| Young
Composers Competition
 One
of the highlights of the KL Contemporary Music Festival is the
Young Composers Competition 09 which invited a total
of 9 young composers, selected on the basis of a submitted score
of an original composition for a chamber ensemble, to participate
in rehearsal workshops and a final concert which will be adjudicated
by an international jury comprising established South East Asian
composers and German composers.
Based on the highly successful HSBC Young Composers Workshop
08 - that has produced some top notch young composers, many
of whom have moved on to regional successes and premieres -
the competition ups the stakes this year by pitching Malaysian
composers against their colleagues from the region.
This is the first time such a regional young composers competition
has ever been organised, and the response from South East Asian
young composers has been overwhelming. The concert performed
by Ensemble Mosaik, which included works by some of the jury
members, was a fitting cap to the three day festival by voicing
the visions of the new generation. You can now listen
to the concert online.
The Finalists
Category A (Malaysia):
Category B (Sout East Asia)
 1
Chow Jun Yan: When Stillness Meets Motion
I have conceptualised this piece by drawing an imaginary frame
around a city, and in that frame there are static elements such
as a tree or a building, and there are also subjects in motion
such as animals, cars, people and so on.
All the subjects are carrying out their own tasks, sometimes
working individually, sometimes in interaction with others.
Therefore in this piece, overlapping motives and unique sounds
present themselves in various permutations.
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score sample
Chow Jun Yan was born in Glasgow. He took up the er hu at
an early age. He studied composition at Segi
College Subang Jaya, and is currently pursuing a degree in music
composition at Singapore's Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Of Music.
Chow was a finalist in Malaysia's inaugural HSBC Young Composers
Workshop 2008.
 2
Chow Jun Yi: A Night Without Voices
Have you ever talked to yourself?
This work represents city dweller whose outer appearance looks
happy and content, but his inner self suffers from the pressures
of life in the city.
The piece begins with a Music Box theme that represents sweet
memories, along with a Darkness theme. The Darkness theme initially
covers the Music Box theme, just like how a person cannot escape
from his outer tensions. In the middle section time freezes
as the person stops himself from the daily pressures and attempts
to escape from reality into his world of sweet memories. However,
time never stops. In the final part, the two themes exist alongside
each other as the person realises that although he cannot stop
time, he can hold on to his memories, however brief.
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score sample
Chow Jun Yi was born in Kuala Lumpur. He began piano and
theory studies at the tender age of 5. Completing his studies
at Yamaha School of Music, Chow is pursuing his graduate degree
at the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, studying under
renowned composers Qin Wen Chen and Tang Jian Ping. Chow was
a finalist in Malaysia's inaugural HSBC Young Composers Workshop
2008. He recently won first prize at the Palatino Awards for
vocal music in Beijing in May 09.
 3
Lee Chie Tsang, Isaiah: Autumn's Heart.Maple.Fragrance
The city I come from doesn't just contain sounds of its inhabitants.
It is itself a city of voices. ?o?o? carries with it a glimpse
of these voices. It presents an image of a city whose spirit
accepts not only one, but many; who smiles at a thousand scents
whose sweetness cannot be named, carried through the wind as
they glide around falling maple leaves.
It asks its listener to abandon the authority of singular descriptions,
and allows that which is of variety to be heard. Their sounds
are that of differences, of mixtures, of light at the same time
dark, of delight at the same time sorrow, of colours visible
and invisible, and of feelings that cannot be grasped.
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score sample
Lee was born in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and studied music at
Segi College Subang Jaya under Tan Chin Ho. His solo piano work
Autumn Steps won 2nd Prize at the 2008 Beethoven Club Composition
Contest in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Lee was also a finalist
at the Fifth Sun River Student Composition Competition Cheng
Du, China 2008 and at the Ton de Leeuw 2008 young composers'
competition in Albania. He was 1st runner up at the 2008 Sibelius
Composer Awards (Sydney, Australia). Lee has recently completed
his Bachelor of music degree majoring in music composition at
the University of Western Australia.
 4
Neo Nai Wen: The Forgotten Sound
If a city had a voice, It would be the voice of expectation
or of hope. In this work, I try to create an extremely chaotic
atmosphere at the beginning of the piece, because when we listen
to noise, we always expect or hope for silence or calmness in
its wake.
Therefore my conclusion is modelled like a Buddhist chant;
this is the voice of the city that is in my imagination. It
is in essence the sound that has long been absent from our city
life. My music attempts to create, contrast and find balance
between chaos and peace, and to explore elements of Buddhism
in music.
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score sample
Sabah-born Neo Nai Wen studied music at Segi College Subang
Jaya. He had his first composition recital in 2007 and now teaches
music at the Klang Music Centre. Neo was a finalist in Malaysia's
inaugural HSBC Young Composers Workshop 2008 and recently premiered
his From The Rainforest at a concert at the Traverse Theatre,
Edinburgh.
