January. November. December. Sep - Dec Rachmaninov s Piano Concertos! p.6 Getting To Know You Leonard Tan p

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1 MICA (P) No. 126/07/2014 Newsletter of the SSO Community Outreach Department Sep - Dec 2015 upcoming events October Dausgaard Conducts Mahler s Tenth Sat, 3 Oct 15, 6.30pm Gala: Hélène Grimaud Plays Ravel Fri & Sat, 9 & 10 Oct 15, 6.30pm Music Studio Gala: The Creation Fri & Sat, 23 & 24 Oct 15, 6.30pm Music Studio Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2 Fri, 30 Oct 15, 6.30pm November The Muse and The Poet Sat, 14 Nov 15, 6.30pm Concerts for Children: Emily Saves the Orchestra Sat, 21 Nov 15, 2pm & 4pm Sun, 22 Nov 15, 2pm Leonard Tan conductor Platypus Theatre artistes Information correct at time of print and is subject to change. Each concert lasts one hour. Suitable for ages 4 to 14. Babies Proms Sat & Sun, 28 & 29 Nov 15, 2pm & 4pm Each concert lasts one hour. Suitable for children under 6 years and below. Tickets required for children 2 years and above December Gala: Rachmaninov Concerto No. 3 Thu, 03 Dec 15, 6.30pm January Mendelssohn s Violin Concerto Sat, 09 Jan 16, 6.30pm Post-Concert Symphony Chat: Mendelssohn s Violin Concerto Sat, 09 Jan 16, 6.30pm Esplanade Concert Hall Open to members of the concert audience Open Rehearsal: Gala: Mahler s Third Fri, 15 Jan 16, 6.30pm 10.15pm Esplanade Concert Hall Gala: Mahler s Third Sat, 16 Jan 16, 6.30pm Charles Dutoit & Arabella Steinbacher Sat, 23 Jan 16, 6.30pm All pre-concert talks are open to the public. For more information, please visit us at or kathleen@sso.org.sg All SSO events are endorsed by the National Arts Council and local schools are eligible for up to 50% claim/subsidy from Totalisator Board Arts Grant. Singapore Symphonia Co Ltd 11 Empress Place, #01-02 Singapore Tel: Fax: corporate@sso.org.sg Rachmaninov s Piano Concertos! p.6 Getting To Know You Leonard Tan p.8 Published by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra Printed by Ngai Heng Pte. Ltd.

2 Editor s Note The SSCC Experience Dear Readers, In this issue, learn about the adventures of our very own Singapore Symphony Children s Choir, as they travel all the way to Paris to perform in a gigantic production of Berlioz s Te Deum. Also, do you know which of composer Rachmaninov s works has influenced a good number of pop culture icons, such as All By Myself by Celine Dion? Read more about this in Rach s Piano Concertos in our Classipedia! We have lots more fun activities and events coming up in the next few months, such as The SSCC Experience, a Beethoven Open Rehearsal, two exciting Concerts for Children, and the ever popular Babies Proms! Keep your eyes peeled! Yours truly, Kathleen & Vanessa Contents Cover Story 3 Classipedia 6 Getting To Know You 8 Fun & Games 10 Recent Happenings 12 Ask Auntie Melody 14 Fun Facts 15 Upcoming Events 16 Editorial Team Editor & Coordinator: Vanessa Lee Kathleen Tan Senior Manager, Programmes: Kua Li Leng For kids who love to sing! Join us for an unforgettable day of music-making with the Singapore Symphony Children s Choir! This inaugural choral experience held at the iconic will help children explore their voices with workshops conducted by our SSCC conductors. Participants will have the opportunity to sing with the Singapore Symphony Children s Choir during the event. Come make new friends and sing your heart out! Send an to choral@sso.org.sg to sign up for The SSCC Experience! Thu, 10 Sep 2015, 10am 6.30pm Concerts for Children: Emily Saves the Orchestra A clever 10-year-old needs the audience to help outsmart a monster scheming to silence music forever. In this mesmerizing children s concert, drama, dance, dazzling masks and costumes are woven together with orchestral music in a story about bravery and hope. Audiences will laugh, chant and sing while discovering musical concepts and urging Emily onward to defeat the horrible beast Cacopholous! Sat, 21 Nov 2015, 2pm & 4pm Sun, 22 Nov 2014, 2pm Music builds a bridge, it can tear down a wall. Music is a language that can speak to one and all. This is why we sing, why we lift our voice, Why we stand as one in harmony. - Why We Sing by Greg Gilpin Written by Vanessa Lee The lyrics to Greg Gilpin s Why We Sing capture the spirit of music and singing. Many would agree that music has the power to break down walls and to soothe one s soul. As I watched the Singapore Symphony Children s Choir (SSCC) perform their biggest concert yet across the globe in Paris, France three months ago, it occurred to me that music is such a universal language: Te Deum, a work by composer Hector Berlioz, was being sung in Latin, here in Paris, being watched by an audience made up of people from all over the world. Mrs Wong Lai Foon conducting the second joint rehearsal with Maîtrise de Radio France and the SSCC Changyu meeting her homestay hosts for the first time Performing at Cite de l Architecture et du Patrimonine at the closing of the Singapour en France le festival 2015 Leonard Tan, conductor Platypus Theatre, artistes RhapSSOdy 2 RhapSSOdy 3

