Thursday, November 20, 2008

Making waves with the baton

Offstage, friends of conductor Joshua Tan say he is mild-mannered and a little sombre. But put a baton in his hand and this reticent musician is transformed into a flamboyant maestro.

Singapore audiences can now catch him in action on Friday at the Esplanade Concert Hall for the Puccini Gala, staged by the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO).

The SLO orchestra, choruses and soloists will perform a repertoire of famed Italian composer Puccini's works, including Tosca, Gianni Schicchi, La Boheme and his final masterpiece, Turandot.

A former violinist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), Tan is currently in his final year of conducting at the Julliard School, a prestigious performing arts conservatory in New York.

This month, he was awarded the second prize in the 2008 Dimitris Mitropoulos International Competition for conducting. But the musician says switching to conducting was 'a hard decision' to make.

'I was giving up a comfortable job, playing in the SSO was one of my dreams as a kid,' says Tan, 32, who is married to former flight attendant Yolanda Tan. The couple have no children.

'But I felt this need and desire, I would go so far as to say it is a compulsion, to interpret music on my own terms,' he adds.

Being at Julliard, where he studies on a National Arts Council-Shell scholarship, makes him feel like 'a kid in a candy store' - meeting classical music legends in the hallways, learning under masters and studying with accomplished peers.

Tan was always someone with ambition. His list of possible career choices included being in the military, a pilot, a soccer player or a businessman.

'There were several paths I could have taken, unlike my peers at Julliard who have had their entire musical careers mapped out for them for the rest of their lives,' he says.

When he started learning the violin as a six- year-old, he hated it. 'The amount of time I spent practising the violin was criminal,' he recalls with a laugh.

But at 14, he was listening to a classical music tape on a bus ride to violin class when he was totally blown away.

'It was then I realised I wanted a career as a musician.'

Eschewing a place at business school, he went to study violin at the Eastman School Of Music in New York.

His time as a violinist at SSO has armed him with invaluable experience to become a conductor.

'You have to have a love for music and a love for people. It is about getting these talented musicians to believe in and play the way you think the music should be interpreted.'

The young conductor says the local classical music talent pool is growing but 'much can be done to improve the relevance of classical music to the community'.

He adds: 'It is about social responsibility. The classical music scene is starting to bloom in Asia, especially in China, Taiwan and Japan. Singapore needs to keep pace.'

Although he has his sights set internationally - Tan plans to stay on in New York after graduation - he is grateful to local groups such as SLO and SSO for believing in him even though he is just starting out.

'Without these people and groups backing me and giving me such wonderful opportunities to grow, I won't be where I am right now.'


 

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