Melvyn Tan

Singaporean-born pianist Melvyn Tan is one of the few artists who has succeeded performing on both the modern piano and the eighteenth century fortepiano. His parents noticed his ability to play back by ear the piano music his sister was practicing, and a family friend who worked as a stewardess for Australia's Qantas airline began to brag about his abilities to passengers in the first-class section. One of them agreed to finance the youngster's musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Cobham, Surrey, England. Tan studied piano there, with the aging Nadia Boulanger as one of his teachers, and then moved on to the Royal College of Music in London.

Required to undertake a minor course of study in addition to his piano major, Tan tried to get into a conducting class, but found it closed. He signed up for harpsichord studies instead and became interested in early keyboard instruments. In his third year at the RCM, a friend introduced him to the fortepiano, which at the time was the province of just a few academic specialists. The college did not even own one of the instruments, but he searched around London and found places to practice. Feeling that he couldn't do both instruments justice, Tan gave up the modern piano altogether.

For a time pickings were slim, and Tan made a bare living playing harpsichord continuo parts in Baroque music ensembles. In the late 1980s, however, the historical performance movement began to move into Classical-period territory in a big way, and Tan was ready. For EMI he made a series of recordings with conductor Roger Norrington, including a complete set of Beethoven's piano concertos, and he performed widely with both historically oriented and mainstream orchestral ensembles.

In 1996, Tan returned to the modern piano almost in the way that Romantic-era musicians had come to it when it was new: as he moved forward into later repertoire (such as the piano music of Schumann), he became frustrated with the technical possibilities of older instruments. Since then Tan has been equally prominent in both mainstream and historical-practice spheres. He has recorded complete cycles of Beethoven sonatas and of Debussy and Chopin preludes in New York, London, and Tokyo; has been active in chamber ensembles; and has accompanied Anne-Sofie von Otter andAngelika Kirchschlager in lieder repertory. He has ventured into contemporary music and sometimes performs a new fortepiano concerto, written for him by composer Jonathan Dove. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide

Dick Lee

The Dick Lee phenomenon started in 1971, at the tender age of fifteen. Dick started participating in various talent contests with the groups, Harmony and Dick and the Gang (teaming with his siblings). His first album, LIFE STORY, featuring his own compositions, was released in 1974.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, Dick championed the inclusion of Asian elements in pop music. His pioneering album, LIFE IN THE LION CITY (1984), won an acclaim but the album that shot him to regional prominence was his 1989 release, THE MAD CHINAMAN, which achieved platinum status in Singapore in just 3 months.

In 1990 Dick moved to Japan where he continued to develop the new Asian identity through his solo work, as well as collaborate with top Asian artistes like Sandy Lam from Hong Kong and Japanese group Zoo. He has to date, written countless songs for the top singing talents in Asia including Jackie Cheung, Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, Anita Mui, Miyazawa of The Boom and Stephanie Sun amongst others.

Dick is also passionate about musicals. He has written many staged musicals including BEAUTY WORLD (1988), FRIED RICE PARADISE (1991), KAMPONG AMBER (1994), SING TO THE DAWN (1997), FORBIDDEN CITY: PORTRAIT OF AN EMPRESS (2002), which opened the Esplanade in Singapore, and Jacky Cheung’s acclaimed SNOW.WOLF.LAKE (1997), which toured Asia in 2005. NAGRALAND (1992) toured Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong in a sold-out season. Dick continues his love of theatre by being Associate Artistic Director of The Singapore Repertory Theatre, an appointment he has held since 1998.

A dream came true for Dick when he was appointed the Creative Director for Singapore’s 2002 National Day Parade. Coincidentally, his song We Will Get There was selected to be 2002’s national song, and the theme song for the parade. Top Singapore-born Chinese pop superstar Stephanie Sun performed the song and also included it in her own top-selling album. This is his second National song, having written Home, performed by Kit Chan, in 1998.

