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Showing posts with the label featuresShow All
A kaleidoscopic evening of Malaysian stories at Jalur Kita, Cerita Kita concert
The Jalur Kita, Cerita Kita concert by MCC at KLPac on 26 November was a huge success on many levels. Not only was the concert well attended although several competing concerts were taking place around Kuala Lumpur that night, but it also brought together 14 composers from varied backgrounds to present an evening of colourful, truly made-in-Malaysia music. Funded by Cendana Arts Fund, the concert was a culmination on months of research by the selected composers on their subject of choice, based on an aspect of their respective Malays…
Our Colours, Our Stories: 14 wonderful Malaysian musical tales
The tale of Laksamana Bentan, impressions of Teochew Puppet Opera, the sounds of birds and orangutan, the structure of the Blue Mosque, the echoes of Gua Tempurung ... Hear these and much more in the 14 pieces that make up the Jalur Kita, Cerita Kita concert this November 26 at KLPac Pentas 2. Book your ticket now at http://www.cloudjoi.com/buy/oqpc8o Programme: Click to view full poster Starting with Perlis , Adam Masumi’s 'Awang Batil Bertabik' reimagines the traditional form of storytelling Awang Batil in a string quartet set…
Composer in motion - Chan Wei Tuck on his UCSI commission
Winners of Free Hand 2022 have been commissioned to write test pieces for the upcoming UCSI University International Piano Festival & Competition 2022 . Dr Chan Wei Tuck, winner of the commission for the senior category, has prepared his piece 'Motion', a piece about "scattered thoughts, where one must decide on the path to take," so says the composer. "I modelled the opening based on a single pitch on C. The first piece begins on a single pitch on B-flat. This pitch on C is part of the F minor chord quality – the me…
A muti-coloured Three Nations concert by the MPO
July saw the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in another collaboration with MCC, this time for the Three Nations concert together with ACL Korea and Composers Society of Singapore. The three associations contributed three works each to the programme that gave a broad picture of new music across these three countries, and the diverse sounds and styles across the nine composers. The concert was well-attended and saw the presence of dignitaries from the local embassies of Korea and Singapore, Minister Counsellor Yoo Kwang from the Korean embas…
Chan Wei Tuck and Jessica Cho win Free Hand 2022 awards
Free Hand 2022 made an exciting return to UCSI University on 25 June, 2022 and nine composers had their works performed by nine members of the UCSI faculty, alumni and students. The evening opened with Ainolnaim Azizol’s Berlabuh , an evocative free-style sonic painting played by Ho Su San to a backdrop of natural sounds recorded by the composer. Young student Nicole Ong gave us a series of Piano Variations on a Beethovenian theme, delivered by Chen Jay Hou with beautiful lyricism. Rayner Naili explored alternately violent and deeply d…
Fundamentals of research for creative writing - a lecture by Dr Johan Othman
Whether you are interested in researching a subject for the Jalur Kita Cerita Kita project by MCC-MPO, or simply want to broaden the scope and depth of your ideas when composing a piece of music, the fundamentals of research as explained in the lecture by composer Dr Johan Awang Othman, senior lecturer at University Sains Malaysia in Penang, will prove immensely useful. Watch the lecture here, on Malaysian Composers TV:
Beauty in atonality: Jessica Cho's Capricious for Schott's new book launched on Feb 9
On 9 February 2022 German music publisher Schott launched three books on piano pieces by women, which included a commission from composer Jessica Cho for a new piece. For the book, Cho wrote Capricious, a wonderful miniature that in its 2 minute duration encompasses a variety of moods, from calm and serene to sudden leaps of energy. The language is very much in the style and spirit of her previous piano works like 5 Little Pieces for piano - which won an award at the Asian Composers League Festival in Taiwan in 2011 - and combines a beautifu…
International Piano magazine calls Free Hand Anthology 'fascinating and substantial'
Last September, the leading magazine for the piano world'International Piano' published a wonderful review of the Free Hand Anthology Vol 1 that MCC published at the end of 2019 after the first ever Free Hand Festival 2019, the delay in the review owing to the difficulies during the pandemic of 2020 and 2021. The magazine called the first ever compilation of Malaysian 21st Century piano works "a fascinating and substantial selection of music for today that deserves international attention." Here is the full article below. A…
MPO review: Modernism and romanticism
The final part of the MPO’s Malaysian composers chamber series, which saw nine works premiered throughout the month of November 2021, was a showcase of the rich diversity of styles of our composers, from the young voices of the adventurous Ainolnaim Azizol and Ilysia Tan, to the well-established gorgeousness of Vivian Chua. First up is Ilysia Tan, a final year student at Yong Siew Toh Convervatory in Singapore, a highly promising young composer who is quickly developing her musical voice, as shown by her piece Addiction to Perfection for stri…
