BURRINJUCK

The Australian Voices & SYC Ensemble Singers

Tuesday 30th June 2009, 8pm, Esplanade Recital Studio

Tickets at $25

(for ticketing enquiries, please call 6332 5813 or email makemusic@yms.org.sg)

Commission, promote and perform new music. Check.

Ensured high level of performance. Always. Check.

International and local awards. Check.

Two sensational choirs in one concert. CHECK!

Sharing similar visions, stature and performance standards, The Australian Voices and the SYC Ensemble Singers come together in a concert which celebrates today’s music. Together, they will perform Stephen Leek’s Burrinjuck - commissioned and premiered (Tokyo, January 2009) by the SYC Ensemble Singers.



The Australian Voices, led by Stephen Leek, bring with them signature new Australian music by some of their most recognised composers like Stephen Leek, Gerard Brophy and Daniel Walker. Their programme – imbued with indigenous folklore and poetry - explores the riches of Australia’s diverse and extreme landscapes, ancient traditions and modern city lifestyles.



Jennifer Tham and the SYC Ensemble Singers will present Hideki Chihara’s Orasho, a work of three movements of Kakure-Kirishitan songs, representing the composer’s musical vision of the life of the once hidden-Christians in Japan.

KAMMERCHOR STUTTGART
Tuesday 29th July 2008
7.30pm, Esplanade Concert Hall
$18, $25, $30 and $40 (exclusive of SISTIC fee)

Kammerchor Stuttgart returns in July to delight audiences in Singapore with a night of Baroque classics including Bach’s Singet dem Herrn eine neues Lied BWV 225, Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater and Brahms’ Vineta and Darthula — performed at their original pitch of 415hz — as well as contemporary compositions and arrangements by Nystedt, Ligeti and Gottwald.
 
Considered to be one of the world’s foremost European vocal ensembles, Kammerchor Stuttgart has amassed numerous awards and prizes in the forty years since its founding, several of which have been for their outstanding CD recordings. Besides being invited to perform at both the 1st and 4th World Symposium for Choral Music, the choir has traveled extensively throughout Asia, Europe and the USA on performance and invitation tours.

Kammerchor Stuttgart is led by Frieder Bernius, who has received international acclaim for his work with the Musik Podium Stuttgart. To date, he has led the World Youth Choir four times and guest conducted for ensembles such as Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

Tickets are available via SISTIC. Please call 6348 5555 or visit www.sistic.com.sg.
Concessions available for children, full-time students of tertiary institutions, and senior citizens

Secondary schools and junior colleges may apply for the Tote Board subsidy.
For application details, please call: 6332 5813, fax: 6336 9829, or email: makemusic@yms.org.sg.

RENNER ENSEMBLE REGENSBURG

Friday 26th October 2007, 8pm, Victoria Concert Hall

Led by Jörg Genslein, the choir's members hail from the Cathedral Choir of Regensburg, one of the oldest established cathedral choirs in the world. Their repertoire included excerpts from Franco-Flemish composer Matthaeus Pipelare's Missa l'homme armé, Gavin Bryars' First Book of Madrigals and works by Arne Mellnäs, Iannis Xenakis and Sylvano Bussotti. Also featured were a selection of folksong arrangements and music by German composers such as Florian Heigenhauser, Max Reger and Bernd Englbrecht, the ensemble's founder.

Renner Ensemble Regensburg returned to Singapore after fifteen years having, in the interim, visited and conquered important choral competitions in Tolosa (Spain), Arezzo (Italy), Marktoberdorf (Germany) as well as the highly coveted "Let the Peoples Sing" radio competition.

Wednesday 19th September 2007, 7.30pm,
Esplanade Recital Studio

Take 5 is a chamber music concert series initiated by five prominent professional Singaporean musicians to showcase masterpieces in the quintet chamber repertoire. The series will feature important sets of piano quintets written in the 19th and 20th century, as well as works by local composers such as Kelly Tang.

