Following a successful three-year HSBC Classics festival series featuring piano, wind and string instruments in rotation, HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad is embarking on a second round of the music series with the return of the piano festival this year.
Ahead of the festival in July, HSBC has launched the HSBC Classics Piano Competition 2008.
This will be the first-time ever a piano competition is incorporated in the HSBC Classics festival. Designed to continue raising the bar for young pianists and to provide them with a platform to showcase their talent, this competition is open to Malaysians under the age of 26 as at 12 July 2008.
Besides the RM 14,000 prize money at stake, all finalists will receive vouchers for the purchase of music books and accessories. The first prize winner will also be given the opportunity to perform in a fully-sponsored concert at the next HSBC Classics festival in 2009.
The nine semi-finalists for the piano competition have just been announced - Chin Hui Shan, Yong Sue Yi, Raymond Lee Kit Loong, Tham Horng Kent, Lynn Kang, Kong Su Mei, Wong Shuen Da, Andrew Koay Yi Jie and Chow Kwok Kang. Both the semi final and final round of the competition will take place during the festival in July and it will be open to public. The list of Malaysian composers and relevant pieces that the semi-finalists can choose from is listed below.
To find out more about the HSBC Classics music series and this year's HSBC Classics Piano Festival, CLICK HERE.
Malaysian Composers & Piano Scores for Semi Finals
HSBC Bank Malaysia and The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) would like to acknowledge the generosity of the nine Malaysian composers who have made their piano works available for the HSBC Classics Piano Competition 2008. These compositions may be downloaded from the website only for the sole purpose of the HSBC Classics Piano Competition and may not be reproduced, in any manner or form, without the express permission of the composers.
Note:- The name of the scores are linked to the actual piano score e.g. 'Illusory Angel'. If you have problems downloading by clicking the hyperlinked 'Illusory Angel', try right clicking and choose save as.
a) Chong Kee Yong: Illusory Angel or Splattered Landscape
Chong Kee Yong is an award-winning composer with a rare talent of fashioning a truly individual sound from modern experimental techniques. composer Peter Eötvös describes his music as "imaginative and poetic." He received his Master of Composition with the Highest Honours from the Royal Flemish Conservatory and has studied with numerous composers such as Brian Ferneyhough and Salvatore Sciarrino. Chong won Malaysia's first Forum For Malaysian Composers in Kuala Lumpur, 2004 and the subsequent International Composers Forum in 2005.
b) Johan Othman: 4 Etudes for Piano (Piano Work No 3, Piano Work No 4, Piano Works No 6 and Piano Work No 8) *
Johan Othman graduated from Yale University majoring in Music Composition, studying with composers like Professor Richard Hoffmann, Param Vir, Ned Rorem and many others. His style is organically Malaysian within his medium of quasi-minimalist, sometimes jazzy, modern yet accessible language. He was one of the four finalists in the Forum For Malaysian Composers in 2004 where he presented his orchestral works Ittar and Topeng 1. Othman is currently teaching at the School of Arts at Penang’s Universiti Sains Malaysia.
c) CH Loh: Chris Dances
CH Loh learnt music playing the tuba with several top symphonic bands in Singapore from the 80s to the 90s. He is a self-taught composer who received guidance from his mentor Hong Kong-born conductor Luk Hoi Yui, a leading band instructor in Singapore, who commissioned several band transcriptions including the Yellow River Concerto and Hong Wu Capriccio for Violin and Band. His Toccata for String Quartet was premiered in Wellington at the Asia Pacific Festival 07. Loh is also a music columnist for Off The Edge who has written extensively on Malaysian music over the past 15 years.
d) Tazul Izan Tajuddin: Torrent of Images - A Memorial
Tajuddin is an award-winning composer residing in London. He studied with composers like Leonardo Balada and Jonathan Harvey and received his PhD from the University of Sussex. His unique approach to incorporating his Malay heritage into a Western musical language has won him many prizes, including the Toru Takemitsu prize for Tenunan II. French composer Henri Dutilleux once described Tazul as "a very finely gifted composer."
e) Teh Tze Siew: Search
Teh Tze Siew graduated from Xi'an Music Conservatory where she received her Bachelor Degree in music composition under Professor Rao Yu Yan. She was one of the four finalists in the Forum For Malaysian Composers II in 2007. Formerly teaching in Gansu North-West Normal University Music, China, Teh currently resides and teaches music in Kulim.
f) Ng Chong Lim: A Distant Voice of the Rain Forest (fragments from 'Rimba')
Ng won 1st prize at the Malaysian National Piano Competition in 1993 and was selected by one of the judges for a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he proceeded to study composition with Professor Beat Furrer at Graz, Austria. Chong has written a number of piano works that combines a bold, experimental approach to composition with a warmth and freedom more associated with Asian music aesthetics. He was one of the four finalists in the Forum For Malaysian Composers II in 2007.
g) Lee Chie-Tsung: Autumn Steps
h) Tzu-En Ngiao: Inconsequentials (Title Page, Inconsequentials 1, Inconsequentials 2, Inconsequentials 3, Inconsequentials 4, Inconsequentials 5 and Inconsequentials 6)
i) Adeline Wong: Alternating Current
Adeline Wong received her Bachelor of Music at the Eastman School of Music in New York and her Master of Music at the Royal College of Music, London, where she received the Cobbett and Hurlstone Composition Prize. She was one of the four finalists in the Forum For Malaysian Composers in 2004 and has premiered a number of works in Kuala Lumpur. Wong has also written works for the 2006 Bang on a Can summer festival in New York and the TACTUS Young Composers' Forum in Brussels. Wong currently teaches at various institutes including Sedaya College of Music.
* If you choose to perform Johan Othman's work, please choose three of the four available.
The biodata of the various composers above is taken from the Malaysian Composers website: www.malaysiancomposers.com.
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