3 Cover Story Marcus and Ariane demonstrating to Choir Director, Sofi Jeanin, how to inflate a gel balloon Forty children had been selected to represent the SSCC to sing favourite local tunes at the closing ceremony of the Singapour en France le festival 2015, as well as to perform at the opening of the new concert hall, the Philharmonie de Paris. Formed nine years ago, the SSCC has been nurturing talents for tomorrow and helps to introduce young singers aged between nine and eighteen years to the art of classical singing. The SSCC, currently under the care of Choirmaster Mrs Wong Lai Foon and Assistant Choirmaster Mr Darius Lim, now trains 160 children across both training and concert choirs. The Children s Choir has grown over the years and have given many successful concerts performing great choral master pieces such as Beethoven s Ninth Symphony and Britten s War Requiem, in addition to their regular standalone recitals. Their recent projects include a special appearance singing Singapore s national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Women s Tennis Association Finals, and starring in the Mediacorp production SG50: Gift of Song. With this exchange in France, the SSCC now has another important achievement under its belt, and gained invaluable experience in the process. Eiffel Tower, Provins and the Notre Dame Cathedral, and got to experience a French orchestra rehearsing in the Radio France building. Chin Aik, 12, shared that his favourite place was Provins. We got to try out their local cuisine, watch a show with many flying eagles and even got to climb a tower that was built in ancient times! The SSCC collaborated with the Maîtrise de Radio France, the children s choir of France s national broadcaster, and held joint rehearsals in preparation for their final concert at the Philharmonie de Paris. They jumped, they stamped their feet and laughed together during the warm-ups, and were in sync when practising Berlioz s Te Deum even on their first day under Choir Director, Sofi Jeanin. Many of SSCC s contingent also participated in a homestay programme with some of their new friends from the Maîtrise, where they were warmly and affectionately hosted for the week. Apart from seeing their hosts go about their daily lives, they dined together in typical French style, sometimes having late dinners past 9pm, and also tried different types of cheeses. Anya, 15, said, Our hosts gave us a lot of cheese to try out and I really liked Brie with walnut and Camembert. Shaw Kiat, 12, also confessed: They eat bread and cheese for breakfast and lunch, and I ve put on so much weight! A fun photo before the final concert! More than 600 performers on stage at the Philharmonie de Paris The SSCC s very first overseas collaborative performance was conducted by François-Xavier Roth and the stage consisted of 150 musicians (with a total of eight harps too!), and 450 adult and children singers. Everyone on stage made music with passion and outmost focus, and the cohesiveness of the choirs and the orchestra awed the entire concert hall. After a powerful conclusion to the six-movement work, the audience gave a long deafening applause seemingly to thank all the performers on stage for the many hours they had invested for practice and rehearsals to make the concert a success! Our trip ended with a picnic hosted by the parents of Maîtrise de Radio France at the beautiful Park André-Citroën. Seeing the children from both the SSCC and the Maîtrise de Radio France interacting enthusiastically, I was sure that in spite of language barriers and cross cultural differences, music has bonded and built a bridge between the two choirs. Leaving Paris was bittersweet, but I m sure that the bonds forged between the two choirs will definitely be remembered. An entertaining game of arm wrestling between Rohit and his homestay buddy Apart from performing at the Cite de l Architecture et du Patrimonine to mark the closing of the Singapore and France Festival, the young forty had the opportunity to experience the rich history of France. They visited sites such as the Arc de Triomphe, the A group shot at the Arc de Triomphe! Playing a game at the Le Petit Ecu restaurant in Provins while waiting for the food to arrive Having a picnic at the Park André-Citroën RhapSSOdy 4 RhapSSOdy 5