Category B (South East Asia)
 1
Juro Kim O Feliz: Sa Kanyang Paglingon (In Her Glances)
...sa kawalan na nasisilayan sa kaligiran
(...to the abyss as seen beyond the horizon)
Saan pa ba hahanapin
Kundi sa sariling panaginip
Lupain na abot-tanaw ang kawalan
(Where else does one find
Except in one's own dreams
A place where nothing exists beyond the horizon)
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score sample
Feliz was born in Floridablanca, Philippines, in 1987. He
began musical studies in his early years through piano lessons
from his mother. His interest in 20th Century music led him
to study composition at the University of Philippines College
of Music where he also studied the Japanese koto.
 2
Kittiphan Janbuala: Motion In Stasis
The inspiration for this piece comes from environmental pollution
such as a noise, expressed in timbre changes and musical expressions.
The work consists of simple materials such rolls, trills, increasing
lines, decreasing lines, rhythmic repetitions and tiny Thai
melody within that.
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score sample
Janbuala was born in Chachoengsao, Thailand, in 1983. He
graduated from Mahidol University in Bangkok in 2006. In 2004,
2006 and 2008 he participated in the Young Thai Artist Award
Competition in Bangkok, and in the TIMF Academy in 2008. He
is currently on scholarship at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory
in Singapore
 3
Thatchatham Silsupan: Because We Are Together
As someone who has been growing up in different landscapes,
both suburban and urban, I am always impressed by the sound
structure of the environment that surrounds me. It prompts me
to think about the beauty of emancipation in the sound itself.
The sound can be broadly ranked from dense noise to one pure
beautiful sound, which also changes with our perception at the
moment of listening. What I found quite interesting is that
we actually contribute our own sound to this sonic environment.
So that we are not only listening to it but am also sharing
and contributing to it. So when thinking about this piece I
am also speaking my voice into that environment surrounding
me, 'because we are together'.
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score sample
Silsupan was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1987. He studied
music at Mahidol College of Music and is currently under a full
scholarship at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore. He has
participated in the 3rd Thailand Composition Festival and the
TIMF Academy, and is a recipient of the Young Thai Artist award.
 4
Tan Tuan Hao: And The Sleeping City Dreams...
Perhaps a city is a living thing. Each city has its own personality,
after all ...
So, if a city has a personality, maybe it also has a soul. Maybe
it dreams.
- The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman
By day, Southeast Asian metropolises are icons of dynamism
and change, seen for example by the continually changing skylines
of all our major cities. This piece, however, focuses on the
dreams and nocturnal musings of its people; dreams in which
the ancient voices of convention and tradition speak as loudly
as those of progress and modernity. Against the gradually fading
backdrop of Western colonialism or influence, these voices converse
and discuss, agree and disagree, and even temper each other's
manifestation in the everyday lives of any city's citizens.
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score sample
Tan was born in Singapore in 1986. He studied music at the
La Salle College Of The Arts in Singapore, winning the McNally
Award for Excellence in the Arts there in 2009. He also plays
the flute, and is resident conductor of the Kim Seng Wind Symphony.
 5
Zurazak Ut-Sa: Urban Silhouettes
This work is a reflection of Bangkok, the city that never sleeps.
The city dwellers' lives, like automatons, are in constant restless
loop. The music consists of two parts. The first is a portrait
of the city, the bustling activity and chaos of passers-by,
its various cultures and languages, created in music using numerical
additives of 1,2,3 and so on. In addition the word BANGKOK is
decoded into primary numbers and mapped to sets of notes (0,1,2,5,6,7)
and (0,1,2) and they form composite elements.
The second part represents the silhouettes of the city in the
form of abstract and impressionistic processes of minimalism.
This part of the soundscape reflects the atmosphere of a city
at dusk, with echoes of loops from the first part swirling around
the city's melody till the end.
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score sample
Born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1983, Ut-sa graduated with
First Class Honours from Rangsit University's Conservatory of
Music in 2007. He received the Young Thai Artist Award in 2008,
and is currently pursuing his Masters in Composition at Chulalongkorn
University in Bangkok.
The Jury
Jury Members:
- Dr Anothai Nitibhon (Thailand)
- Johan Othman (Malaysia)
- Dr Jonas Baes (Philippines)
- Moritz Eggert (Germany)
- Prof Dieter Mack (Germany)
- Ernst Surberg, Ensemble Mosaik (Germany)
Competition Format
The competition consists
of two categories:
Category A: Malaysian Young Composers Award
4 composers from Malaysia will be selected and one winner will
be awarded. The winner of this category will receive a prize
and will be eligible to compete in the open South East Asia
category.
Category B: Goethe South East Asian Young Composers Award
5 composers from the South East Asian region will be selected
(along with the winner of Category A) and prizes will be awarded
to the top compositions.
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Introduction 