MPO review: Sonic feasts and gorgeous lyricism
The second part of the MPO’s Malaysian composers chamber series, which saw nine works premiered throughout the month of November 2021, was a sonic feast that has some pretty unusual sounds put together in various ways by the individual styles of the composers here. The series starts with Caeleb Tee’s work for strings, Hymn of the Remnants. The piece is a beautiful, somber hymn full of aching and longing, with its long arching lyricism and strange harmonies that are at once familiar yet estranged and full of unresolved yearning. Tee explains, “…
MPO review: Gripping moods, ethereal moments and mysterious yearnings
On 5 th Nov, 2021 the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra premiered three Malaysian works as part of its Malaysian composers chamber series made in collaboration with MCC. The series would see nine works premiered throughout the month of November. The first work premiered was Jessica Cho’s Edge of Lunacy, which deals with the dark subject of mental illness. Writes Cho, “This piece depicts the moods of one who is descending into madness. Mental illness is a frightening condition, where one has confused thoughts and extremely high and low mood…
Vivian Chua: In search of a Malaysian identity
Meet Vivian Chua, one of the composers from the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra's (MPO) first ever Forum for composers in March 2003. An active composer and arranger particularly of local folk songs, Chua most recently wrote `Mercu Kegemilangan' for large orchestra and choir, a commission by the MPO to commemorate their 20th year of formation. A chamber version of the work was toured around the country and in Singapore, and also performed at the Asian Composers League opening concert in Taiwan in 2018. Chua talked to conductor, mus…
Echoes of humanity - a review of 'Wave from Seoul' concert
While the Covid pandemic has forced most people worldwide to put a halt to their normal lives, last Friday night Nov 6, 2020 in Seoul the spirit of humanity triumphed as new works by composers from Korea and Malaysia joined hands for a very special evening of new music. The programme of six works, three from each country respectively, paid tribute to a kaleidoscope of human experiences. This special evening began with the insistent repetitive piano notes of Adeline Wong's 'Herringbone', which the pianist gave the full force of…
Ilysia Tan searches for 'perfection' at the 2022 ACL Festival New Zealand
With the regular Asian Composers League (ACL) festival rescheduled to 2022 in Christchurch, New Zealand, we profile Malaysia's young composer representative, this time from Penang, currently studying music at Singapore's Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. Tan's work made its debut officially on Malaysian shores as one of the pieces in MCC's Freehand Anthology I of 21st Century Malaysian piano works, and her propulsive “Drive” can be heard on the web player at the Freehand website . For her entry to ACL's Young Composers Comp…
From water to wind chimes: Sameul Cho and Lee Chie Tsang's Free Hand commissions
Young Malaysian composer Samuel Cho, who lives in Germany, is busy at work with his new commission for the upcoming UCSI Piano Festival 2020. The young pianist composer reports, "The commission work is coming along very nicely. The draft is finished and I'm in the notational process right now. I've already given it a title. It's called 'Tinatina'." Cho won the UCSI commission at Free Hand Festival 2019 last August with his work Vatni, which explores concepts of water and fluidity on the piano. This time around, …
S'pore Straits Times reviews Wong's Herringbone
Singapore's Straits Times reviews Yong Siew Toh Conservatory's concert ' The Modern Playground ', a violin-piano recital by visiting artists Foo Mei-Yi & Bartosz Woroch: A 90-minute concert of modern music for solo piano and solo violin on a Tuesday evening might not seem an enticing prospect for any except the most dedicated supporters of new music. Yet this one attracted a near-capacity audience. Possibly, they were there for the world premiere of a work by Singapore-based Malaysian composer Adeline Wong. If so, the…
Composer draws inspiration from nature - Feature article on Ng Chong Lim
As a composer Ng Chong Lim draws his inspiration from everything around him, but nothing inspires him more than nature. Recently while looking through photographs that a former schoolmate of his had taken, Ng was reminded of his childhood when he would spend a lot of time on his uncle’s farm in Seremban. Those reminiscences sparked the ideas that produced Dragonfly, a set of four miniature movements that Ng composed specially for the 5th ASEAN International Chopin Piano Competition 2012, scheduled to begin in Kuala Lumpur on 20 November.…
MCC's Free Hand Anthology I has been released on Faber Music.
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