantic mood, and the merry Rondo-Finale is on its way. The interconnectedness of the final two movements is seen not only in the first four notes of the rondo theme (an exact inversion of the first four notes of the Adagietto theme), but in the use of the Adagietto theme as the subject of a fugal episode. Some of Mahler’s most vibrant, exuberant, wildly extroverted music is found in this Finale. Near the end the brass chorale is recalled, heard previously in the second movement but now bursting forth in full glory and triumph. The metamorphosis from grief and death to joy and life is complete.

Programme note by Robert Markow

Instrumentation

4 flutes (all doubling on piccolos), 3 oboes (1 doubling on cor anglais), 3 clarinets (1 doubling on E-flat clarinet, 1 doubling on bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (1 doubling on contrabassoon), 7 horns (1 assistant), 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, tam-tam, glockenspiel, whip, cymbals, bass drum with cymbals, bass drum, harp, strings

World Premiere

18 Oct 1904, Cologne

First performed by SSO 15 Sep 1989

KAHCHUN WONG AND DANIEL LOZAKOVICH

MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO

25 Mar 2023, Sat

Esplanade Concert Hall

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Kahchun Wong conductor

Daniel Lozakovich violin*

SYAFIQAH 'ADHA SALLEHIN

MENDELSSOHN

Aeriq’s Lullaby World Premiere/SSO Commission With support from Vanessa & Darren Iloste

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64*

Intermission

BRAHMS

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

9 mins

26 mins

20 mins

39 mins

Concert Duration: approximately 1 hr 50 mins (with 20 mins intermission)

CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT'S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App.

Intermission autograph signing with Daniel Lozakovich at the Foyer, Level 1.

SYAFIQAH 'ADHA SALLEHIN (b. 1990)

Aeriq’s Lullaby (2022) World Premiere/SSO Commission

With support from Vanessa & Darren Iloste

Welcoming You into the World

Aeriq’s Lullaby

Through Sleepless Nights

Watching You Grow and Play

A Mother’s Prayer

“Aeriq’s Lullaby” is the composer’s love letter to her beloved firstborn, peeking into her experience as a first-time mother and illustrating the beginnings of their mother-and-son relationship. The lullaby tune is often sung to her baby to get him to sleep. The piece consists of five descriptive sections that outline the composer’s experiences and emotions that come to play in the narrative.

Instrumentation

2 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo, 1 doubling on alto flute), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, timpani, bass drum, suspended cymbal, glockenspiel, strings

Programme note by Syafiqah 'Adha Sallehin

Syafiqah 'Adha Sallehin (b. 1990)

Syafiqah 'Adha Sallehin achieved her Bachelor’s degree in Music (with Honours) and her Masters of Music, both in music composition, from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in 2013 and 2016 respectively. A recipient of the “Goh Chok Tong Youth Promise Award” by MENDAKI in 2010, she is recognized for her achievements and aptitude in the field of music.

As a composer, Syafiqah’s works have been performed locally and internationally. Her music embodies a unique voice that stems from her footing as a classical-trained musician and a traditional arts practitioner. Her works often incorporate elements of her national identity, cultural heritage and themes of myths and fantasy.

Syafiqah’s orchestral piece entitled “Dengan Semangat Yang Baru” (“In A New Spirit”) was commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and premiered in the SSO National Day Concert 2021 (Online). In 2016, she was featured as the composer-

in-residence for the 2nd Singapore International Festival of Music and premiered “Ikan Girl”, a 40-minute music and theatrical dance collaborative work with arts company Bhumi Collective. She won the second prize for her percussion composition “Dance of the Merlions” at the 31st Asian Composers’ League Festival (Singapore) in 2013.

Syafiqah is also a passionate advocate of traditional Malay music and is a self-taught accordionist in this genre. She is the music director of Gendang Akustika, a Malay traditional-contemporary music ensemble in Singapore and serves as the instructor of the Malay Fusion Ensemble at the School of The Arts (Singapore).

©

JEFF LOW

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1838–1844)

Allegro molto appassionato Andante

Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was the result of a strong friendship between the composer and Ferdinand David. They first met in their teens and David became one of the foremost violin virtuosos of his day. When Mendelssohn was appointed Music Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, he appointed David as concertmaster. Later, when Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatory, David was one of the first he appointed to his faculty.