Apart from music, Dick’s other passion is fashion, having studied fashion design at Harrow School of Art in London. His interest began at the early age of 16 when he designed for his mother’s boutique Midteen. His fashion career has taken him to Carrie Models, where he scouted and trained top Singapore models, and designing his own labels for his boutique Ping Pong, as well as in Hemispheres, the first young designer store he set up with his partner Alan Koh. Dick has also worked with Singapore label Celia Loe and is currently Creative Director of Island Shop.

Other forays in the fashion world include Display Director for Tangs departmental store in 1984, fashion editor of Female magazine in 1986 and one of the founders of the Society of Designing Arts, which spearheaded the introduction of Singapore designers to the local fashion market.

From 1982 to 1990, Dick also ran his own event company Runway Productions which specialized in fashion and tourism events, including sales tours of the USA, convention opening presentations and even a fashion parade on orchard Road. His company also had a hand in the creation of the Boom Boom Room, a successful cabaret featuring a transvestite show in the tradition of the legendary Bugis Street.

In addition, Dick was also the Creative Director for the annual Christmas Light-Up on Orchard Road and the Marina area, decorating the streets of Singapore in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Dick celebrated the 30th anniversary of his career in 2004 with the release of a 5 CD compilation as well as his autobiography THE ADVENTURES OF THE MAD CHINAMAN. He also created DICK LEE’S SUNSHINE PROJECT, a charity for handicapped children and youth counselling centres, in conjunction with the Community Chest of Singapore.

More Recently, Dick was one of the judges for the Singaporean incarnation of the popular IDOL platform, was the host for the first ever High Definition Television programme FINER SIDE (2006), and the Creative Director for Singapore Day 2008 held in Melbourne.

Stella Kon

Stella Kon

By Nureza Ahmad written on 2004-05-14
National Library Board Singapore

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Stella Kon (b.1944, Edinburgh, Scotland - ), playwright, novelist, short story writer and poet, is best known for her monodrama Emily of Emerald Hill, which has been performed locally and internationally. She is the winner of several playwriting competitions in the early 1980s and her works are studied in local and foreign universities. Stella currently resides in Singapore.

Early life
Stella came to Singapore in 1948 at the age of three. Her paternal great grandfather was Dr Lim Boon Keng, while her maternal great great grandfather was Tan Tock Seng. As a child, she lived in a mansion called Oberon at Emerald Hill. She was educated at Raffles' Girls School, and later on, at the University of Singapore.

Stella began creating stories when she was very young, at the encouragement of her mother. Her mother used to write down the stories that Stella dictated to her and she went around showing her daughter 's stories to the aunts and teachers. Stella affectionately calls her mother her first 'publisher'. Her first play that was performed in school was The Fisherman and the King. It was written when she was a Standard Three student in Raffles Girls' School. Her amateurish works at this stage were influenced by Enid Blyton and J.R.R. Tolkien which formed her staple reading.

Stella's love for and early exposure to theatre came from her parents. As a child, she watched her father, who was involved in King Edward Hall productions, directed plays. Her mother was a leading amateur actress in the local theatre in the 1950s, going by the stage name, Kheng Lim. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts of London (RADA), where Stella would accompany her mother to the theatre to watch the latter's performances.

During her university days, Stella wrote short stories which appeared in university publications, for instance, Focus. Her first published work, Mushroom Harvest, appeared in Lloyd Fernando's collection of 22 Malaysian Stories in 1962.

Stella left Singapore for Malaysia in 1967 after her marriage. In Malaysia, she started writing plays, for children and adults. In 1975, she wrote a collection of school-children plays, including The Immigrant. She was in Malaysia for about 15 years and then in Britain for about four years where her children studied. In 1987, she came back to Singapore.

Her writings
Stella's works centre on themes that are distinctly Singaporean, such as national awareness, moral values, cultural and social heritage, and personal integrity. Readers will be able to identify with the Singaporean lifestyle in her plays. Stella writes in order to re-create, in words, the feelings of living in Singapore and being a Singaporean. Thus, she portrays the consciousness of what it is like to be a Singaporean. Stella derives her sources from the literary tradition of China, India and Malaya. The Ramayana and Chinese legendary figures are reflected in her works. Her Catholic heritage and strong interest in fantasy are also evident in her writing. Through her works, Stella has managed to express her Asian cultural, religious and mythical roots and heritage.

