Musical Letters to Friends

D4 life people | THE STRAITS TIMES | MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2016 | Musical letters to friends

Singapore composer Chen Zhangyi says composing is like writing letters, but with musical notation

Akshita Nanda Arts Correspondent

When he was 10, Chen Zhangyi’s painting of chrysanthemums won a $1,000 Young Artist Award at the UOB Painting of the Year competi- tion. He told reporters then that he wanted to be a painter. Today, the composer transfers his visual aesthetic to award- winning musical scores that are as pleasing to the eye as to the ear. Friends laugh at his obsessive tendencies: he writes his music only in Moleskine notebooks and insists that his scores be printed only on ivory-coloured paper. He can spend hours adjusting the align- ment of musical instructions too. Chen, who turns 32 this year, says: “I think music should look like what it sounds like. If the sound is very busy, the score should reflect that.” The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory alumnus is one of the most estab- lished Singapore composers based here – fellow 30something alumni include US-based Emily Koh and Diana Soh. His resume includes the Young Artist Award from the National Arts Council in 2014, plus Straits Times reviewer Natalie Ng violin as a quirk of fate – there was “Composition is nice because every posers having inspiration but that’s Chen Zhangyi’s a post as lecturer in the conserva- enjoyed the “neo-Baroque and no Chinese string ensemble in note you write stays there perma- 2 per cent of the time. Most of the dream is to learn tory since last year. Broadway” style of Window Shop- Gongshang Primary School. He nently. You can practise the same time, it’s just the inspiration of the every instrument. In 2011, his work for orchestra ping, but Straits Times reviewer studied violin with Mr Wu Ee Leng, passage on the violin for 10 to 12 deadline,” he says, laughing. He plays the and chorus, Ariadne’s Love, was Chang Tou Liang called Laksa Can- who was in charge of the school weeks and, two weeks later, lose it.” Helikestogoonlongwalkstothink piano, violin and recorded by the London Philhar- tata an “enjoyable exercise” that ensemble, Mr Wu’s daughter Bing- His fiancee says: “He’s very good about music. Often, a good night’s viola. ST PHOTO: monic and Eric Whitacre Singers at would have been better with “a ling and former SSO concertmaster atwhathe does.” Thereis nocompe- sleep works wonders. “A teacher ALICIA CHAN the Abbey Road Studios, which also Peranakan or local idiom to spice Alexander Souptel. tition between the two composers, gave me this tip: If you have an idea, brought the music of the Beatles to up the work”. In Anglican High School, Chen especially since she prefers to do don’t complete it until the next day. the world. Ariadne’s Love was aired How to define what makes music joined the choir and string ensem- “smaller projects with friends”, Stop in the middle so you can begin on BBC Radio 3 and dubbed “music Singaporean?Hesays: “Theessence ble. In Temasek Junior College, he such as the December concert thenextdaywithsomething.” for a choral voice of the future”. of being Singaporean is being not added the composition string to his where he proposed. He likes to handle the instru- That year, Chen also conducted quite Chinese, not quite Western, bow for the first time. A portfolio of His proposal took her by surprise ments he composes for. He plays the Tokyo Philharmonic in the but a confluence of cultures.” original compositionswas arequire- because he is not demonstrative. the violin, viola and piano, and took Japan premiere of his Singapore- Music is how this otherwise quiet ment for A-level music. “But he takes very good care of me,” a few lessons in the Carnatic violin. inspired melody Rain Tree. The man communicates best, right Ms Winnie Chew, 38, his teacher shesays, recallinghow heresponded He enlists the help of other piece was performed by the Singa- down to proposing to fiancee and then,callshim “anaturalcomposer”. whenher Baltimore flat wasburgled. musicians when working on, say, pore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) fellow composer Wynne Fung last There are formulas for writing musi- Returning from the airport after a percussion pieces. “My dream is to last year and so impressed music month via a piano and violin con- cal compositions, just as there are holiday, she found her door learn every instrument but that’s director Shui Lan that he commis- cert at the Esplanade Recital Studio for English essays, so some students chained from the inside and called not possible,” he says glumly. sioned another Chen piece for its that featured their works. At the end follow those to get a handle on the Chen immediately. “I lived alone This means he never writes music tour of Europe this May. of the performance, the musicians writing of music. Not so for Chen. and nobody else had my keys. a musician cannot handle, even if The new six-minute work, of an played Wynne’s Theme, which he “He had a natural ear for musical Baltimore is a pretty rough place to the score looks daunting initially. A etherealsymphony,took Chenthree wroteforher whenthey werestudy- linesandfortimbre,”shesays. live in, with high crime and homi- violin melody written for the 2013 months to write and will be ing at Peabody, followed by him She has attended his concerts cide rates, so I was afraid of who National Piano And Violin Competi- premiered at an SSO concert on popping the question with flowers. over the years