Musical Destinations
Slowly but surely, Western classical music is earning itself a loyal fan base in this young city state, finds new resident Elizabeth Davis
Elizabeth Davis on Singapore’s bright musical future
If you wanted to escape the tropical heat of Singapore in 1904, you might have headed to Raffles Hotel, the grandest in the city, for ‘a skating dinner’. After a dinner of clear turtle soup and pheasant, you could have popped on a pair of roller skates and whizzed around the dining room with, as one source put it, ‘the utmost glee until 11 o’clock, when the fun had to stop.’ Musical accompaniment would have been provided by Singapore’s first orchestra, the Raffles Hotel Orchestra.
In 2019, Raffles is still the most famous hotel in the city – and the birthplace of the
Singapore Sling cocktail. But the hotel’s orchestra has long gone, and roller skates are frowned upon in the dining room.
Singapore is a very new country – this year it celebrates 54 years of independence from Malaysia, which borders it to the north. And it’s just 200 years since the British administrator Sir Stamford Raffles landed on the equatorial island to set up a trading post, having spotted its potential, sandwiched as it is between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Today Singapore – or the Lion City, as it’s often known – is mostly made up of
Chinese, Malay and Indian people who have each brought their culture, religion and food with them to the city state – and of course their music.
But Western classical music in the city is an even more recent arrival. After the demise of the Raffles Hotel Orchestra in the 1950s came a succession of shortlived ensembles – including one set up by Scottish conductor Erik Chisholm to entertain British troops. The island state didn’t get its first full-time professional symphony orchestra until 1979, when conductor Choo Hoey became the
founding music director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). And in 2002, the city’s first purposebuilt concert hall finally materialised, with the opening of the eye-catching Esplanade on Singapore’s waterfront.
Today, the Esplanade (nicknamed
‘the durian’ for its resemblance to the famously smelly local fruit) hosts dance, theatre and pop music events alongside classical music. Recent visitors have included Carlos Acosta’s dance company, the Staatskapelle Dresden and, in a few months, the National Theatre’s production of War Horse will visit from London.
In many ways, Singapore’s arts scene seems like that of any other international city. But dig deeper and there are some striking differences. Firstly the audience is noticeably younger. Classical music is a newcomer to the city, so classical concerts are regarded as just one of a raft of live events on offer.
Secondly, old music is new music here, and barely a month goes by without a Singaporean premiere – Wagner’s Die Walküre gets its first outing this January. Inevitably, audiences in the city have been guided by SSO programming which, for many years, was the only act in town.
And that’s given the orchestra a chance to put its stamp on the local scene. Former music director Lan Shui, for instance, was passionate about Mahler, so now the Austrian composer is one of the most popular in this corner of Southeast Asia.
The orchestra’s CEO, Chng Hak-peng, recognises its unique responsibility: ‘In the 20 years Lan was with us, he brought the Singapore audience from very little knowledge about composers like Mahler and Debussy to full houses whenever we put on Mahler symphonies. Now we’re helping to develop a taste for composers like Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and early Beethoven.’
The dominance of the city’s symphony orchestra, however, means that chamber music has lagged behind. One group trying to change that is RE:SOUND Collective, a chamber ensemble founded in 2016.
The group’s chairman and co-founder, Martin Beng explains: ‘The Singaporean audience hasn’t grown up the way most classical audiences grow up, with Haydn and Mozart. We actually have to convince them that these composers are not that difficult to enjoy, which to somebody from the West is an odd perspective.’
You don’t have to spend long in Singapore to sense that it’s a city striving to become a musical powerhouse. At the youngest end of the spectrum, the country has one of the world’s highest rates of entry for ABRSM (Associated Board) music exams, thanks to the country’s highly competitive education system and the ABRSM’S unrivalled reputation abroad.
For those who decide to study music beyond 18, there’s the recently opened Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, which the Government is keen to establish, offering fully funded undergraduate places including accommodation and funding.
The effects of all this investment have started to be felt. Singaporeans making their name around the world in recent years include Kahchun Wong, the newly appointed chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra; composer Joyce Koh, whose work has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra; and former child-prodigy pianist Abigail Sin.
No doubt there will soon be plenty more Singaporeans joining them. Singapore might not yet be king of the musical jungle, but it’s starting to flex its paws.
Further information: Visit sso.org.sg for details on the SSO’S 2020 season
‘We have to convince audiences that Mozart and Haydn are not di!cult to enjoy’