Mendelssohn wrote to David in 1838, “I would like to write a violin concerto for you next winter, there’s one in E minor in my head, and its opening won’t leave me in peace”, but it took Mendelssohn until 1844 to find the time and inspiration to complete the Concerto. Although he had previously written another Violin Concerto (in D minor) in his youth, he worked closely with David to mould the solo violin part for this Concerto. He regularly wrote to David to find out how playable the parts were, whether it was “written correctly and smoothly”, and about balance between the soloist and the various orchestral instruments. This composingin-partnership style was later repeated by many composers for their Violin Concertos, including Brahms, Elgar, Stravinsky, Bartók, and Shostakovich, all seeking technical advice from their violin virtuoso friends.

After just one and a half bars of E minor, anchored by pulsating timpani and bass, the solo violin swoops in with the main subject of the first movement. Mendelssohn

wrote to David, “you ask that it should be brilliant… the whole of the first solo is to be for the E string.” This brilliantly passionate melody soars high. The solo violin descends over three octaves, gently settling into its lowest note – G – which forms the base for the tranquil second subject, introduced by the flutes and clarinets.

Mendelssohn placed the solo cadenza right before the reprise of the main theme, or the recapitulation. This was at an earlier point than the audience members of his day would have expected it to be placed, and later inspired the cadenza placement of Tchaikovsky’s own Violin Concerto.

The cadenza owes much to David’s influence, both in length and in clarifying Mendelssohn’s denser original – “so short that it barely made an impression”, according to reviewer Ivan Hewett writing in response to Daniel Hope’s recording of the “original” cadenza. The cadenza’s positioning allows the violin to continue spinning its arpeggios when the orchestra returns with the main theme.

A few years earlier, Mendelssohn had experimented with having his Scottish Symphony performed without a break between movements, no doubt inspired by Schumann’s D minor Symphony. In this Concerto, Mendelssohn linked the first two movements together, with a bassoon holding onto one note from the final chord of the first movement. Slowly, other instruments

join in, as the music transitions and coalesces into the ‘song without words’ of the second movement. Its simplicity and beauty belies its lyricism; this melody was later set to words by Andrew Lloyd Webber in Jesus Christ Superstar, as “I don’t know how to love him”. A passionate middle section recalls the surge of the preceding movement, before a reprise of the song brings the movement to an almost religious close.

Another bridge passage mulls on and recalls the middle section of the second movement, before a fanfare announces the arrival of the third movement. The fairy lights and puckish music of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are recalled in a delightful and sparkling dance for the violin. There is still space for Mendelssohn’s trademark broad, swinging tunes to make an appearance, and these alternate and combine with the dancing fairies to bring the Concerto to a spirited end.

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

World Premiere

13 Mar 1845, Leipzig

First performed by SSO 28 Jun 1979 (Lee Pan Hon, violin)

Portrait of Mendelssohn (1846) by Eduard Magnus

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897)

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (1884–1885)

I II III IV

Allegro non troppo

Andante moderato

Allegro giocoso

Allegro energico e passionato

“Difficult. Very difficult… gigantic, altogether a law unto itself, quite new, steely individuality. Exudes unparalleled energy from first note to last.” – Conductor Hans von Bülow after the first rehearsal of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony.

Brahms wrote his Fourth Symphony in the alpine town of Mürzzuschlag, Austria, between 1884 and 1885. When he introduced the completed Fourth Symphony to his close circle of friends in the form of an arrangement for two pianos, they expressed their reservations. The acidpenned critic, Eduard Hanslick, remarked at the end of the first movement, “I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people!” Max Kalbeck urged him to replace the middle movements and convert the final movement into a standalone piece, and Elizabeth von Herogenberg cautioned that the Symphony was too “cerebral … its beauties are not accessible to every normal music lover.”

Despite this cautious reaction from his friends, Brahms nonetheless found a champion of the work in Hans von Bülow, who acknowledged its musical and technical challenges, and proceeded to prepare the Meniningen Orchestra so well that its premiere – which Brahms conducted in October 1885 – was a huge success with its audience. It has since become a mainstay of orchestras worldwide.

The first movement opens with a series of falling and rising two-note sighs. Brahms develops a whole series of musical ideas from this sighing ebb and flow. Long, grand musical lines are spun throughout the movement, as Brahms’s favoured crossrhythms supply propulsive energy, enabling the music to transition through beauty, yearning and mystery, gather momentum, and erupt in an overwhelmingly shattering climax.

A horn call sets up the second movement, forceful declamations fading into a passage where the winds sing a melody over plucked strings. Brahms uses the renaissance-era Phrygian mode to colour proceedings, evoking an antiquated procession. Antiquity gives way to forceful bursts before a warm, lush string-led song takes centre stage, as Brahms provides the soothing, consoling balm to the tragedy of the first movement, in perhaps one of the most beautifully ravishing passages in his symphonic output.

