SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 1 & 2 SEP 2022 Thu & Fri Esplanade Concert Hall to withbroadway,love Till We Swoon Away With Delight
Singapore Symphony Orchestra Gerard Salonga conductor Mickey Munoz producer and writer Janice Dee director Lara Maigue vocalist Carla Guevara-Laforteza vocalist Poppert Bernadas vocalist Sean Ghazi vocalist Broadway Overture – Something’s Coming 7 mins by Loesser, Gershwin, Webber, Bernstein & Sondheim (arr. Gerard Salonga) Try To Remember, Pure Imagination, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Can You Feel The Love Tonight? 8 mins by Schmidt & Jones, Bricusse & Newley, Arlen & Harburg and Elton John (arr. Ria Villena-Osorio) The Sound of Music – Medley 11 mins by Richard Rodgers (arr. Robert Russell Bennett) As If We Never Said Goodbye, Memory, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina 9 mins by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Black, Hampton, Nunn and Rice (arr. Gerard Salonga) The Phantom of the Opera – Suite 8 mins by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Charles Hart (arr. Ria Villena-Osorio) Anthem, Don’t Rain on My Parade, I Am What I Am, Defying Gravity 8 mins by Ulvaeus, Anderson & Rice, Merill & Styne, Herman and Schwartz (arr. JD Villanueva) Intermission 20 mins Candide Overture 5 mins by Leonard Bernstein If I Were A Bell, Singin’ In The Rain, Anything You Can Do 6 mins by Loesser, Brown & Freed, and Berlin (arr. JC Magsalin) Jesus Christ Superstar – Medley 7 mins by Andrew Lloyd Webber (arr. Henry Mancini) The Songs of Miss Saigon 13 mins by Schönberg & Boublil (arr. Gerard Salonga) Les Misérables – Suite 9 mins by Schönberg & Boublil (arr. JD Villanueva) Duration: approximately 2 hrs (with 20 mins intermission) CHECK-IN TO TONIGHT’S CONCERT Scan this QR code with the Singapore Symphony Mobile App. towithbroadway,love Till We Swoon Away With Delight
SCAN ME! Discover the syllabuses at:
GERARD SALONGA conductor Gerard Salonga is Resident Conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director of the Orchestra of the Filipino Youth. Besides conducting, Gerard is an accomplished arranger for orchestras. He has also collaborated across different styles with artists like Lea Salonga, Regine Velasquez, Wang Leehom, Cecile Licad, Tengku Irfan, Michael Ball, Blake, Il Divo, Danielle de Niese, TaikOz, Ksenija Sidorova, Shen Yang, James Ehnes, Jan Lisiecki, and The Beach Boys. In 2012 Gerard was honoured as one of The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM), the Philippines’ highest civilian award to achievers under 40. In 2021 he received the SUDI National Music Award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
LARA MAIGUE vocalist Award-winning soprano-songwriter, Lara Maigue is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Music, major in Voice. She was recognized by the Aliw (Entertainment) Awards Foundation as Best Female Classical Performer for 2017 and Best Female Crossover Artist for 2018. She also won Best Jazz Recording at the 2019 Awit (Sing) Awards and just recently, her self-titled album won Pop Album of the Year at the 2020 Star Awards for Music. She has performed locally with wellknown Filipino orchestras and has performed in other parts of Asia.
Led by Music Director Hans Graf, the SSO performs over 60 concerts a year, with a versatile repertoire spanning all-time favourites, orchestral masterpieces and exciting cutting-edge premieres. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings, culminating in its 3rd place win in the prestigious Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award 2021.
Founded in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state.
Poppert Bernadas is a singer with the stories of the world flowing from his lips in each and every performance. Since 2007, Poppert has been an original member of the multi-awarded vocal group the “Ryan Cayabyab Singers” when he was handpicked by Ryan Cayabyab. In the past few seasons, highlights for Poppert included displaying his acting prowess for the mainstream television audience in the Philippines, representing his country to perform in a musical production of a hosted programme for the United Nations World Tourism Organization held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and releasing his latest original songs distributed by ABS-CBN Star Music.
One of the premier leading ladies and character actresses of the Philippine theatre, Carla Guevara-Laforteza is known for being one of the strongest and most fearless stage performers in the country.
