Singaporean clarinetist Miao Kaiwen embraces a multitude of interests that led her to a diverse musical journey in both performance and teaching. As a full-time instructor at the Conservatory, she assists and co-teaches several Professional Integration modules. She is part of the Career Orientation and Community Engagement team and is involved in Continuing Education and Training.
As a versatile clarinetist, she has been actively performing in more than 20 cities covering Asia, Europe and North America. She won second prize in the World Music Contest Kerkrade Biennale Chamber Competition 2016 (the Netherlands) and highlights of her other overseas projects include the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy 2015 (Canada), Suntory Hall Chamber Project 2016 (Singapore & Japan), International Film Music Orchestra 2017 as principal clarinetist (Poland, Germany and Netherlands), Mediterranean Opera Festival 2017 (Italy) and the Roermond House Concerts 2018 (Netherlands).
At home in Singapore, she has freelanced with various professional ensembles including SETTS (Southeastern Ensemble for Today’s and Tomorrow’s Sounds), Metropolitan Festival Orchestra and re:Sound Collective. She also plays regularly with Orchestra of the Music Makers and is a member of its management team. Highlights include Zarathustra in 2019 and Die Walküre 2020.
Kaiwen is passionate in education, with teaching experience in diverse environments ranging across creative workshops, individual lessons, and school band programmes. She was a chamber coach in the Orlando Chamber Festival (Netherlands) 2017-2018 and has tutored many school bands in Singapore. She has also given workshops and tutored at the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and the Wind Band Association of Singapore (WBAS) Youth Band Festival.
Kaiwen is tremendously grateful to be able to connect with her other music-related interests including composition, outreach, collaborative music-making, and research. Her original work “Sextet” premiered at Asian Civilisation Museum Lunchtime Concert 2015 and since then also arranged encores for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra clarinet quartet and Shunde-Beijiao Symphony Orchestra wind ensemble. She led in creative collaborative projects as part of New Audiences and Innovative Practice European Master of Music introductory course in the Netherlands and with Sengkang General Hospital in Singapore.
Kaiwen holds a Master of Music (Clarinet) degree with minor in Advanced Teaching Skills from Conservatorium Maastricht (Netherlands), under the Zuyd Excellence Scholarship. Her artistic research “Freedom within Boundaries” exploring cadenzas of Copland and Tomasi concertos received a full score and she has also completed an education research project “Early beginnings on the Clarinéo for small fingers” as part of her minor. Her teachers were solo artist Roeland Hendrikx and academic mentors Rik Bastiaens and André Seerden. Prior to that, she completed her Bachelor of Music (Hon) degree at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in 2016 under the tutelage of Ma Yue and was awarded the NUSS Medal for Outstanding Achievement upon graduation.
In her younger days, she was a recipient of the prestigious Bicultural Studies Programme Scholarship which enabled her to have a deeper understanding of both the Chinese and Western cultures. Today she is still constantly searching for new connections between her art form, cultures and across disciplines.
YST CONSERVATORY
National University of Singapore
3 Conservatory Drive
Singapore 117376