The third movement is Brahms’s first symphonic scherzo – which Beethoven had established, but Brahms thrice sidestepped. Heroic, muscular, and boisterous, the piccolo and triangle assist in adding a splash of brilliance, and a short dance-like theme supplies additional levity to what follows. There is no trio (contrasting section) here; the broken chords transition through the disguised sonata form, as Brahms sows

KAHCHUN WONG AND DANIEL LOZAKOVICH

the seeds of the finale’s ultimate tragedy beneath its tumultuous veneer.

The summation of Brahms’s symphonic career culminates in the construction of a massive baroque edifice: the chaconne, or passacaglia. Essentially a series of variations over a recurring bass line presented at the onset of the fourth movement by way of eight impactful chords, this “theme”, as it were, resembles one in Bach’s Cantata No. 150, Nach Dir, Herr, verlanget mich (“I long to be near you, Lord”). In doing so, Brahms drew from the past to signal the future, revitalising the passacaglia, with many major composers of the subsequent century incorporating this baroque structure into key works.

Thirty-two variations are organised with elements of sonata form, with the cyclical repetitions of the chaconne and driving force of the classical sonata form generating a dramatic clash of musical elements all bound by a sense of tragedy. Brahms provides significant opportunities for individual or groups of instruments to come to the forefront, most notably the flute and trombone chorale, in which Brahms tips his hat to Wagner’s Tannhäuser. The concluding pages recall the opening chords with added brass while strings slash ahead, the Symphony passing on to its inevitable end.

Programme notes by Christopher Cheong

Instrumentation

2 flutes (1 doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, triangle, strings

World Premiere

25 Oct 1885, Meiningen, Germany

First performed by SSO

22 May 1981

Brahms in 1853

CHLOE CHUA PLAYS MOZART 3

31 Mar & 1 Apr 2023, Fri & Sat

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Hans Graf Music Director

Chloe Chua Artist-In-Residence/violin*

Manfred Overture, Op. 115

Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216 ‘Strassburg’*

Adagio in E major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 261*

Intermission

Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

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ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856)

Manfred Overture, Op. 115 (1848)

Robert Schumann was only 18 years old when he first read Lord Byron’s semiautobiographical dramatic poem, Manfred. The titular protagonist, Manfred, is an archetypal Byronic anti-hero tormented by guilt over a terrible secret involving the death of his beloved Astarte. Manfred summons seven spirits to help him forget his crime, however the spirits are powerless to grant his request. Manfred nonetheless scoffs at a priest’s offer of redemption and refuses to accept a witch’s terms for restitution, asserting his own will to the bitter end. Revelling in the supremacy of his unconquerable spirit over religious authorities and supernatural powers, Manfred defiantly takes his own life, declaring: “I have not been thy dupe nor am thy prey, / But was my own destroyer, and will be / My own hereafter.”

One can only imagine how powerfully seductive Byron’s poem must have been to the teenage Schumann, on the cusp of discovering his own iconoclastic artistic path! Twenty years later, in 1848, Schumann decided to create a staged version of Manfred, composing an overture and 15 other pieces of incidental music for this new production. He envisioned it as a “dramatic poem with music” rather than a conventional opera. Writing to Franz Liszt, who conducted and presented the premiere in Weimar in 1852, Schumann confessed that he had never devoted himself to a composition with such love and energy as he had to Manfred

as part of the key orchestral repertoire. It opens with three quick stabbing chords, perhaps an allusion to the manner of Astarte’s death. The dark, brooding key of E-flat minor sets the scene for the first theme, which is repeated obsessively, venturing into strange harmonic territory and accumulating dramatic tension. If this syncopated, restless theme can be said to represent Manfred, then the lyrical second theme, which features a plaintive, sighing gesture, could symbolise Astarte – or rather, Manfred’s visions of her. The turbulence and anguish of the musical narrative eventually disintegrates in the coda. The music expires with two bleak pianissimo chords, a terrifying and grim assessment of Manfred’s fate.

Programme note by Abigail Sin

Premiered earlier on 14 March 1852, the Overture is the only one of the 16 original Manfred pieces that has endured

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings

World Premiere

14 Mar 1852, Leipzig (Overture only)

First performed by SSO

23 Aug 1979

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)

Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216 ‘Strassburg’ (1775)

I II III

Allegro Adagio Rondo. Allegro

Many people recognise Mozart as an excellent pianist, but what they may not know was that he played the violin just as masterfully. His Violin Concerto No. 3, was one of the set of five violin concertos written in the 1770s, intended for his own performances in concerts as a violinist.