Emily of Emerald Hill
A classic which has already seen more than 40 different productions in Singapore and Malaysia, and is arguably the most performed play in both Malaysia and Singapore since 1985. It is one of Singapore's most loved creations with many parts intrinsic to Singapore identity: the search for true self, the celebration of our heritage, the fighting spirit to overcome odds through sheer perseverance, and the gritting of teeth, but all couched in universal truths. Malaysian actress Pearly Chua has played the part of Emily more than 60 times since 1990. Leow Puay Tin, Margaret Chan and Ivan Heng have all reprised the role of Emily.

From 2000 to 2001, the play went global, with performance in the arts festivals in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland, New York, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich. In 2002, the play was staged by Tan Tock Seng Hospital, with director Chin San Sooi, and actress Pearly Chua, to raise funds for the hospital's AIDS programme.


Awards
1979 : Winner, Singapore National Playwriting Competition, for The Bridge
1982 : Winner, Singapore National Playwriting Competition, for The Trial and Other Plays
1985 : Winner, Singapore National Playwriting Competition, for Emily of Emerald Hill
1994 : Merit Award, Singapore Literature Prize, for Eston

Works
1975 : The Immigrant and Other Plays
1977 : Emporium and Other Plays
1982 : The Trial and Other Plays
1982 : Dracula and Other Stories
1986 : The Scholar and the Dragon
1989 : Emily of Emerald Hill
1990 : Dragon's Teeth Gate
1992 : Portrait of a Nonya
1992 : Silent Song
1992 : The Bridge
1995 : Eston
2000 : A Breeding Pair
2002 : The Human Heart Fruit
2003 : Exodus (A Journey of Faith): a musical

Family
Father: Dr Lim Kok Ann, grandson of Lim Boon Keng.
Mother: Rosie Seow Guat Kheng, great granddaughter of Tan Tock Seng.
Brothers: Su Min, Su Chong and Su Hui.
Sister: Sing Lim.
Children: Two sons, Mark and Luke, living in London and Sydney.
Grandchildren: Six.



Author
Nureza Ahmad

Leong Yoon Pin

Leong Yoon Pin

By Tan, Eleanor A. L. written on 2008-09-02
National Library Board Singapore

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Leong Yoon Pin (b. 5 August 1931, Singapore - ), composer, conductor and educator, is well known for his choral compositions, many of which have been locally commissioned and performed by both amateur and professional choirs.

Early Life and Education
Often described as the doyen of Singapore composers, Leong Yoon Pin was born in Singapore when it was still under British colonial rule. He received his primary education at the People's Free School, XingDao Primary School and XingHua Primary School. After the Second World War, he studied at Dong Ling High School for a year before proceeding to St. Patrick's School. From 1951-53, he studied at the Teachers' Training College, and upon graduation he taught music and other subjects in primary schools. In 1954, he became a specialist teacher in music.

In 1955, Leong was awarded a scholarship to study music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Whilst in London, he majored in composition, piano, and voice. On his return from his studies abroad, he was employed by the Teachers' Training College as a lecturer in music. Leong took the opportunity to further his compositional studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1966-67, under a French Government scholarship. Almost a decade later in 1975, Leong won a British Council Commonwealth Fellowship and undertook post-graduate studies in music education at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Achievements in Music
Though he wears the many hats of composer, educator and conductor, Leong is mainly known for his role as a composer. His compositional oeuvre include two symphonies, the tone poems Blessing the Seas, Temasekian, and Episodes in Journey to the West, the opera Bunga Mawar, the concert overture Dayong Sampan, a piano concerto, choral and many other instrumental works. But perhaps Leong is best known for his choral works. These include the popular Street Calls, Dragon Dance, Pedlars and the Soprano, Like a Rapid Stream, and Love Quatrains.