An award-winning musical theatre actress, Carla has portrayed many memorable roles on the Philippine stage as well as abroad, all with critical acclaim. Aside from being an international theatrical performer and singer, Carla is also a concert artist, TV and movie actress, commercial model, vocal arranger, talent handler, songwriter, recording artist and costume stylist. She is part of ABSCBN’s StarMagic family.
CARLA GUEVARA-LAFORTEZA vocalist
SEAN GHAZI vocalist Sean Ghazi has worked in Europe, Southeast Asia and in the United States on stage, on screen and in music in multiple languages. He has performed in London’s West End, in Singapore with the Singapore Repertory Theatre, WILD RICE and Pangdemonium. Concert appearances include the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony and guesting with Pink Martini at The Hollywood Bowl. Currently Artistic Director of Bobo Kuala Lumpur, Sean is also the creator of the retro-inspired Malaysian big band TARAKUCHA! for which he is the lead vocalist.
POPPERT BERNADAS vocalist
Throughout his 30 years with ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, Mickey was Event Producer for numerous concerts and events in Manila and was Executive Producer for various programmes for television. He spent 7 years with TFC (The Filipino Channel), travelling globally and bringing local artists on roadshow events. Mickey is also a concert writer, particularly for selected shows of Lea Salonga, and a Music Producer/Researcher for landmark TV musical specials. As Stage Director, he was nominated for an Aliw Award for “The Music of Ryan Cayabyab”. Currently, Mickey is Executive Director of the Orchestra of the Filipino Youth.
JANICE DEE director Janice began her career as a spinner for special events, but has gone on to establish a name for herself in the fields of Production & Stage Management, Sound Designer, Stage Director, Voice-over talent and Road Management for many local and international artists, from both the pop and classical fields. As Road and Stage manager, Janice has toured Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the United States with various artistes. Janice is also a team member of the OB Montessori Center’s e-learning programme.
MICKEY MUNOZ producer & writer
Combining spoken dialogue, songs, dance and theatre, musical theatre is one of the highest embodiments of interdisciplinary art. Broadway, the street running the length of Manhattan in New York City, has been associated with American theatre since the 18th century, and by the end of the 20th century, the word had become synonymous with the district as well as the genre itself. In the early 1900s, Broadway was just beginning to develop as a cultural centre of New York City. Musicals remained heavily indebted to the tradition of European operetta, with roots traced back to prehistoric religious rituals. In its beginnings, Broadway was not taken seriously by the general public. The theatre district attracted a mostly middle-class audience who were in search of music, romance and excitement, with the best seats in house ranging from only one to two dollars. Broadway theatres were booming in the 1920s. After World War I, a more energetic and sophisticated, but still essentially lightweight, type of show was pioneered. Many companies started to incorporate social or reality issues in its plays and the number of productions increased from 126 in 1917 to 264 in 1928, which is, to this day, the all-time peak in Broadway productions. The 1920s were the calm before the storm. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Broadway suffered as well. The Depression profoundly affectedly Broadway theatre, causing the output of productions to decrease dramatically and putting thespians out of work. On the bright side, however, this was actually a creative period, perhaps because the Depression inspired creative works and a vast range of emotions. During the 1940s, Broadway continued to decline in the face of fierce competition from television and movies. Theatres were pulled down and no longer dominated Broadway. By 1969, there were only 36 playhouses left, and 62 running productions. The Broadway district decayed into a sleazy crime-ridden slum. But that was not the end. Critic Charles Spencer expressed his thoughts on the Daily Express:
Broadway began its resurgence in the 1980s, when a bill was passed designating the area as a national historic site. Redevelopment efforts spurred Broadway into a new, modern high. Today, London’s West End and New York’s Broadway are the twin capitals of live theatre in the English-speaking world.
“My hunch is that theatre won’t just survive the recession, it will actually help us to endure it by offering that special sense of community of a theatre audience and a temporary escape into other worlds and other lives.”
“When the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, when it becomes too strong for song, you dance.”
Programme notes by Lin Tonglin to broadway, with love
SEASON P A R TNER S SEASON P A T R O N S MAJOR D O N O R S M A T C HE D B Y S U PP O R TED B Y P A T R O N SP O NS O R Mr & Mrs Goh Yew Lin Official Outdoor Media Par tner Official Community Par tner Official Radio St ation Official Airline Stephen Riady Group of Foundations
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.
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.
