October Music Festivals at the Arts House Celebrate Music with the Inaugural Singapore International Festival of Music and the 5Th Anniversary of the Lieder Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October Music Festivals at The Arts House Celebrate music with the inaugural Singapore International Festival of Music and the 5th Anniversary of the Lieder Festival

Singapore, 16 September 2015 – The Arts House is home to two music festivals in October – the inaugural Singapore International Festival of Music from 26 September to 10 October, and the 5th Lieder Festival from 16 to 18 October.

Singapore International Festival of Music

Presented by The Arts House and OperaViva, the Singapore International Festival of Music (SIFoM) is the first classical music festival in Singapore and showcases over 40 young Singapore musicians. Themed War & Peace, the Festival will feature six chamber music concerts with Singapore musicians as the pillars of the Festival. With repertoire from Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to Grigori Frid’s The Diary of Anne Frank, the music of this Festival serves as a reminder that hardship and peace can bring forth great art. In addition, the Festival will include the world premiere of a new composition by Malaysia’s preeminent composer, Chong Kee Yong, whose String Quartet will be unveiled.

“The Arts House is delighted to be part of SIFoM where we engage with an outstanding cohort of classical musicians, eager to share the fruits of the hard work, knowledge and skills they acquired in prestigious international institutions. In an age when cultural activities and businesses are diversifying and proliferating, institutions such as ours must have the intuition to recognise the particular needs of our artists and to create a nurturing environment for them to grow and to sustain their growth,” says Lee Chor Lin, Chief Executive Officer of Arts House Limited.

“This is an opportunity to bring together the crème de la crème of Singapore’s classical talents. Globally, chamber music is the foundation of many music festivals. We want to introduce and expose Singaporeans to classical music via interactive and intimate music-making, tearing down boundaries and notions that classical music is intimidating,” say Artistic Directors, Darrell Ang and Loh Jun Hong.

The 5th Lieder Festival

The 5th Lieder Festival will return to The Arts House after four consecutive runs. Presented together with The Sing Song Club, Singapore’s only art song collective, this series of 3 recitals is dedicated to the works of Singaporean composers.

The Club will perform commissioned new works which will receive their world premieres at the 5th Lieder Festival on top of the existing repertoire of local art songs and chamber works for voice. The world premiere list include familiar local folk songs like 小白船 and Burung Kakak Tua that will be performed as art songs. The line-up includes works by Singapore’s pioneering composers such as the late Leong Yoon Pin, Cultural Medallion recipient Dr Kelly Tang, Young Artist Award recipient Dr Zechariah Goh, as well as a new generation of young, upcoming composers.

Details of both SIFoM and the 5th Lieder Festival can be found on The Arts House website at www.theartshouse.sg. Festival passes are available for each Festival.

For more information and high res images, please contact:

Sim Yee Asst Manager, Marketing & Communications Arts House Limited T: +65 6332 6921 E: [email protected]

About The Arts House

Occupying the almost 200-year-old building that was Singapore’s first Parliament House, The Arts House has played an active role in the Singapore arts and creative scene. The House promotes and presents multidisciplinary programmes and festivals such as literary arts, film, performing and visual arts. The Arts House is run and managed by Arts House Limited. For more information, visit www.theartshouse.sg.

About Arts House Limited

Arts House Limited (AHL) is a not-for-profit organisation committed to enriching lives through the arts. AHL runs The Arts House, a multi-disciplinary arts centre with a focus on literary programming located in the heart of Singapore’s Civic District; presents the Singapore International Festival of Arts, an annual celebration of performing arts; and manages Goodman Arts Centre and Aliwal Arts Centre, two creative enclaves for artists, arts groups and creative businesses, and the exhibition and performance spaces located at ARTrium @ MCI. AHL was incorporated in April 2014.

About OperaViva

OperaViva is a young Singaporean opera company focusing on a repertoire of opera classics as well as contemporary works. We aim to nurture a holistic and deeper appreciation of opera in Singapore through new and interesting interpretations as well as innovative presentations. In additional, we appreciate and strive to promote high quality classical music and operas.

At OperaViva, we hope to entertain and share our love for opera and classical music with the community. Through specially curated and adapted performances and outreach programs, we believe in making art - operas and classical music accessible and relevant to people.

OperaViva was founded in May 2008 and is a non-profit, charity and IPC registered organisation providing tax exemptions for all donations received individually or through a corporation.

