InTempo’22: Musical Escapades
NUS Wind Symphony
Sun 20 March / Two shows: 2pm and 7.30pm / UCC Hall
General: $25 / Students: $15 / Friends of CFA: $25 for two
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Let music take you to places of the past, present and future, to experience the joy of travelling, and celebrate the unique cultures of our world. Featuring a global repertoire, including world premieres of two newly commissioned works, join the NUS Wind Symphony on an exhilarating trip around the world with InTempo’22: Musical Escapades.
The NUS Wind Symphony will perform two concerts with two different sets of programmes:
Afternoon Concert Programme:
The Land of a Great Promise - Chingis Khan by Eiji Suzuki
The Times by Hiroki Takahashi
Celebration and Song by Robert Sheldon
Takarajima by Toshio Mashima
The Land of a Great Promise - Chingis Khan features a unique blend of a Mongolian folk song and Western classical harmony, while Takarajima evokes the festive celebrations on the Japanese island of the same name. Finally, we celebrate the present, reminisce about the past and excitedly anticipate the future, with Hiroki Takahashi’s The Times.
Evening Concert Programme:
Yiddish Dances by Adam Gorb
Princess Mononoke by Takashi Hoshide
Emergence (world premiere) by Gu Wei
Anew (world premiere) by Lee Jiayi
Yong Siew Toh Convervatory of Music Master student, Yeo Jie Yuan, will conduct part of this concert.
Yiddish Dances takes us to experience the Yiddish culture of klezmer music and dance expressed in the modern-day wind ensemble. Emergence, commissioned by NUS Centre For the Arts for NUS Wind Symphony, is Singaporean composer Gu Wei’s response towards the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like a natural phenomenon where complex structures and behaviours spontaneously arise from a collective of relatively simple elements, Gu Wei hopes this work will provide the strength for us to push on, and serves as a reminder that some of the seemingly insignificant things we do are in fact vital for the very existence of our society.
Composed by Lee Jia Yi, Anew is a reflection of the current situation we live in, due to the COVID-19 pandemic: the uncertainty, chaos and our attempts to cope.
The work commissioned by NUS Centre For the Arts explores the trajectory of the virus spreading, changing the world; yet also our ability to start anew and adapt to a new normal.
NUS Wind Symphony
Since its inception in 1968, the NUS Wind Symphony has established itself as one of the premier wind orchestras in Singapore.
Under the tutelage of its Music Director Mr Francis Tan, members have been able to continue to play in mixed and chamber ensembles in the midst of the pandemic. We emphasise on creating quality music while exposing members to a wide range of quality repertoire of varying difficulty - from orchestra transcriptions, chorales, marches, and standard band works, to modern band music.
Some of the band’s most recent productions include “InTempo 2021: New Connections” in March 2021, as well as “Da Capo XV: A New Beginning” in October 2021.
Francis received his music education from Indiana University and Australian National University, and obtained his Masters of Music in Conducting (2017) at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. From 2013-2017, Mr Tan was the Associate Conductor of the National University of Singapore Wind Symphony, and became the resident conductor and music director of the band in 2018. Under his baton, the band clinched third place and the Silver Award at its inaugural showing at the 2016 Singapore International Band Festival (Division 1) and the Gold Award in the 2017 World Music Contest (Division 2) in Kerkrade, Netherlands.
