Day 3 Symposium Archive
Robert Cutietta
The Pandemic caused the fastest, most dramatic, and widespread change to music teaching the profession has ever seen. Interviews with twenty-two leaders show reveal what it was like to be in charge during these turbulent times, what changed, and what they hope will continue.
Elaine Chew
Beginning 2017, Elaine Chew began creating pieces based on ECG recordings of cardiac arrhythmia: Stolen Rhythms (2017), Arrhythmia Suite (2017-2021), Little Etudes (2020). She later concocted a way to collage existing musical fragments to mirror the abnormal rhythms exactly. The result was music pieces made palpable the unnaturalness of the irregular heart rhythms. More importantly, the demonstrated correspondence between heart and music rhythms opens up new ways to represent, analyse, and categorise arrhythmia sequences with potential use in cardiac diagnostics.
Join us for a panel discussion featuring thought leaders in tertiary music education, where they will reflect upon the current trajectories of music schools in the region and beyond, exploring topics such as: What role has artistic research and reflective practices played in shaping current conservatory curriculum? How has technology reshaped our approach to teaching and learning music? How do we strike a balance between tradition and innovation, between humans and AI? And while contemplating what lies beyond the horizon in music training, what is the best way to nurture the next generation of music leaders?
Ho Chee-Kong, Lin Xiangning
Conceived as an artistic-research collaboration during the Covid-19 pandemic, Project Re-imagining involves the performing and recording arts faculty, students and the YST Creative Curation Team to present three orchestral works by Ho Chee Kong. The three works, which were individually commissioned for separate occasions, were re-imagined though a newly written over-arching poem that meaningfully binds them together. The presentation traces the changes in the 3 scores that were initially adjusted under Covid restrictions and guidelines for the recording studio, and then later re-adjusted again with the lifting of Covid restrictions to becoming a live performance with Dolby Atmos recording.
Patcharee Suwantada, Joseph Bowman
Luk Thung music, the music that reflects Thai’s cultural is an essential Thai musical style. Learning this style is a crucial part of a trumpet player’s chances for career success in Thailand’s musical industry. The conceptual idea to design a trumpet method of learning how to play Luk Thung music for trumpet players from the previous research such as a structure of contents, scope of contents and detail became the guideline to create a practical course of Luk Thung music training for trumpet players. The presentation presented the detail of the program design and the result of Luk Thung music study program for trumpet players.
Mei Artanto
This study aims to find out what elements can explain the concept of recombination of musical traditions in Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra (YRO) performances. This research uses Qualitative research to identify the concept of recombination of musical traditions present in the performance of the YRO. The tradition recombination used as a way of reading refers to how postmodernism views tradition as a space that provides various opportunities for traditional forms with diverse expressions, positions, and treatments (Piliang, 2022). That means that through this postmodern perspective, merging gamelan and orchestra in YRO performances becomes a form of dialogue between traditions, which can then be read as an effort to recombine traditional art elements towards plural art (Piliang, 2022).
Benjamin Harris
“our (Singapore) story is very much intertwined with migration and migrants” – (Yeoh, 2019:1)
Spoken in the context of Singapore’s transnational polity, Yeoh’s statement holds true when we consider the ways in which the nation-state of Singapore is built off the back of transient migrant labor. This presentation explores musicking among transient migrant workers in public space in Singapore and the ways in which sonic inequalities play out both in public and sociopolitical spheres through said musicking. In doing so, I draw upon a rich nine-month-long ethnography and Edward Soja’s Thirdspace to explore the ways in which sonic justice, and more importantly, social justice, can be achieved.
David Chin
This presentation explored Bach activities in Malaysia in recent years, particularly since the founding of Bachfest Malaysia in 2015. The presentation focuses on the future of Bach activities in Malaysia, South East Asia, and Asia, in which we will explore the possible future for Bach activities in Malaysia and among the region, address the challenges which still need to be confronted, and provide suggestions for improvements and progress to the development. The presentation also briefly addresses the reception of Bach’s music, particular his sacred vocal works, in a young country governed under Islamic laws and authorities, the introduction of historical-informed Bach performances in Malaysia and the challenges from “musical authorities”, the history and contributions of Christianity and Church authorities to the development of sacred music performance in Malaysia.
Chen Zhangyi
In tracing the roots of Singaporean opera with research into Leong Yoon Pin’s/Edwin Thumboo’s Bunga Mawar, Chen Zhangyi/Sara Florian’s Kampung Spirit was in a way a creative response to the ‘Nanyang Style’ approach – with a more contemporary take, which may be described as a way forward with a ‘New Nanyang Style’.
YST Composition Department
In celebration of the YST Conservatory’s 20th anniversary, students from its composition programme joined forces to create a sound installation. Entitled A Creation and designed to be part of the Gala for Creation on 8 April 2023, the installation aimed to reflect on the topic of creation – what sounds are associated with it and how do we celebrate it? In our presentation, we will explore the design and ideas of the installation as well as outline the creative process of it. We will look at strategies employed for collaborative work, dialogue, and negotiation.