About The Sing Song Club

The Sing Song Club is Singapore’s only art song collective, dedicated to bringing the rich and wonderful world of this much-neglected genre, through interesting and imaginative programming, to the Singapore public.

Founded in 2009 by local musicians Shane Thio and Adrian Poon, The Sing Song Club has produced numerous well-received and well-reviewed recitals, and has premiered hundreds of songs in Singapore. The Sing Song Club works with not only the best musicians in Singapore, but also strives to involve young, upcoming talent in their concerts, nurturing and encouraging a new generation of local musicians.

The Sing Song Club initiated the annual Singapore Lieder Festival in 2011, curating ground- breaking performances such as the complete songs of Francis Poulenc in 2013, as well as the works of 100 English composers in 2014. 2015’s festival will see the world premiere of new works specially composed for The Sing Song Club. The Sing Song Club’s ongoing Alphabet Series, a series of 26 innovative programmes, each based on one letter of the alphabet, has also garnered many positive reviews.

Annex A Singapore International Festival of Music

About

26 September – 10 October 2015 | Various Timings | $28, $18 (Concession), Season Pass (6 shows) at $120 | Tickets available via bytes.sg | theartshouse.sg

Singapore's first classical music festival, the inaugural Singapore International Festival of Music celebrates Singapore’s 50th jubilee and showcases young Singapore musicians. Themed War & Peace, the Festival will feature six main concerts commemorating the world’s great wars, a reminder that even hardship can bring forth great art. Similarly, moments of peace also led to fine music that built the foundations for more to come. With Singapore musicians as the pillars of the Festival, this homecoming series seeks to unite the best of Singapore’s talents.

War & Peace

26 September 2015 | 7.30 pm | The Chamber Mozart: Violin Concerto no. 5 [29 minutes] Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” [12 minutes] Britten: Sinfonietta, op.1 [15 minutes]

War & Peace will open the Festival, featuring a chamber orchestra comprising Singapore’s top talents. Kicking off the Festival is the nation’s poster-boy for classical music and co-Artistic Director of the Festival, Loh Jun Hong. He will dazzle with Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 5, whose third movement contains a section of Turkish Music; the composer’s nod to the historic ‘Battle of Vienna’ when a horde of Ottoman Turks besieged the city.

The Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” for chamber orchestra was the last work Stravinsky completed in Europe from1937-38, before he left for the United States in order to escape impending war in Europe. It is one of his most renowned neoclassical compositions. “Dumbarton Oaks” is a difficult work, which will highlight the virtuosity of our young musicians.

In 1932, as the young Benjamin Britten sat down to compose his first mature work; the Sinfonietta, op.1, elsewhere, the stage was being set in Germany which would jeopardise world peace. Hitler’s nomination as Chancellor of Germany was to become a turning point in history that would change the world later.

Musicians Marlon Chen, conductor Loh Jun Hong, violin The Singapore International Festival of Music Soloists

Vienna

2 October 2015 | 7.30 pm | The Chamber Haydn: String Quartet in C Major Op. 76, No. 3 “Emperor” [27 mins] Beethoven: Twelve Variations for cello & piano in G major on Handel’s “See, the Conqu’ring Hero comes,” Woo 45 [11 mins] Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 “Trout” [38 minutes]

An evening of Viennese classics will shine the spotlight on famous chamber works written in years of intervening peace but with impending war looming in the background.

Haydn’s “Emperor” Quartet draws its nickname from the melody which forms the foundation of the second movement of the work, composed specifically for the Austrian monarchy and thus known as the “Emperor’s Hymn”. This same melody is known to modern listeners for its use in the German national anthem, the Deutschlandlied.

Beethoven’s variations on a theme from Handel’s Oratorio, Judas Maccabeus, was dedicated to the Prussian monarch King Friedrich Wilhelm who was a keen amateur cellist. Under his reign, Prussia was weakened internally and externally while Napoleon Bonaparte steadily gained military might through a quick succession of military battles and the French Revolutionary Wars were in full swing.

Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet was composed in 1819, a generally peaceful year in his homeland, Vienna. The “Trout” Quintet gives us Schubert at his most irresistible: a veritable fountain of wonderful tunes, rippling, dancing rhythms, and amazing surprises.

Musicians Abigail Sin, piano Andris Koh, cello Chenna Lu, piano Damien Kee, double bass Jonathan Lee, viola Leo Phillips, violin Lim Chun, viola Seah Huan Yuh, violin

Paris

3 October 2015 | 3.30 pm | The Gallery Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet [11 mins] Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp [18 mins] Messiaen: Quartet for the “End of Time” [50 mins]

Paris features key French works written during or around the time of the two World Wars.

