T'ang Quartet's 'Stringfellows' in Review

This is my first time attending a T'ang Quartet concert, given that I've been overseas all these years. The ensemble's trademark of marrying eye catching visual themes with high quality playing. my curiosity to see how their interesting visuals translate into an original concert experience was finally satiated that Sunday afternoon.

Entitled Stringfellows, this concert is a collaboration with four female string players. Rather than playing as the quartet we have come to know, their usual line-up is taken apart and integrated with with four of their female colleagues, violinists Lillian Wong and Tang Tee-Tong, violist Thian Ai-Wen and cellist Elizabeth Tan, all professionals with orchestra positions and concerto performances in their credentials.

Singapore Lyric Opera's Gala Concert

This year's SLO annual Gala Concert will be held on 22 August, featuring two debuts: Kishani Jayasinghe, a Briton of Sri Lankan heritage, and Arthur Espiritu from the Philippines. Early-bird discounts run till 22 July 2014. Check out the programme and performers' videos below:

Local VS Foreign Talents

Pianist Albert Lin offers his thoughts on the almost exclusively 'foreign only' HR policy of the SSO. Growing up I read in an SSO publicity material that the orchestra consists of 70% citizens and PRs, whereas the Malaysian Philharmonic had 90% of foreigners. I naively believed that the orchestra is a strong promoter of local talent. It was years later that I found out that a large portion of these players were only given PR status after they were engaged to move and play here, which goes to show how much faith they have in our local talents.

http://albertlwj7.wix.com/music-talks#!reflections/c1gjc

MBS Sound of Music - Season Estended till 10 August 2014

MBS's presentation of The Sound of Music is extended till 10 August 2014. Co-produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and featuring a local cast as the Von Trapp kids, looks to be a heavily anticipated event. Here's more information:

The Metropolitan Festival Orchestra's 'Bridging Frontiers' in Review

The Metropolitan Festival Orchestra with Maestro Chan Tze-Law at the podium showed an ensemble of largely young, technically secure and highly spirited players with a desire to impress and largely succeeding in doing so. This presentation of Asian and Western music, entitled Bridging Frontiers, is hopefully the first in a series of concerts where the orchestra takes centrestage in addition to more high-profile projects accompanying movies and musical theatre singers.

Starting with Dovrak's carnival overture, one is caught up in their spirited, energetic playing. Indeed this infectious energy is held high throughout the evening, driving forward with unyielding momentum and nary a note out of place. 

Anderson and Roe's 'Flights of Fantasy' in Review

My friend and pianophile Andrew Ang attended the famous piano duo's recent concert in Singapore. Here's his report:

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'Bridging Frontiers' by the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra - 21 June 2014 (Sat)

The Metropolitan Festival Orchestra goes on a second outing this coming Saturday with Bridging Frontiers, featuring two concertos on the programme: a Chinese-influenced piece for erhu duo by composer Liu Xi-Jin and Richard Strauss's Horn Concerto no.1. Personally speaking, the latter is a favourite of mine, as it is required playing for every horn player in the music college that I attended, so I'm looking forward to hearing it live again in a professional setting. Here's more information: