Successful Wrap of SCMF 2024
The Singapore Chamber Music Festival 2024 concluded on 3 Feb after ten days of bringing together musicians from all ages to Connect, Share, and Celebrate the joy of chamber music.
SCMF 2024 returned after almost two decades, receiving a surprising interest with 28 chamber groups participating in its Chamber Music Academy workshops and coaching sessions.
Over 100 unique participants of all ages and standards came together to register as trios, quartets and quintets, including four overseas groups who travelled in from the USA and Indonesia and Malaysia. This is testament to the burgeoning passion of our local and regional musicians for learning, and developing their interest in chamber music.
The Academy series consisted of 55 coaching sessions over two days, a quartet demonstration workshop titled “The Art of Communication” by Jonathan Ong, first violinist of Verona Quartet (USA), a theatre improvisation workshop for chamber musicians led by Edith Podesta from Wild Rice, and a sight reading party.
This was complemented with four Festival Concerts, which were distinctly positioned from each other. The Festival Concert I: Aoi Trio featured a top piano trio from Japan, leading the way with a sublime performance and setting the bar for what chamber music-making is all about.
Aoi curated and performed a programme of trio music from its beginnings in Mozart to the romanticism of Dvořák and Hosokawa’s microtonal piano trio. All through the concert, Aoi Trio played with refinement, a beautiful tone, and restrained elegance throughout the programme, even during the most dramatic moments.
Festival Concert II: Ning An and Friends was presented by the YST Faculty to welcome the newest piano faculty member, Ning An. He started the concert with some solo Chopin and was later joined by his colleagues in an exciting Rachmaninoff duo and a fiery Schumann quartet.
Old friendships were renewed, and new friendships were formed as festival artists came together at Festival Concert III: Friends, New and Old. Singaporean and overseas festival artists were mixed and matched in new chamber combinations, which was exciting for the players and audiences. A display of oboe virtuosity was shown by Joost Flach (Head of Winds at NAFA) and three members of Concordia Quartet in Mozart’s Oboe Quartet.
Aoi Trio was joined by Yang Shuxiang and Martin Peh in an impeccable Shostakovich piano quintet, and the evening ended with strings united in Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, led by Jonathan Ong, with Concordia Quartet, SCMF alumni and violist Jeremy Chiew, and cellist Leslie Tan, founding member of Tang Quartet!
Finally, bringing together the best of the SCMF academy participants, alumni SCMF participants from 2003 and festival artists, the festival closed with the SCMF Gala 2024: Celebration! From the 28 groups who applied for the academy, three string quartets were selected to play in the concert, and Harmony Brass was selected to play a pre-concert set at the atrium.
The youngest performers at the concert were Pythagoras Quartet, aged 10-13, and gave a lighthearted performance of a movement from Haydn’s quartet.
Jurong String Quartet and US-based Pandan Quartet presented movements of quartets by Beethoven and Mendelssohn; SCMF alumni (from 2003!) Alan Kartik and Tang Tee Tong led ensembles, playing Mozart’s virtuosic Horn Quintet and Schnittke’s intense piano quartet.
The four-hand Dvořák piano duets after the intermission by Toh Chee Hung and Aoi Trio’s pianist Kosuke Akimoto paid tribute to the late pianist and pedagogue Dennis Lee, who was also involved in the inaugural SCMF.
More artist collaborations followed, two tender and moving movements from Brahms’ Third Quartet; and the evening closed with the biggest ensemble collaboration of all: the finale from Mendelssohn’s String Octet, an exhilarating performance by eight SCMF artists.
“A very memorable evening of generous-hearted music-making, where Music was the star.” - Toh Chee Hung
Our gratitude and heartfelt thanks go to the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music for their support in making this year’s SCMF a success.
We thank YST Dean Peter Tornquist and Vice Dean Brett Stemple for their enthusiasm for the festival even from the early stages of planning, and the generous venue support, as well as the YST staff, who have assisted us in putting the festival rehearsals and concerts together.
Finally, thank you again to all sponsors, volunteers, academy participants, and concert attendees at SCMF 2024 for making this event possible. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2026!
Warm regards,
SCMF 2024 Team
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Photo credit: @joelcaptures / Resound Collective
Photo credit (Concert II: Ning An and Friends): Chan Chen / YST Conservatory