Maurice Ravel wrote his Introduction and Allegro in 1905, a peaceful time in France. This piece also showcases the composer at his strongest. It is his only chamber work written before the onset of World War I and differs greatly in style from his later works.

Debussy lived to see the horrors of the first World War; but his Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, written in 1915, is imbued with the elegance of the French baroque. In 1914, the outbreak of war reduced Claude Debussy to almost complete silence, until, in Debussy’s own words, he managed to “rediscover music” in the summer of 1915, reaping a rich harvest of works including this Sonata. It was to be almost Debussy’s last work before he was troubled by the onset of his last illness.

Messiaen wrote his Quartet for the End of Time while when he was a prisoner in the German concentration camp of Görlitz. He was 31 years old when France entered World War II. Massiaen was captured and imprisoned by the German army in June 1940. The Quartet premiered at the camp, outdoors and in the rain, on 15 January 1941. A kind German guard even helped to free the musicians after the performance by forging papers with a stamp made from a potato.

Musicians Abigail Sin, piano Andris Koh, cello Charity Kiew, harp Cho Hang-oh, cello Colin Tan, clarinet Goh Tiong Eng, flute Jeremy Chiew, viola Lee Yun Chai, harp Leo Phillips, violin Lim Chun, viola Liuyi Retallick, violin Seah Huan Yuh, violin Vincent Goh, clarinet

Singapura

7 October 2015 | 7.30 pm | The Chamber Phoon Yew Tien: “Separation of the Newly Wed” for Soprano, Oboe, Erhu & Pipa [12 mins] Toru Takemitsu: “Rain Spell” for Flute, Clarinet, Harp, Vibraphone and Piano [9 mins] Tan Chan Boon: Horn Sonata [12 mins] Chong Kee Yong: String Quartet “Yellow Dust” [11 mins] Leong Yoon Pin: Three Choral Works “Dragon Dance”, “Nightmare” and “Bengawan Solo” [20 mins]

The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II took place from 1942 to 1945 following the fall of the British colony on 15 February 1942. The occupation was to become a major turning point in the histories of several nations, including Japan, Britain, and the then-colonial state of Singapore.

Singapore was renamed Syonan-to, translated to Light of the South. Japan’s rule is represented by one of its greatest composer, Toru Takemitsu, whose masterpiece, “Rain Spell”, expresses his fascination with water, symbolised by rain and the random flow of water. “Rain Spell” is filled with sounds emulating water and insects, putting listeners under a deep spell woven by the genius of its composer.

Three senior Singaporean composers form the core of this programme. Phoon Yew Tien’s “Separation of the Newly Wed” is based on a poem by a Tang-Dynasty poet. This piece, through the eyes of a young bride, laments about her husband’s departure to battle immediately after their wedding. Tan Chan Boon’s lyrical Horn Sonata notes the composer’s penchant for broad strokes and lush harmonies even in smaller-scale works. Singapore’s doyen of composers, the late Leong Yoon Pin, will be represented by three characteristic pieces for mixed chorus – “Dragon Dance”, “Nightmare”, and “Bengawan Solo”.

This is complimented by the world premiere of a new composition by Malaysia’s premier composer, Chong Kee Yong, whose String Quartet will be unveiled.

Musicians Adrian Wee Kuan Chieh, erhu Albert Tay, conductor Alexander Oon, horn Ashley Chua, soprano Audi Goh, oboe Chan Si Han, cello Chenna Lu, piano Cheryl Lim, flute Chua Yew Kok, pipa Iskandar Rashid, vibraphone Jonathan Lee, viola Lee Yun Chai, harp Seah Huan Yuh, violin Schola Cantorum, choir collective Vincent Goh, clarinet

Music in the Shadow of War

9 October 2015 | 7.30 pm | The Chamber Schumann: Fantasiestücke, op.73 for cello and piano [10 mins] Ravel: Piano Trio [27 mins] Shostakovich: Piano Trio no. 2 [25 mins]

Robert Schumann was forced to take flight with his children and pregnant wife across a field in the middle of the night to escape the revolutionary troops in Dresden in 1849. During this time of dread, he created a series of chamber works that are some of the most peaceful and idyllic music he ever composed. Amongst them is the Fantasiestücke for cello and piano.

Ravel raced to finish his Piano Trio before leaving to serve at the frontline. Despite its hurried circumstance, the piece is sculpted, polished, and rings of Ravel’s characteristically contained beauty.

