Yang Shuxiang
Singaporean violinist Shuxiang Yang play-directs the re:Sound Chamber Orchestra while maintaining solo and chamber music appearances across Asia, Europe, and North America. His emotionally charged (or, as one critic puts it, hair-raising) performances have been witnessed at festivals and concert series such as the Singapore International Festival of Arts, Chamber Music and Arts Singapore, More than Music, Kris Foundation, Siam Society, Macau Arts Festival, Cremona Music Festival, and Perlman Music Program. In 2012, he was given special praise for his extraordinary showing at the President’s Young Performers Concert with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra:
“Yang gave arguably the finest solo performance in the history of the President’s concert series. Seldom has there been a performance of such intensity, one that grabbed the listener by the lapels and never let go.” (Straits Times)
A hopeless romantic notwithstanding, Yang constantly seeks to extend his art into the weird and wonderful. His recent brainchild—a novel string quartet concept evocatively named the Bards of Neverland—aims to tell impossible stories from impossible times and places through genre-bending programming, visuals, and settings. The group has thus far immersed itself in several large-scale post-classical/quasi-pop productions, e.g., Wondrous Fall (VR production), Northern Lights, Alex Blake Charlie, Tapestry, and WTT Smash.
Yang holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory, where he served as teaching assistant to the eminent artist-pedagogue, Donald Weilerstein, and read for a secondary specialisation in musicology. Other mentors who have left indelible fingerprints on his musical voice are professors Qian Zhou, Almita Vamos, Roland Vamos, Victor Danchenko, and his beloved pre-college teachers Lynette Lim and Sylvia Khoo. Accolades earned include the prestigious Loke Cheng-Kim Foundation Scholarship and top prizes at the Hong Kong, Cremona, and Atlantic Symphony competitions.
Yang looks to pass on his musical inheritances to the next generation of young musicians as Artist Fellow at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (National University of Singapore) and violin and chamber music instructor at the School of the Arts. Occasional teaching stints include the Cremona International Music Academy, CPC Thailand, and Boston Music Institute. Yang also flaunts some expertise in the administrative side of musicking, having managed the 2022 Singapore International Violin Competition.
