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Singapore Chinese Orchestra

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra is the only professional Chinese orchestra active in the city-state of Singapore. Although essentially traditional in orientation, the group is innovative in several respects; it includes Western instruments, has collaborated with Western musicians, and also incorporates elements from Southeast Asia's Chinese cultures. The Singapore Chinese Orchestra (新加坡华乐团) was founded in 1997 but grew from antecedents dating as far back as 1968 when Singapore's National Theatre established an amateur Chinese orchestra. That quickly grew into a People's Association Chinese Orchestra (PACO) associated with the People's Association Cultural Troupe that had been established by the Singaporean government. The orchestra's first conductor was Ma Wen; he was succeeded by Li Xueling in 1973 and Ng Tai Kong in 1975. The latter brought six professional musicians on board but departed in 1977 to head the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. The professionalization process continued under conductors Lim Tiap Guan and Ku Lap Man, and by 1984, the group had 32 professional members. The name Singapore Chinese Orchestra was introduced in 1992. Qu Chun Quan took over as conductor in 1995, and the following year, the group was inaugurated as a fully professional group, independent of the People's Association Cultural Troupe, and organized as a private company backed by future Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. He remains the orchestra's patron. Under Hu Bingxu, who became conductor in 1996, the orchestra expanded to 45 members. On New Year's Day in 2000, the group presented a millennium concert featuring 1,000 performers; mega-concerts, with 2,000 and then 4,000 performers, followed in 2004 and 2014. Tsung Yeh succeeded Hu in 2002; his successor was Quek Ling Kiong, who assumed the post in 2023. He was trained, partly in the West, in Western classical music as well as Chinese music, and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra as it exists today includes Western instruments, notably featuring cellos and double basses, and it has also experimented with performing music from the "Nanyang" cultures around the South China Sea. The group collaborated with U.S. violinist Joshua Bell on the album Butterfly Lovers on the Sony Classical label in 2023.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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12 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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