For their inaugural concert, the ensemble performed two piano quintets representing the zenith of "Romantic" ideals and musical styles. The ghostly and mysterious Piano Quintet in A Minor by Edward Elgar, inspired by a group of dead twisted trees near Brinkwells in Sussex, is often regarded as a quasi-programmatic work. Also programmed was Cesar Franck's intensely spiritual and dramatic Piano Quintet in F Minor. Subsequent concerts in the Take 5 series will include piano quintets by Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann, Mahler, Dimitri Shostakovich, Louis Ferdinand and George Rochberg.

The musicians who performed for this concert were violinists Foo Say Ming and Lim Shue Shurn, cellist Chan Weishing and Young Artist Award winners Lim Yan (piano) and Chan Yoong Han (viola).

WILD CHILD

Tuesday 10th July 2007, 7.30pm,
Lee Foundation Theatre

John Sharpley's Wild Child returned to the local stage, uniting the Young Voices of Melbourne and the CHIJ (Toa Payoh) Secondary School Choir. Set for soprano solo and treble chorus, the piece is an artistic outcry of the atrocities against children and ultimately calls for healing.

Led by Mark O'Leary, the Young Voices of Melbourne is regarded as one of Australia's finest young choirs and has given several successful concert tours locally as well as in Europe, USA and South Africa. In 2006, they gave a rousing performance at the Opening Ceremony and Cultural Festival of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. YVM showcased new music by Australian composers Dan Walker, Paul Jarman and Stephen Leek.

The CHIJ (Toa Payoh) Secondary School Choir, led by Jennifer Tham, maintains a high level of artistry, reflected in the gold awards garnered both locally and internationally. Their repertoire for the evening included a selection of Hungarian and Swedish music.

Thursday 25 th January 2007, 8pm,
Esplanade Recital Studio

Katryna presented a programme featuring mainly works by local composers Phoon Yew Tien, Marc Chan and Goh Toh Chai, as well as her own compositions and transcriptions for harp. Guest performers included renowned Chinese painter Cheah Tien Soong, Tan Loke Chuah (percussion), Samuel Wong (pipa) and baritone William Lim.

As one of the few harp soloists in the region, Katryna regularly performs music written for the harp by Asian composers, lending a unique touch to a predominantly Western instrument.

THREE - A Festival of 3 Asian Choirs

Monday 4 th December 2006, 7.30pm, Esplanade Concert Hall

In appreciation of the International Day of Choral Singing, YMS - in an unprecedented performance - brought together three award-winning Asian choirs to celebrate friendship, peace and understanding. 

The Ateneo Chamber Singers (Philippines), Gaia Philharmonic Choir (Japan) and SYC Ensemble Singers (Singapore) each performed in their respective segments featuring sacred music, traditional folksongs and music from the Baltic region. They also combined to premiere three works for triple choir specially written for the occasion - Ko Matsushita's Dona Nobis Pacem , Americ Goh's Lux Aeterna, Divinitas and Gianpaolo Eleria's arrangement of Ryan Cayayab's Better World .

The concert also presented a rare opportunity to see three of the most sought after conductors in choral Asia together on the same stage - conducting AND singing as part of the combined choir.

Sunday 14 th May 2006, 7.30pm, Esplanade Concert Hall

Led by Prof. Fidel Calalang Jr, the UST Singers made Singapore their first stop on their Asian Tour. One of the premiere choirs in the Philippines, UST Singers have garnered over forty top prizes internationally, including Choir of the World at the 49 th Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (Wales, UK) and Best Choir at the World Choral Festival (Puebla, Mexico).

This being their first concert here, the UST Singers wowed the enthusiastic audience with a varied repertoire ranging from the classics of Mendelsshon-Bartholdy and Brahms to contemporary Lauridsen, Schafer and Whitacre, with a sprinkling of African-American Spirituals. The choir continued to showcase their versatility in the second half with Broadway favourites, traditional and popular Filipino songs and the Rural Suite, many of which were arranged by Calalang himself.