The bright and sunny opening of the Allegro is based on an aria from his opera Il re pastore (“The Shepherd King”, composed the previous year) where Aminta the shepherd king sings praises to nature and prays to fortune for his flocks, oboes and horns adding to the pastoral feel of the music. The orchestra introduces the first and second theme, before the solo violin comes striding in.

In the Adagio, by swapping out the oboes for flutes and muting the strings, the soloist shines above a shimmering, gentle accompaniment. As if an aria from an opera without words, the exquisite, tender melody is described by German musicologist Alfred Einstein as “an Adagio that seems to have fallen straight from heaven”.

The oboes rejoin in the Rondo, and the orchestra opens with the cheery, lilting theme. Several contrasting episodes follow, with opportunities for displays of virtuosity from the soloist. Halfway through, the music takes a turn into the minor key, slows down, and changes from triple to duple meter. The strings dolefully pluck an accompaniment, and the winds sustain

notes while the solo violin plays the melody. Even more suddenly, a dance-like tune appears, discovered later to be based on a Hungarian folk tune marked by Mozart to be “à la mélodie de Strassbourger”. This folk tune disappears as suddenly as it appears, and the opening theme returns, as if nothing happened.

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 horns, strings World Premiere

First performed by SSO 28 Sep 1990 (Andrea Cappelletti, violin)

Programme note by Natalie Ng

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Adagio in E major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 261 (1776)

Mozart’s father Leopold Mozart was deputy kapellmeister for the court orchestra of the prince-archbishop of Salzburg and one of Europe’s most prominent violinists. In the very year the young Wolfgang was born, his father published A Treatise on the Fundamental of Violin Playing, which became the most influential book on teaching and playing violin for over half a century. We may reasonably assume Mozart the senior gave his son his first violin lessons.

During his childhood and early adulthood, the younger Mozart performed in public on violin as often as on the keyboard, and himself became concertmaster at the Salzburg Hofkapelle (the Archbishop of Salzburg’s orchestra) at the age of 13.

When Hieronymus Colloredo was elected Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg in 1772, he imported both his taste for lighter Italianate music and Italian musicians, including the violinist Antonio Brunetti. Colloredo was eager to prove that his court was no less cultured or fashionable than that of Vienna, and held musical evenings to that end both at home and on visits to Vienna. On one of these occasions, Brunetti felt the slow movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 was too serious, and Mozart had to write a substitute. The result was what now survives as the Adagio in E, K. 261.

The work reflects Mozart’s ability to create a scene of serene beauty. Scored for muted strings with pairs of flutes and horns, the work opens with the orchestra giving us a lyrical theme repeated and embellished by the soloist. As it develops, a livelier second

theme in the dominant key appears, but maintaining the peace. A brief excursion to B minor takes place, but gives way to the E major principal theme soon joined by the second theme (in the tonic this time), before the opening theme comes back to close by returning us to where we started.

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 horns, strings World Premiere

First performed by SSO

24 May 2015 (Cho-Liang Lin, violin)

Programme note by Edward C. Yong

ROBERT SCHUMANN

Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120 (1841, rev. 1851)

I II III IV

Ziemlich langsam – Lebhaft

Romanze. Siemlich langsam

Scherzo. Lebhaft

Langsam. Lebhaft

Robert Schumann began work on his Symphony in D minor in May 1841, a pivotal time in his life both personally and artistically. Before 1840, Schumann had composed almost exclusively for solo piano. His marriage to pianist Clara Wieck on 13 September 1840, one day before her 21st birthday, prompted an outpouring of over a hundred gorgeous songs for voice and piano. It was Clara who urged Schumann to compose for orchestra. She wrote in her diary that “(Schumann’s) imagination cannot find sufficient scope on the piano… My wish is that he should compose for orchestra –that is his field! May I succeed in bringing him to it.”

The D minor Symphony was one of two symphonies that Schumann composed in 1841. His Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major was premiered by the Gewandhaus Orchestra on 31 March 1841, while the D minor Symphony was presented to Clara on her 22nd birthday and was premiered by the same orchestra on 6 December 1841. While the Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major was well received, the D minor Symphony was met with a tepid response and was rejected by Schumann’s publisher at the time. Schumann thus set the D minor Symphony aside and moved on to other projects. He returned to the D minor Symphony ten years later, revising it and publishing it as his Symphony No. 4, Op. 120.

The revised 1851 version of the Symphony consists of four movements, conceived as a seamless, unified whole and performed without interruption. It is a radical reimagination of the symphonic form, with strands of thematic DNA linking the musical material of the entire symphony. Schumann’s use of a single, unbroken musical narrative in this Symphony resonates with other Romantic orchestral works such as Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and the tone poems of Franz Liszt. However, unlike Berlioz and Liszt, Schumann eschewed prescribing extramusical storylines, preferring to let the listener’s own imaginative response to the music be the last say.

