| Ng
Shyh Poh may well be the first Malaysian contemporary music composer
to have his work performed at a popular concert in the country.
 Young
composer Ng Shyh Poh has the honour of being perhaps the first
Malaysian contemporary music composer to have his work performed
at a popular concert in the country. His choir piece A Land
Far Away performed as part of a concert raising funds for
Gaza humanitarian aid at the Istana Budaya on 1 Feb 2009. That
the experimental work written by the composer for a competition
in Jakarta was included in such an event was quite a thrill
for the Melaka-born choral instructor, who is currently pursuing
a degree in composition at Xian University in China, a centre
of musical scholarship that has seen a number of Malaysian composers.
Says Ng, "It is a quite an exciting experience for me
as this is the first time my choir piece A Land Far Away has
had the chance to be performed at a proper concert hall in Malaysia.
The main purpose of this charity event was to raise funds for
the victims in Gaza. We were invited through one of our member's
mother (who was on the committee for this event) as she knew
we had done a choir piece that is related to the theme. They
even found a translator to render the text into Malay (the original
is written in Chinese). It was quite challenge for us as we
had to re-practice again as we had only one rehearsal just before
the performance. The performance was quite a success that day
and we were so surprised to receive quite a lot of good feedback
after the concert, although we were asked to sing in Chinese
at the very last minute. What impressed me that night was that
the MC took the trouble to use Mandarin to say "thank you"
after our performance.
Says the composer of his choral piece, "it is dedicated
to the Dithyrambic Singers, as this is my first try at writing
for choir while I was studying at the Malaysian Institute of
Arts. Inspired by the poem "A Land Far Away" by Japanese
surrealist poet Koichi Kihara, what I'm trying to do with this
piece is to bring the audience back to the scene after the war
had ended. Quite a lot of dramatic elements are used; effects
are use to create the atmosphere and scenes, while elements
like reciting, acting and movement make the music even more
dramatic. "
Listen to A
Land Far Away at Malaysian Art Radio's programme Hearing
Voices.
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A performance of Ng's
Scene for flute, oboe and piano at the Young Composers
Workshop 09
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Related Links
10 January 09
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