4 CLASSIPEDIA Rach s Piano concertos 2 and 3 The NAME: Rachmaninov is pronounced as Rahk-mahn-ni-noff. BORN: 1st April 1873 in Russia. DIED: 28th March 1943 in USA. Rachmaninov was one of the last well-known composers of the Romantic era. His style of music was very emotional and expressive, and has inspired much of modern popular music. In his youth, Rachmaninov studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where he met the famous composer of Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky, who recognised his talent and became his mentor. While composing, Rachmaninov earned money by teaching piano students and serving as a piano accompanist. However, he became so unhappy and disappointed when people didn t like his Symphony No. 1 that he wasn t able to compose anything for three years! He only regained his confidence after many visits to his doctor, and produced one of his most beloved works, the Piano Concerto No. 2, more fondly known as the Rach 2. The work has inspired Frank Sinatra s I Think Of You, as well as Eric Carmen s power ballad All by Myself. It has even been used in the award winning anime series, Nodame Cantabile, and in many Hollywood films. Rachmaninov became so renowned as a pianist and a conductor that he was hired to conduct not only in the Moscow Opera House, but also in England and Germany. While in Germany, he composed his Second Symphony and Piano Sonata No. 1. He also wrote the showstopping Piano Concerto No. 3, or Rach 3 for a 20-concert tour of the United States. The Rach 3 has been known to be one of the hardest piano concertos ever written. The great pianist Josef Hofmann, to whom the work is dedicated, never publicly performed it, saying that it wasn t for him. Another renowned pianist Gary Graffman lamented that he should have learnt it while he was still too young to know fear. What is a piano concerto? A piano concerto showcases the piano as the solo instrument. The soloist is accompanied by the entire orchestra. The entire work usually consists of three movements. Rachmaninov was so successful in the United States that he was offered the position of conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra twice! However, he turned it down as it would relocate him too far from his beloved homeland. In November 1917, Rachmaninov fled Russia with his family due to the Russian Revolution and World War I. He settled in the United States, where he continued his work as a pianist, conductor and composer until his death. DID YOU KNOW? Rachmaninov had extremely big hands and could easily reach a 13th interval in one hand! Many of his works feature very large reaches and wide chords. He was also an extremely tall man, standing at 1.98 metres! Join the SSO as they perform Rachmaninov s Piano Concertos! 30 October 15: Piano Concerto No December 15: Piano Concerto No. 3 For more information, please visit our website at sso.org.sg. RhapSSOdy 7

5 Interview with Leonard Tangetting Leonard Tan is Principal Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO). He was the only candidate accepted into the Indiana Jacobs Graduate Conducting Program at the world-renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and is a known scholar in music and music education who has lectured in several universities internationally. We hear that you play the tuba. What are some of things you enjoy about playing the instrument? I really love its warm and beautiful sound! It is an instrument that is capable of singing beautifully. It can also sound angry or sad or happy depending on how you play it. When I played the tuba with the SSO in my early twenties, I also learnt about teamwork and responsibility, because in quite a few music passages, the tuba s low notes carry the whole orchestra. I had to practise hard and not let my fellow musicians down If you hadn t picked up the tuba, what other instrument would you have chosen? I also