Saturday, May 25, 2013

An Actual Roadsign in China


I have absolutely no clue as to what context or which part of the street that would require such a sign. Oh gawd....

Image found on this Youtube video of the Graham Norton Show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQjNiIgs6wY

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Kids Courses in Music and Theatre by Evam Arts


I received this mailer for kids summer courses for music and theatre in June this year. Evam Arts is unique in that their HQ and faculty comes from India and is now setting up shop here. Here's more information about the company:



Evam Arts presents:
Evam’s Summer Campus for Kids

Evam - brings to you, a host of exciting and fun workshops for children between the ages of 5 and 9 yrs from June this summer.

Our workshops on theatre and music are designed and tailored by experienced facilitators from across India keeping in mind your child’s needs according to his/her age. Our facilitators have been working with and for children for years now and understand the tools and importance of exposing young minds to the arts. Gear up for a healthy dose of learning coupled with equal amounts of fun and laughter. Join us at Summer Campus ’13!

Evam is an award winning performance arts entrepreneurship that works in arts performance, arts management and arts education and is considered to be 'futurising India's theatre' with more than 10 years of experience in the Arts.


5-7 yrs
8-9 yrs

9 am to 
11.30 am
11.30 am 
to 2 pm
2 pm to 
4.30 pm
4.30 pm 
to 7 pm
10-16 June (Venue: Pangdemonium)
Theatre
Music
Music
Theatre
17 - 23 June
(Venue: NUS PGP function room 4)
Music
Theatre
Theatre
Music

More information available at their official website:
http://evam.co.in/evamsgp/

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

"May Breezes" - Satsuki Nagatome in Recital - 29 May 2013

SLO regulars will be familiar with Satsuki Nagatome, who has appeared in quite a few productions in supporting roles. She will be staging her first full-length recital on 29 May 2013, with Reuben Lai, Ogie Gimao and Caroline Martin as guests, in a wide-ranging programme from musicals to Wagner. Check out her flyer below, and do give her a call at 8151-9365 or drop her an email at belcantosingapore@yahoo.co.jp for tickets. 

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge





Interview with Composer Chen Zhangyi


I had a really pleasant chat with composer Chen Zhangyi in preparation for Time Out Singapore's July classical music editorial. Our discussion about his upcoming musical Pursuant, a collaboration with Jonathan Lim and produced by the SLO, lasted much longer than there was space for. So rather than scraping the rest away, here's what remains of the interview:

========================

The Mad Scene: How did the concept of Pursuant come about (did you have a hand in writing the storyline)?

Chen Zhangyi: At the beginning, SLO contacted me to compose a new work, and they roped in Jonathan Lim, who I think was recommended by NAC. We had a few meetings, where Ms Ng (GM of SLO), Jonathan and I discussed the story, and we came up with the theme about dreams. Shortly after, Jonathan brilliantly came up with some interesting characters and a futuristic story, kind of like George Orwell’s 1984. As I started to write the music, we corresponded constantly, and new ideas would come up between Jonathan and I – so it is a highly collaborative process.

The Mad Scene: Why a musical? Why not an opera with unmiked voices?

Saturday, May 11, 2013

SSO 2013/14 Season


The SSO's 2013/14 season guide is out now. A notable change is the appointment of Jason Lai and Joshua Kangming Tan as associate conductors, while the Young Associate Conductor position currently held by Darrell Ang seemed to have been gone.

Highlights for me this season are a Four Last Songs on 25 January 2014 with Annalena Persson, whom I've had the pleasure of hearing in the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra's War Requiem, a big Swedish voice with a razor-sharp cutting edge.

Elsewhere, Sumi Jo returns on 20 February 2014, St. John's Passion is marked for 20 April 2014 and an all-Verdi gala with as yet unannounced soloists will be staged on 1 November 2013. Lang Lang, a much slimmed down Gil Shaham, Melvyn Tan and Charles Dutoit are some of the stars that will be bowing together with the orchestra.

You can download a PDF copy here: http://www.sso.org.sg/page.php?CategoryID=346

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Time Out Singapore Online Exclusive: Wang Congyu


21 year-old Wang Congyu is the latest in an international line-up to be made a Steinway Young Artist (the second Singaporean after Abigail Sin to receive this title). Now enlisted for NS, I had the opportunity to interview him for Time Out Singapore's website. Check it out here:

http://www.timeoutsingapore.com/music/feature/interview-wang-congyu

Monday, May 6, 2013

Orchestra of the Music Makers: Concerts in June and August



The Orchestra of the Music Makers will be presenting concerts in June and August, the latter one featuring quite a substantial Wagnerian programme including the Liebestod and Immolation Scene. More details about both concerts below:

==========================

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth
Date: 15 June 2013
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: SOTA Concert Hall

Programme
Presenter: Orchestra of the Music Makers
Conductor: Christopher Adey

MOZART Symphony No. 40, KV 550
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4, Op. 36

Synopsis
Principal Guest Conductor Christopher Adey returns to conduct the Orchestra of the Music Makers in two cornerstones of the symphonic repertoire.

Mozart’s 40th is easily one of the most recognisable and popular pieces of classical music. It shows the composer at his most inventive, elegantly lyrical yet coloured by a restless undercurrent. Tchaikovsky's intensely dramatic 4th Symphony is an epic, with fate, "that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from attaining its goal, which jealously ensures that peace and happiness shall not be complete and unclouded”, at its centre of its powerful discourse.

Tickets at $15 and $12, Concessions for Students, NSFs and Senior Citizens at $12 and $10 from EventClique (https://tickets.eventclique.com/omm/Online/default.asp )

============================

OMM turns 5! with Melvyn Tan and Felicitas Fuchs
Date: 28 August 2013
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Esplanade Concert Hall

Programme
Presenter: Orchestra of the Music Makers
Conductor: Chan Tze Law

WAGNER Tristan und Isolde:
Prelude and Liebestod (Soprano: Felicitas Fuchs)
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58 (Pianist: Melvyn Tan)
WAGNER Götterdämmerung:
Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey
Siegfried’s Funeral March
Brunnhilde’s Immolation Scene and Finale (Soprano: Felicitas Fuchs)

Synopsis
Exactly 5 years after its debut in 2008, OMM performs masterworks by the most influential composers in the history of Western Art Music: Beethoven and Wagner. Beethoven specialist Melvyn Tan returns to perform with OMM after a successful collaboration in last year’s Cheltenham Festival, performing Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto, which he has recorded to critical acclaim with Sir Roger Norrington.

The Orchestra will also scale the twin peaks of Tristan and Gotterdammerung, celebrating Richard Wagner’s 200th birth anniversary with German Soprano Felicitas Fuchs. Wagner’s scores are the forerunner of today’s Hollywood film scores: highly emotive, action packed and impactful, something to be experienced live with a hundred-strong Orchestra!

============================

More informaton at http://www.orchestra.sg/concerts.html

Thursday, May 2, 2013