and is proud that he might be inside my apartment.” tion had contestants worried, so he Saturday. Shui says: “The composi- “It was the most romantic thing has matured as a musician. She She had tried calling Chen for came up with a YouTube tutorial tion has beauty of colour and atmos- he ever did,” says Fung, 25, an exec- laughs at hisobsession with the look help on another occasion, when she and a demonstration. After one phere. The orchestra is proud to utive in Yong Siew Toh Conserva- of a score. “He used to be a typical JC had an asthma attack. He had failed part, he says, “they sat in silence for introduceittoEuropeanaudiences.” tory’s events planning department. boy, horrible handwriting, scruffy. I to respond then because he was five seconds. It sounded like it was Chen calls the piece “a six-minute She was his junior in Temasek used to scold him about his hand- asleep.But this time, he cameimme- difficult but it was doable”. overture to the orchestra’s pro- Junior College and the conserva- writing.He’s blossomed.” diately – in his pyjamas and hiding a Like many composers, he does gramme”, which includes Mendel- tory and got to know him only In his teens, Chen was obsessed huge kitchen knife in newspaper in not consider his music complete ssohn’s Violin Concerto In E Minor, when they were studying in Balti- with strings. He went through a case he needed to defend them. He unless it is performed. “When you performed by Chinese violinist more – she also did a master’s at guitar craze, playing along to songs stayed with her until the police write something, you don’t really Yang Tianwa, and the suite from Peabody. They will marry in July. on the radio, but as he did not have came, broke down the door and know how it will sound,” he says. Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. Music has always been important any friends to form an indie band ensured the flat was safe to enter . So when he is workshopping a Local themes inspire Chen, who in Chen’s family. His father played with, planned to be a violinist. Her flat had indeed been burgled. piece with friends, he might sit did a double master’s in compo- the flute in the Chinese orchestra He applied to Yong Siew Toh Con- Chen is a person you can count there listening because he is simply sition and music theory pedagogy set up by Radio Television Singa- servatory hoping to major in the on, say his friends. Mr Ding Jian enjoying the performance. at the Peabody Conservatory in pore but gave that up in his 20s for instrument, but was taken in for Han, 21, a first-year composition “For bigger works like orchestral Baltimore as well as his doctorate an electronics servicing business to composition instead. “I was kind of studentat YongSiew Toh Conserva- pieces, I approach them like I’m before returning here last year. support his wife and three sons; disappointed but it’s okay,” he says. tory, took violin lessons from Chen writing a letter to my friends. Com- Last year’s Sandcastles for piano Chen’s older brother is a school as a teenager. He says: “His teach- posing is a lot like writing a letter, and violin came from his childhood teacher and his younger brother is ing method is different. Before but with musical notation,” he says. enjoying the beach at East Coast, studying engineering in England. learning a piece, he’d ask me to where he grew up. In 2014, he “In those days, music was some- The essence of being analyse it, so I became interested in [email protected] wrote the operetta Window Shop- thing that we say ‘cannot earn Singaporean is being how music was created.” ping for ensemble ChamberSounds, money, cannot survive’,” says Mr Chen mentored him through the basing it on a favourite Singaporean Simon Tan Teow Khoon, 61, who is not quite Chinese, writing process and helped him pastime. Laksa Cantata, a homage proud that his son “can serve the not quite Western, conduct rehearsals. They communi- BOOK IT / MENDELSSOHN’S to Bach’s Coffee Cantata, was country” through music now. He cated via e-mail or social media VIOLIN CONCERTO (SSO) performed here in 2013, with uses his dialect name but registered but a confluence when Chen was in Baltimore. While singers squabbling over whether to his son’s name in hanyu pinyin. of cultures. overseas, Chen gave him tips on WHERE: Esplanade Concert Hall serve laksa at a wedding. He and his wife, Madam Anna Lek preparing his portfolio to apply to WHEN: Saturday, 7.30pm But not every work gets glowing Eng Ngiang, 55, made sure their the Singapore conservatory. ADMISSION: $15 to $75 from reviews. He wrote a two-hour children took lessons in music, Chen enjoys working with stu- children’s opera for the Singapore paintingand Chinese calligraphy. dents and says it leaves him time Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go to sistic.com.sg) Lyric Opera in 2013, Pursuant, Chen grew up enjoying xinyao CHEN ZHANGYI on what for writing music as well. “There’s which was panned as a production. music and Mandopop but learnt the ’’makes musicSingaporean this romantic idea about com-

Chen Zhangyi MyLifeSoFar at age three (far left) and with the UOB Painting of the Year Young Artist Award (left) when he was 10 years old. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CHEN ZHANGYI Chen conducting Rain Tree (above) with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011 and with composer-conductor Eric Whitacre (right) at Abbey Road Studios in London, where his work for orchestra and chorus, Ariadne’s Love, was recorded by the London Philharmonic and Eric Whitacre Singers.