Shostakovich’s dark, sombre but powerful Piano Trio no.2 was written during World War II. The music reflects the horrific and devastating time when he wrote this piece, as well as the intense personal quality of the loss for him of his closest and dearest friend, Ivan Sollertinsky. This piece resonates tragedy that is thinly papered over with cheer. The irony of the music is that it masks yet expresses profound sadness, beauty and despair together.

Musicians Chenna Lu, piano Lee Shi Mei, violin Lim Yan, piano Lin Juan, cello Siew Yili, violin Tapalin Charoensook, cello

Holocaust

10 October 2015 | 7.30 pm | The Chamber Grigori Frid: The Diary of Anne Frank [60 mins] Chamber Opera for soprano and 9 instruments

Based on The Diary of Anne Frank, this chamber opera in 21 scenes was composed in 1968 by Russian-German composer, Grigory Frid. Anne Frank, then aged 13, hid with her family in a house in Amsterdam from July 1942 until their arrest in August 1944. She chronicled the people she saw as well as her moods and emotions in her diary. She also wrote of her joy at receiving a birthday gift, her awakening attraction for a family friend as well as her fear and loneliness while in hiding. The Diary of Anne Frank by Frid is an Asian premiere at the Singapore International Festival of Music.

Musicians Akiko Otao, soprano Aw Yong Tian, bassoon Brian Sim, doublebass Cho Hang-Oh, cello Colin Tan, clarinet Dr. Cheryl Lim, flute/piccolo Iskandar Rashid, percussion Kenneth Lun, trumpet Liu Yi Retallick, violin Marlon Chen, conductor Nicholas Loh, piano/celesta Samantha Scott-Blackhall, staging director

Singapore International Festival of Music Fringe Concerts

Homecoming Series: Piano Recital by Abigail Sin

27 September 2015 | 4pm | Gallery Mozart Sonata in C major K. 330 [16 mins) Chopin 3 Mazurkas Op. 59 [11 mins] Griffes Sonata (1918) [16 mins]

Singapore's rising-star of the piano Abigail Sin returns with an eclectic programme of miniature masterpieces which, in its own unique way, speak volumes about war and peace.

Mozart's bubbly and bright music seems to hide a fatalistic sense of what will be lost; Chopin's polish dances are pregnant with nostalgia and fervent patriotism. The sonata of American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes portrays a different kind of war - that of the individual and the modern world. Expect some special guest stars!

Homecoming Series: Cello Recital by Brendan Goh

4 October 2015 | 4pm | Gallery

16 year-old Brendan Goh has been taking European audiences by storm! His latest CD release on ARS Records, Moments of Youth, was enthusiastically reviewed by international critics worldwide. Currently a student at the famed Vienna Conservatory, he has been studying with some of Europe's greatest cellists and will give his very first recital in Singapore at the Singapore International Festival of Music's Homecoming Series. A limited number of Brendan's CD will be given away free at this recital!

Biographies

Darrell Ang Artistic Director, Singapore International Festival of Music

Darrell Ang’s triumph at the 50th Besançon International Young Conductor’s Competition, where he took all three top awards Grand Prize, Audience Prize and Orchestra Prize launched his international career. The win led to the music directorship of the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne and numerous guest conducting engagements with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique du Strasbourg, Orchestre National de BordeauxAquitaine, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “Giuseppe Verdi”, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra Madrid, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Taiwan Philharmonic, NHK and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestras, among many others.

Three years later, Darrell was selected to join the prestigious International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation. He was also invited to take on residencies with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

In Singapore, Darrell became the youngest Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and served as the Music Director of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. In 2010, Darrell Ang led the World Youth Olympic Games Orchestra in an international televised opening ceremony of the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. As the chief conductor of the NTSO Taiwan China Youth Orchestra, Darrell was at the heart of the initiative which brought together top young musicians from China and Taiwan, leading them in high profile concerts at the national concert halls of Beijing and Taipei.

Darrell’s uncommon gift was discovered at the age of four when he began to play violin and piano. His natural artistic curiosity had no limits, and soon he was inspired to study composition. As a teenager, he followed his musical dreams to St. Petersburg where he studied conducting in the grand tradition of the legendary Ilya Musin. There, he developed a particular passion for 20th century Russian music which, along with French and contemporary Asian repertoire, remains central to his artistic identity. Darrell continued his studies at Yale and was Yale’s first Conducting Fellow.