play the violin! When I was in my teens, I fell madly in love with classical music! Coming from a humble family with no music at home, I wanted very badly to learn the violin, but my family could not afford it. One day, I noticed violins on sale for $98 and decided to save every single cent of my pocket money. I was so happy when I finally bought it, and even taught myself to play it. I went to bed every night hugging my beloved violin. to know you Why did you decide to pick up conducting? My love for conducting started from the music score. The late composer Leong Yoon Pin very kindly taught me harmony for a very low fee. When I studied Brahms Second Symphony during my A-level days at Raffles Junior College, I got hooked on reading orchestral scores. I would read orchestral scores on bus rides, and it was like reading a fantasy novel! The development in each music score mirrors life in so many ways. In wonderful concerts when the composer, the conductor, the orchestra, and the audience breathe as one, the feeling is simply magical and indescribable! How did you begin and develop your career as a conductor? In my twenties, I was appointed as the Assistant Conductor for the SNYO and went with the orchestra on tours to Vienna and Florence. I was also invited to serve as the Conductor for the Singapore National Youth Sinfonia. These stints helped shape my passion for music and working with young musicians. I then developed my conducting career further at Indiana University s rigorous Graduate Conducting Program, where I had the opportunity to conduct various types of ensembles within and outside of the university. I have also been Music Director of the Philharmonic Winds for the past decade. We started the group because we felt Singapore had enough wind and brass players with strong musicianship to play with orchestral-quality sound and artistry. We understand you are also a music professor at NIE-NTU. Can you tell us more about what you do at the University? My expertise is in understanding how students can achieve musical excellence and success by having a strong sense of self. I am interested in how cultural values affect music education, and also, how the personalities of students affect their music practice. In addition to research, I also lecture future and current teachers on how different teaching methods could raise their students understanding of music. In short, I work on making the world a better place through music! Speaking of which, what is your educational and artistic vision for SNYO? My artistic vision for the SNYO is for it to become an exceptional youth orchestra by 2020 one that has a unique Singaporean identity. I hope to develop our musicians by having them relate to their music practice from various aspects be it history, style, and theory. I want the students to become wellrounded, intelligent, thinking, and expressive performers who are equipped with the ability to make artistic, musical and even life decisions well beyond their years in SNYO. Since joining the SSO family in April 2015, the SNYO has completed a series of interviews and discussions with the community to find out their views, and we are just starting to design what this SNYO of the future could look like. In the meantime, we re calling for all young talented musicians to join the SNYO for a fascinating musical journey! Sign up and come for our auditions this September! Besides working with the SNYO, Leonard will also be conducting the SSO s Concerts for Children: Emily Saves the Orchestra. Catch him in action at the concert! Concerts for Children: Emily Saves the Orchestra Sat, 21 Nov 15, 2pm & 4pm Sun, 22 Nov 15, 2pm Tickets available via SISTIC Please visit for more information RhapSSOdy 8 RhapSSOdy 9

6 fun & GAMES Instrument Names Do you know all the names of the instruments found in an orchestra? Fill up these blanks and see if you can identify all of the musical instruments in the pictures! ACROSS: 3 DOWN: Answers to be revealed in the next issue! Here are the answers to last issue s Notes & Letters! 1. CAFE 2. BADGE 3. FACE 4. AGE RhapSSOdy 10 RhapSSOdy 11

