Synopsis of Performances for the Singapore Season at the New Zealand International Arts
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ANNEX
SYNOPSIS OF PERFORMANCES FOR THE SINGAPORE SEASON AT THE NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 2004
MUSIC Jacintha Abisheganaden 17 – 20 Mar | 7.30pm | Festival Club, Pacific Crystal Palace 20 Mar | 1.30pm | Frank Kitts Park, Wellington 21 Mar | 7.30pm | Pataka Museum, Porirua City
Tickets: NZD$40
Jacintha Abisheganaden is a household name in Singapore, with her years of experience in theatre, television and music. Before becoming a full-time singer, Jacintha worked with Singapore Press Holdings as a journalist in the arts and entertainment beat and is also a founder member of TheatreWorks, a leading theatre company in Singapore. Her regional recordings include Silence and Tropicana with the Warner Label, Dramamama with Wave Records, Japan and My Life with Springroll Records.
She recorded four songs on Jeremy Monterio's tribute album to the Carpenters and has also released four international recordings with the Groove Note label, which have received critical acclaim. The second album Autumn Leaves: The Songs of Johnny Mercer has seen the title track being used for prime time television show Alias, while the bonus track Here's to Life was used as the title track for the movie Play It to the Bone, which starred Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson.
Her fourth and latest jazz album released in June 2003 was recorded in Los Angeles at the end of 2002 with Groove Note and is a dedication to Julie London, titled Jacintha Is Her Name.
Featured in the 2 August 2003 issue of the Billboard magazine, Jacintha Is Her Name and Lush Life and have found an audiophile niche. Described as one the best known singers of her generation in Singapore, Jacintha has won over an increasing number of fans overseas through her last three Groove Note albums and will be performing jazz classics and standards like Cry Me A River, Moon River, I’m in the mood for love, Manha da carnival and many more favourites. Huqin Quartet 10 Mar | 7.30pm | St Patrick’s Church, Paraparaumu 11 Mar | 6.00pm | Iiott Theatre, Wellington Town Hall 12 Mar | 7.30pm | Expressions Theatre, Upper Hutt 14 Mar | 11.00am | Iiott Theatre, Wellington Town Hall
Tickets: NZD$40
The Huqin Quartet is the first permanent quartet in the world that comprises solely Chinese string instruments. The group consists of Chiang Kum Mun (gaohu), Ling Hock Siang (erhu), Cheng Chung Hsien (zhonghu) and Poh Yee Luh (gehu) and this beautifully sonorous and absorbing recital, moves from early to modern Chinese music. Also featuring more familiar Western works, the adventurous ensemble effortlessly crosses the divide between Chinese and Western musical styles.
In Huqin Quartet and Friends, the group will join forces with three New Zealand musicians, Dan Poynton – piano, Colin Hemmingsen – saxophone, Matthew Marshall – guitar, blending the subtlety of Chinese string instruments with piano, specially written for the Quartet, the programme also includes a captivating rendition of Vivaldi’s sumptuous Guitar Concerto in D.
THEATRE Wild Rice 6 – 10 Mar | 7.30pm | Soundings Theatre, Te Papa – National Museum 7, 10 Mar | 1.00pm | Soundings Theatre, Te Papa – National Museum
Tickets: NZD$45
WILD RICE is a Singaporean professional theatre company founded by internationally acclaimed, multiple award-winning actor Ivan Heng. The company takes its inspiration from the multicultural societies that make up modern Asia, celebrating their diverse cultures and performance styles and bringing them together in creative collaborations that inspire, challenge and entertain.
In keeping with WILD RICE’s mission to present exciting, urgent and vital World Classics for audiences in Singapore and the world, the company is proud to present this performance of Animal Farm.
Combining physical theatre, innovative design with live and original music, this proudly “Made in Singapore” production will be performed with humour, integrity and clarity, proving Animal Farm to be as relevant today as it was 57 years ago. VISUAL ARTS Iskandar Jalil 28Feb – 21 Mar | 10am – 5pm | New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts
Tickets: Free
For four decades, Iskandar Jalil, Singapore's foremost ceramic artist have been crafting works from clay and creating pottery that have graced one-man ceramics exhibitions in Singapore, Sweden, Japan and Hong Kong.
His journey with the pot began at the Teacher's Training College (Singapore) in the early 1960s when he took a major in textile and pottery. A Colombo Plan Scholarship to study ceramic engineering in the early 1970s then brought him to Nagoya, the center of pottery in Japan, where he took to working with ceramic artists instead of ceramic engineers.
Iskandar's discipleship in Japanese pottery traditions and aesthetics has left its impact on his craft; his regular travels to communities rich in pottery traditions in the region and beyond, have also informed and nourished his practice. These experiences have in turn reinforced Iskandar's sense of location and identity and his works are created from locally sourced materials.
Featuring all new works by Iskandar, this exhibition will be a stunning showcase of dream creations, of brilliant blue oxide colourings, rough earth textures and glaze recipes of Asian origin like shino, ash and celadon.
LITERATURE Suchen Christine Lim New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week 9 – 14 Mar | Embassy Theatre, Wellington
Dramatised Reading 10 Mar | 5.30pm | Te Whaea, NZ Drama School
Forum 12Mar | 1.30pm | Pataka Museum, Porirua City
Tickets: NZD$12 NZD$9 (Student Concession)
“Distinctive in the novels of Suchen Christine Lim within the growing body of Singaporean fiction in English is their conflation of history and fiction.” This is reflected in her books, Fistful of Colours (Singapore Literature Prize), Ricebowl, A Bit of Earth, Gift From The Gods. In 1997, Suchen was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to attend the University of Iowa’s International Writers’ Program, and in 2000, she was the first Singapore writer honoured as the UI’s International Writer-in-Residence where she conducted workshops and readings. In 2003, she was writer-in-residence in the Arts centre for Networking Initiative for Culture and the Arts, Yangon, Myanmar, and at the University of Western Australia. Suchen has mentored student writers in the Creative Arts Programme, and adult writers in the National Arts Council’s (Singapore) Mentor Access Programme.
At the 2004 New Zealand Post Writers and Readers’ Week, Suchen Christine Lim will be featured in discussions about family, home and multi-ethnicity. She will also be doing a dramatised reading of Welsh writer, Roger Williams’ latest play, “Lingua” and share with audiences how an individual reader has significantly affected her work and thinking.