Also a composer of note, his Fanfare for a Frazzled Earth was commissioned by German chemicals company LANXESS and premiered by the Singapore National Youth Orchestra in 2011.

He is grateful to his mentors Lorin Maazel and EsaPekka Salonen for their invaluable advice and support. Darrell is fluent in English, German, French, Italian, Russian and Mandarin, most of which he learned for the purpose of rehearsing in the orchestras’ native languages.

He is currently preparing several recording projects on the Naxos label of works by French and Asian composers.

Loh Jun Hong Artistic Director, Singapore International Festival of Music

Jun Hong Loh graduated with a Masters of Music from the Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Prof. Glenn Dicterow, Joseph Lin and Sylvia Rosenberg. In 2009, Jun Hong received his Bachelor of Music (1st class honours) from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, where he studied with Head of Strings, Prof Qian Zhou.

He recently returned to Singapore from his second year at the Verbier Festival, Switzerland, where he led the festival orchestra for numerous concerts as concertmaster and associate concertmaster under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Daniel Harding, Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda.

Intent on developing the scene in Singapore, he cofounded More than Music, a concert series dedicated to presenting engaging and intimate concerts for audiences.

He has won numerous awards, including notably 1st Prize and Audience award at the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition in Boston, 1st Prize at the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition (Senior), 3rd Prize at the 13th Andrea Postacchini International Competition held in Fermo, Italy, and 5th prize at the Canetti International Violin Competition held in Turkey.

Jun Hong’s performance track record ranges from performances in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, to solo recitals in Washington for the WETA radio station, to showcases in Berlin, Vietnam and Indonesia, to tours in UK, France, and USA, to premieres of the violin transcriptions of Scarlatti’s Piano Sonata in Berlin by publishing company Ries & Erler.

He was featured as the rising star in the annual Asia Rising Stars series with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, performed solo with the Shenzhen Grand Theatre Philharmonic Orchestra in China and in Tokyo with Maestro Oikawa.

In Singapore, he was featured with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for the 34th Anniversary Concert, President’s Young Performers Concert and the Causal Concert series, as well as with the Singapore Festival Orchestra in Festival Fantasia in the Esplanade Concert Hall. Jun Hong has been presented as one of Singapore’s leading musical talents in Channel News Asia’s documentary series, Asia’s Wonder Kids.

Jun Hong has been granted several scholarships over the course of his studies, from Keppel Corporation, Tan Chin Tuan Foundation, Tan Kah Kee Foundation, Lee Foundation, and the National Arts Council.

Adhering to his strong beliefs in giving back to the community, he performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in Kioi Hall, Tokyo, with Maestro Oikawa in a charity fundraiser concert for the disabled. Besides performing for various charity groups in Singapore, he gives back to the community through education. Jun Hong has held numerous workshops and masterclasses for the younger generation in schools and youth orchestras.

He plays on a 1780 Mantegazza on generous loan to him from the Rin Collection. He thanks his former teachers Mr Michael Loh and Yap Shu Mei for their guidance in his early years in music.

Annex B The 5th Lieder Festival

About

As a tribute to Singapore’s 50th year of independence, the 5th Singapore Lieder Festival presents a series of 3 recitals dedicated to the works of local composers.

The Sing Song Club, Singapore’s only art song collective, will perform commissioned new works which will receive their world premieres at the Festival on top of the existing repertoire of local art songs and chamber works for voice. The line-up include works by Singapore’s pioneering composers such as the late Leong Yoon Pin, Cultural Medallion recipient Dr Kelly Tang, Young Artist Award recipient Dr Zechariah Goh, as well as the new generation of young, upcoming composers. Expect familiar melodies such as 小白船 and Burung Kakak Tua!

Concert 1

16 October 2015 | 8 pm | The Living Room

The first concert will feature several world premieres of Hoh Chung Shih, Juliette Lai, Benjamin Lim Yi and Liong Kit Yeng as well as the Singapore Premiere of Jennifer Lien’s Putera Puteri.

Performers: Anna Koor, Mezzo-soprano Adrian Poon, Tenor Jennifer Lien, Soprano Joanna Paul, Mezzo-soprano Shane Thio, Piano William Lim, Baritone

Composers: Benjamin Lim Yi Hoh Chung Shih Juliette Lai Kelly Tang Leong Yoon Pin Liong Kit Yeng Tsao Chieh Zechariah Goh

Concert 2

17 October 2015 | 8 pm | The Living Room

This concert will feature several world premieres of Adrian Poon, Juliette Lai, Kelly Tang and Zechariah Goh as well as the Singapore premiere of Juliette Lai’s Menceceh Bujang Lapuk.