7 5 Interesting facts about string instruments Do you have any burning questions about music? Auntie Melody is here to help! If your question is featured, you will win a surprise gift! 1. The superstitious used to refer to the violin as the Devil s consort, and several superstar violinists used to be associated with the devil, due to their incredible skill on the violin! Giuseppe Tartini, composer of the popular Violin Sonata in G minor, claimed that the Devil played him a beautiful piece of music in his dreams and he immediately scrambled to write it down the moment he awoke. This piece has been nicknamed The Devil s Trill Dear Auntie Melody, When the orchestra tunes, why does the oboe start tuning first and why do the musicians tune on the A note? Joey Dear Joey, It can be attributed largely to history and tradition in the development of the orchestra. The early orchestras were made up of mainly string instruments. The bright sound of the oboe was louder and much easier to hear than any of the string instruments, so it was natural to rely on it for tuning. It soon became tradition to tune to an oboe. Because every instrument in the string family has an A string, orchestras always tune to A, it being the universal note that all instruments in the orchestra can tune to. your questions to vanessa@sso.org.sg or snail mail them to: SSO Community Outreach Department, 11 Empress Place #01-02,, Singapore Don t forget to include your name, birth date, identification number, address and contact number! Dear Auntie Melody, Why is the cor anglais (English Horn) called a horn when it is actually part of the woodwind family? Hui Cheng Dear Hui Cheng, The term cor anglais is French for English horn, but the instrument is neither from England, nor related to the horn family! The instrument s name came about in 1720 Silesia (modern day Poland), when an early version of the oboe was fitted with a funnel at the bottom of the instrument. It looked so much like the horns played by angels in religious paintings that it was named the engellisches Horn in German, meaning angelic horn. The word engellisch also sounded like English, the angelic horn eventually became the English horn. Winners will be notified by phone or post *All questions are subject to editing for clarity. 2. Playing the violin burns approximately 170 calories per hour. Forget about your workout and start practising harder! 4. Treble Bass Alto 3. While the violin, cello and double bass play in the usual Treble and Bass clefs, the viola reads music on special clef called the Alto Clef. The Alto Clef looks rather unusual and has two curves that meet in the centre. The line on the staff where these curves meet is the note middle C. The violin s strings is tuned in fifths from lowest to highest, G-D-A-E; the double bass, is tuned in fourths to E-A-D-G - coincidentally in complete reverse! 5. The hair for the bow is traditionally made from horsehair. RhapSSOdy 14 RhapSSOdy 15

8 Recent Happenings SSO on Victoria Junior College 10 July 11 July 1845: The Straits Times 170th Anniversary Concert In celebration of The Straits Times 170th Anniversary, Associate Conductor Joshua Tan and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra performed an exciting evening of music at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The programme highlights included music from the Oscarwinning film Ben Hur and a medley of popular Beatles hits, Portrait of the Beatles! There were even free goodies and balloons from The Straits Times for members of the public! It was a day to remember with family and friends, as a crowd of 10,000 gathered on their picnic mats to listen to timeless classics in the newly-inscribed UNESCO world heritage site. There were some exhilarating moments in between the Ben Hur movements, as jets from the Republic of Singapore Air Force flew past in formation on their way to the Padang as part of the National Day rehearsals, accompanied by the majestic strains from the Ben Hur soundtrack. Associate Conductor Joshua Tan and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra visited Victoria Junior College for a free concert on 10 July. The audience was treated to a mix of popular favourites such as Tchaikovsky s Swan Lake Suite and Brahms Academic Festival Overture, as well as great classics like Mozart s Lucio Silla Overture. The turnout at the concert was spectacular, and saw people from all neighbouring communities and schools turn up to enjoy an evening of music at the eastern end of Singapore. The beautiful strains of music throughout the entire performance was the first live classical music experience for many primary school students who arrived by the busloads, as they had never heard an orchestra on stage before! RhapSSOdy 12 RhapSSOdy 13