Author: Albert Tay

Hungry Ghost Festival in Singapore

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I gave my French housemate Gregory Hérail the very happening Singaporean movie titled 881. The movie is a musical-comedy drama based on the ‘Getai’ (literally ‘song stage’ in Chinese) scene in Singapore that occurs during the Hungry Ghost Festival. Decided to upload some pictures on what it is like during the month long Hungry Ghost Festival. The Hungry Ghost Festival involves lots of burning of joss sticks, paper maids, paper bungalows, paper clothes and offerings such as biscuits, fruits etc. to deities, wandering spirits & ancestors. It is believed that whatever we burn will reach our ancestors (if this is the case, I’m guessing it is a lot greener and foresty in the underworld considering how jungles are being burnt in Indonesia). It is a rather smokey, and at times, eerie scene. Paper ‘money’ are tossed in the air to pass money or other things to the wandering spirits. For some strange reason, some people are shouting ‘HUAT AH’ (get rich ah!) as they toss paper money in the air. I doubt the shouting of …

Interview with SG Music

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I had the honour of being interviewed by SG Music, Singapore’s premiere website on all music happenings. Check it out here! Thank you SG Music! Interview Contents can be found below: Albert, welcome back to Singapore! It’s been about a year since our last interview and in that time you’ve completed a year of graduate studies in conducting and music pedagogy at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music (Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music) in Hungary. How did the year go? Was everything up to your expectations, and was there anything that you did not expect but was pleasantly surprised by? It has been a very fruitful year! I had a fabulous time learning from accomplished teachers and schoolmates alike. I enjoyed very much, lessons in conducting, methodology, voice, piano etc. all taught by excellent musician-pedagogues. The way solfège lessons were taught was particularly new and refreshing for me. Theoretical aspects of harmony, form and analysis are learnt via seamless integration with practical work involving sight-singing, ear-training, keyboard harmony skills, sing & play and part-singing. …