As a conductor, Leong founded and conducted the Rediffusion Youth Choir in 1951, and later the Metro Philharmonic Society in 1959, a position which he still holds. He was appointed Resident Conductor of the National Theatre Orchestra in 1969. From 1977 until 1979, he was Resident Conductor of the Singapore National Orchestra, National Theatre. In 2000, he was appointed as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's first Composer-in-Residence.

Leong's career path as an educator was charted when he undertook training at the Teachers' Training College in 1951. He held various positions, as lecturer and then as Head of Music when the College was renamed the Institute of Education. Through his roles as Arts Advisor to the National Arts Council, National Institute of Education, and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, amongst others, he has continually been involved in charting the course of the local music and music education scenes.

Awards

For his many contributions in music, Leong was honoured with the Cultural Medallion in 1982. He was also awarded the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (BBM) in 2005, and more recently in 2007, the COMPASS Lifetime Achievement Award.

Selected Compositions/Choral Works

1953 : Story of Milan, his first choral work.

1954 : Ode to the Sea.

1959 : In memory of Qu Yuan.

1962 : The Peacock's East-Southerly Flight.

1969 : Holiday Camp.

1980 : Overture; Dayong Sampan.

1981 : Like a Rapid Stream.

1983 : Episodes in Journey to the West

1986 : Nine Cantos.

1988 : Dragon Dance.

1991 : Symphonic Poem: Temasekian.

1993 : Street Calls; Love Quatrains; and Metamorphosis.

1996 : Blessing the Seas

1997 : Bunga Mawar.

1999 : Pedlars and the Soprano.

2001 : Symphonic Poem: Gegentala.



Author
Eleanor A. L. Tan

Zechariah Goh

Zechariah Goh Toh Chai studied piano under Ong Lip Tat, harmony from Phoon Yew Tien and counterpoint from Leong Yoon Pin while working on his Diploma of Music from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. In 1999, he received the David and Gunda Hiebert Scholarship award to work on his Master of Piano from University of Kansas, during which he was appointed as a graduate assistant by the university to teach undergraduate music theory.

Subsequently, he worked on his Doctorate degree majoring in Composition under the guidance of Dr. Charles Hoag. At the same time, he studied Orchestration and Arrangement for Band under James Barnes. Zechariah was also awarded the prestigious Anthony Cius Prize for outstanding student composer from the University of Kansas for the Academic year of 2001 and 2002.

Before embarking on his studies in the United States, he was a familiar face in the local music scene, teaching bands and choirs in Singapore. He was a lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, specializing in Composition, Orchestration, Aural and Sight Singing, and Keyboard Harmony since July 2002.

As a composer, he is frequently commissioned to write music for symphonic bands and choirs. Since the 1990s, his choral works have been premiered in Singapore as well as many international festivals and competitions around the world, including Austria, Brazil, Germany, Greece and Wales.

In 2003, Zechariah’s "Piano Trio" and "Variation on Rasa Sayang" were performed at the Ong Teng Cheong Concert held at Esplanade Concert Hall. He was also commissioned by the Co-curricular Activities Branch of the Ministry of Education to compose two pieces for the Singapore Youth Festival choral competition in 2003.

In 2004, the SYC Ensemble Singers premiered Zechariah's "Narcissus and Echo", while the Singapore Symphony Orchestra premiered his piano concerto titled "Meta Dragon". July 2004 saw the world premiere of "Zhu Li Guan" (In the Bamboo Forest), commissioned by the Victoria Chorale for the Choir Olympics 2004 held in Bremen, Germany. His creativity was further explored through the various compositions such as the orchestra piece "Celestial Blossoms" for the fireworks display for the 39th National Day Parade, performed by the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, "Concertino" for saxophone and wind ensemble, performed by The Philharmonic Winds, and "Ripples I" for two pianos and four percussionists. The latter, in particular, was premiered at the prestigious Ong Teng Cheong Concert held at the Esplanade Concert Hall in September 2004.

For his artistic excellence in the field of music, Zechariah was conferred the Young Artist Award (Music) in September 2003 by the National Arts Council, Singapore. The award was presented by the President of the Republic of Singapore at Istana.