All posts tagged: Singapore

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 …

Visit to Universal Studio Singapore

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I first met Hong Kong’s Plaisir Ensemble and their conductor Mr Man (think cantonese) at a choral festival held in Vietnam this year.  It was a happy coincidence that they could be in town en route home from Sri Lanka and we decided to meet up and hang out! Hosting them was a real pleasure…  Not only was there fantastic sharing of food, music, philosophy and ideas etc., it was also a very good excuse to give myself a break and have my maiden visit to the famed Universal Studio Singapore (ya ya, I’m a foreigner in my own country) together with Mrs Tay! While getting onto the monorail en route to Sentosa, we ended up queuing at the exact door where some of my ex-SAJC choir students were waiting to go to USS as well!  It was great to hear how they’re all in university and doing well.  相见不如偶遇, so we took a quick picture once we alighted from the monorail. The ex-SAJC choir gang still hanging out after all these years! More amazing …

Leong Yoon Pin – A Choral Odyssey

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Leong Yoon Pin – A Choral Odyssey 25 August 2009 is a milestone in Singapore’s choral history.  Led by 4 renowned Singaporean conductors, a tour de force of 12 school and community choirs came together for an unprecedented gathering to pay tribute to Singapore’s pioneering composer, performing to an appreciative full-house crowd at the Esplanade Concert Hall in a concert aptly titled “Leong Yoon Pin – A Choral Odyssey”. This featured composer is Mr. Matthew Leong Yoon Pin (b.1931), a respected educator and conductor who is best known for his voluminous output of choral music as well as myriad instrumental works that run the gamut from symphonies, overtures, concertos to chamber works. Leong’s choice of text shows a predilection for poetry ranging from the Chinese classical greats such as Li Bai (李白) and Du Fu (杜甫) to modern English nationalistic poetry by local poets such as Angeline Yap.  His choice of texts is born of a natural affinity for the two languages and filtered by the political climate of the late 1950s – choral songs …