The Symphony begins with a slow introduction, full of brooding, dramatic tension. The ominous, undulating melody heard in the strings grows to become the main theme of the first movement, dominating the musical narrative. The melody from the opening introduction appears again in the mournful second movement, where it alternates with a lament played by oboe and cello. The melody is then transformed into D major and a florid solo violin line provides a moment of tenderness and respite.

The bracing, energetic Scherzo that follows displays more of the tight thematic connections that holds the symphony together. The opening motif in the first violins is an inversion of the melody of the opening introduction, while the violin line from the second movement is featured in the lyrical Trio section. A transition section leads directly into the final movement; its accumulation of tension and major-key triumph pay tribute to a strikingly-similar section in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Fragments of melodies from the first movement are reprised and juxtaposed as the Symphony charges to an ecstatic conclusion.

Instrumentation

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings

World Premiere

6 Dec 1841, Leipzig

First performed by SSO

21 Mar 1980

Programme note by Abigail Sin

Clara and Robert Schumann Source: Mary Evans Picture Library

SNYO in Concert Scheherazade

Sat, 11 Mar 2023, 7.30pm

Esplanade Concert Hall

Singapore National Youth Orchestra

Joshua Tan conductor

Kristin Lee violin

RAVEL

Mother Goose Suite

TCHAIKOVSKY

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

Scheherazade, Op. 35

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Tan Soo Nan

Wee Ee Cheong

SINGAPORE SYMPHONY GROUP ADMINISTRATION

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Kenneth Kwok

CEO OFFICE

Shirin Foo

Musriah Bte Md Salleh

ARTISTIC PLANNING

Hans Sørensen (Head)

Artistic Administration

Teo Chew Yen

Jodie Chiang

Lynnette Chng

OPERATIONS

Ernest Khoo (Head)

Library

Lim Lip Hua

Avik Chari

Wong Yi Wen

Orchestra Management

Chia Jit Min (Head)

Peck Xin Hui

Kevin Yeoh

Production Management

Noraihan Bte Nordin

Fenella Ng

Leong Shan Yi

Asyiq Iqmal

Ramayah Elango

Khairi Edzhairee

Khairul Nizam

Digital Production

Jan Soh

COMMUNITY IMPACT

Kok Tse Wei (Head)

Community Engagement

Kua Li Leng (Head)

Erin Tan

Whitney Tan

Samantha Lim

Terrence Wong

Choral Programmes

Kua Li Leng (Head)

Regina Lee

Mimi Syaahira Bte Ruslaine

Singapore National Youth Orchestra

Pang Siu Yuin (Head)

Tang Ya Yun

Tan Sing Yee

Ridha Ridza

ABRSM

Patricia Yee

Lai Li-Yng

Joong Siow Chong

Freddie Loh

May Looi

William Teo

PATRONS

Development

Chelsea Zhao (Head)

Anderlin Yeo

Nikki Chuang

Elliot Lim

Sharmilah Banu

Marketing and Communications

Cindy Lim (Head)

Chia Han-Leon

Calista Lee

Sean Tan

Myrtle Lee

Hong Shu Hui

Jana Loh

Sherilyn Lim

Elizabeth Low

Customer Experience

Randy Teo

Dacia Cheang

Joy Tagore

CORPORATE SERVICES

Finance, IT & Facilities

Rick Ong (Head)

Alan Ong

Goh Hoey Fen

Loh Chin Huat

Md Zailani Bin Md Said

Human Resources and Legal

Valeria Tan (Head)

Janice Yeo

Fionn Tan

Evelyn Siew

Organisation Development

Lillian Yin

Upcoming Concerts

THE KOZLOVSKY REQUIEM

7 Apr 2023, 7:30PM

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tickets: $15 - $88

WINDS ABOVE THE SEA –HANS GRAF AND HE ZIYU

14 Apr 2023, 7:30PM

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tickets: $15 - $88

BY THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE

19 May 2023, 7:30PM

Victoria Concert Hall

Tickets: $15 - $88

SSO GALA

KINGS & QUEENS OF OPERA

5 May 2023, 7:30PM

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tickets: $25 - $128

The mission of the Singapore Symphony Group is to create memorable shared experiences with music. Through the SSO and its affiliated per forming groups, we spread the love for music, nur ture talent and enrich our diverse communities. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a charity and not-for-profit organisation. You can suppor t us by donating at www.sso.org.sg/donate.

Stephen Riady Group of Foundations