Damien Ricketson, Diana Chester
Listening to Earth is framed from a perspective of posthumanism, which no longer assumes an anthropocentric orientation to truth; draws on the practice of ‘Deep Listening’, embracing “radical attentiveness” and “listening as activism” (Oliveros 1989, 2022); and positions the process as a dialogic language (Aktas & Mäkelä 2019), in which we and the earth are recognised as collaborators. We ask, what are the capacities of sound to reveal more than we have previously considered possible about our changing environment? Does the earth have stored vibrational memory, and can new listening experiences help us better understand what earth has to say?
SEADOM 30 under 30
SEADOM 30 Under 30 is an initiative that profiles young, Southeast Asian music leaders who embrace hybridity, multiplicity and diversity in their artistic identities. This project brings together Lin Xiang Ning (Singapore), Htet Arkar (Myanmar), Lawrence Galve Parcon (Philippines) and Terrence Ling (Malaysia), who each bring unique musical perspectives related to the different roles rivers play in the countries they represent. Just as all rivers find a confluence, how can this cross-cultural dialogue find a meeting point through a musical collaboration between a pianist, pat waing performer, bandurria player and percussionist?
Philippe Spiesser
GeKiPe (Gesture-Kinect-Percussion) is a research project on gestural interface for musical expression, combining images and sounds, generated and controlled in real time by a performer. The presentation will include projection of videos, audios and slides showing the process of this creation project, exploring the control of virtual instruments through the analysis of gestures specific to instrumentalists and percussionists in particular. in this presentation will be projected extracts from collaborative stage performances (Sculpt, Crossing Points, Mad Max) in which the musician and their movements are captured by different methods (infrared Kinect cameras and gesture-sensors on controller gloves).
Thomas Green, Nozomi Omote
Shugorei, an experimental music duo founded by Thomas Green and Nozomi Omote in Brisbane (Australia) will perform small selections of their major work currently in creative development, The Sounds of Chow Gar. This music, a collaboration between Shugorei and the Australian School of Kung Fu and Tai Chi, is a cross-media/genre experiment, combining film and live music, foregrounding the latent musicality of traditional Chinese kung fu forms, while telling a story of a Chinese community’s history in Brisbane. Thomas Green’s long-term practice-based research program explores embodiment, identity and the expansion of traditional forms in music making, and will speak about his musical discoveries.
László Stachó
This presentation introduces the outline of my attention training called Practice Methodology, which is based on the attentional processes and strategies related to the mental ‘navigation’ of the musical flow. This training aims at enhancing in musicians (including all instrumentalists and singers) the above-mentioned ability of real-time ‘navigation’ of the musical process. The Practice Methodology training was developed during the past decade, and based on substantial evidence from primary-, secondary-, and conservatoire-level pedagogy, it can be used with singular success from the very beginning up to the most advanced levels of music education, yielding a uniquely powerful tool in music performance pedagogy. In my presentation, the outline of the attention training will be followed by a demonstration of some of its key exercise types.
Manus Carey
As the UK faces unprecedented challenges in both the music profession and in its pre-tertiary education, Manus Carey, Deputy Principal at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), will discuss how the RNCM 50th celebrations have led to the development of RNCM INNOVATE, and how the College looks to educate and train its students to be the future creative leaders in society, ensuring music remains relevant and accessible for future generations.
Tomomi Ohrui
This presentation was a continuum of the 2019 “Telling Stories” symposium in which Ohrui shared about challenges to practice “art for life’s sake” as a performing musician. Instead of limiting ourselves to only serve an artistic purpose, making an approach to broad social issues will widen opportunities for mutual exchange and learning. Ohrui demonstrated how her work has evolved since: 1) as a performing musician connecting with diverse social sectors, such as public educational and social welfare organizations and 2) as a piano faculty in conservatoire where my teaching style and approach have changed through the practice of idiomatic improvisation.
British-Singaporean pianist Melvyn Tan and YST Artist Faculty Churen join forces in this blockbuster programme.
Repertoire
Maurice Ravel: La Valse
Igor Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
Darius Milhaud: Scaramouche
Discover an enchanting evening of late-night contemporary musical exploration. As the city quiets down, we’ll transport you into the mesmerizing realm of Philip Glass’s “4 Movements for 2 Pianos,” where rhythmic precision and minimalist beauty intertwine. Richard Barrett’s “news from nowhere” promises a sonic journey filled with intriguing surprises, and Kevin Volans’s “String Quartet No. 1, ‘White Man Sleep'” adds a unique dimension to the evening with its evocative melodies and intricate textures. Together, these compositions weave an unforgettable tapestry of sound that’s bound to captivate your senses.
What's next?
YST CONSERVATORY
National University of Singapore
3 Conservatory Drive
Singapore 117376