Performers: Adrian Poon, Tenor Jennifer Lien, Soprano Joanna Paul, Mezzo-soprano Karen Tan, Violin Lim Juan, Cello Ng Sheh Feng, Mezzo-soprano Nicholas Loh, Baritone Shane Thio, Piano William Lim, Baritone Yap Shing Min, Soprano

Composers: Adrian Poon Juliette Lai Kelly Tang Leong Yoon Pin Liong Kit Yeng Zechariah Goh

Concert 3

18 October 2015 | 8 pm | Chamber

This concert will feature several world premieres of Juliette Lai and Wong Chee Yean.

Performers: Adrian Poon, Tenor Jennifer Lien, Soprano Joanna Paul, Mezzo-soprano Joost Flach, Conductor NAFA Wind Ensemble Ng Sheh Feng, Mezzo-soprano Nicholas Loh, Baritone Shane Thio, Piano William Lim, Baritone Wong Chee Yean, Piano Yap Shing Min, Soprano

Composers: Juliette Lai Kelly Tang Wong Chee Yean Zechariah Goh

Annex B

Biographies

The Sing Song Club

Adrian Poon Co-Founder, The Sing Song Club

Adrian Poon is one of Singapore’s most active recitalist. Together with eminent Singaporean pianist, Shane Thio, they founded the art songs collective, The Sing Song Club.

The pair have premiered hundreds of works in Singapore. Their performances have garnered extremely positive reviews and they have been lauded for their creative and innovative programming. Notable performances include the complete works of Francis Poulenc, the complete song cycles of Franz Schubert, the 1840 cycles of Robert Schumann. In 2014, the pair presented a comprehensive series of the works of 100 English composers. The pair also created The Alphabet Series, an ongoing project since 2012 to programme a series of 26 recitals each based on one letter of the alphabet.

Adrian has performed and recorded the world premieres of works specially written for him, such has Zechariah Goh’s 2 Hainanese Songs as well as works by Benjamin Lim and Robert Casteels. Other notable performances include a semi-staged performance of Peter Maxwell- Davies’ 8 Songs for a Mad King, and Olivier Messiaen’s Cantata La Mort du Nombre.

Adrian is no stranger to the concert stage, having sung the tenor solo of Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Miserere, Charpentier’s Te Deum, Schubert’s Mass in D and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri with various groups and ensembles.

Adrian is a great advocate of choral music, and has performed with various choirs including the Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Lim Yau, and has worked with other notable choral conductors such as Chifuru Matsubara and Johannes Prinz.

He was awarded the Association of Nanyang University Graduates Gold Medal in 2002 for his outstanding performance in music.

Shane Thio Co-Founder, The Sing Song Club

Shane Thio received his early music education in Singapore and was awarded an Associated Board Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the Academy, he won a number of prizes including the accompanist award in the Tankard Lieder Competition. He was the inaugural recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award, which enabled him to pursue further studies at the Royal College of Music.

Shane has worked and performed regularly with Arts Fission, Gamelan Asmaradana, Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Winds, re:mix Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Singapore Dance Theatre, Singapore Lyric Opera, Singapore Symphony Chorus, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, SYC Ensemble Singers, Theatreworks, Spell#7, and Tammy Wong Dance Company.

Shane has performed with the Kings College Choir, Cambridge, led by Stephen Cleobury, the Ensemble Intercontemporian of Montreal, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Silk Route Ensemble led by Yo-Yo Ma. As an accompanist, he has worked with international artists such as Barbara Hendricks, Charlotte Church, Jose Carreras Kiri te Kanawa, and Sumi Jo. Famous conductors he has worked with include Eric Ericson Kent Nagano and Lorin Maazel.

Shane performs regularly as a chamber music pianist and harpsichordist, and his recitals include performances with the winners of the Long-Thibaud and Paganini International Violin Competitions. In acknowledgement and support of local composers, Shane has premiered and recorded numerous works by practically all composers in Singapore. Ever open to inter- disciplinary collaborations, he has worked with choreographers in creating performances for piano, dance, and theatre.

As co-artistic director and resident pianist of the Sing Song Club, Shane has performed and premiered locally hundreds of songs. Notable performances include the complete song cycles of Schubert and Schumann, the complete songs of Poulenc, and 2014’s 100 English Composers.