An Overture to "Take 5" Piano Quintet Series - Concert IV Together With Lim Yan - 17 May 09

Recently we did a live interview with our local classical pianist Lim Yan. Due to time constraint, we managed to generate a short write up on him and his concert. In future, we will see if we can generate a more detailed life story of him as a musician in Singapore. Below is the writeup...Enjoy!!!

Written By Tan Wen Hui and edited by AJ Chen Weijie

16 May 2009

Classical pianist Lim Yan - winner of 2006 National Arts Council (NAC) Young Artist Award - needs no introduction to our readers familiar with Singapore's classical music scene. After all, much publicity has been done on this refined gentleman who was also touted as a child prodigy in the eyes of his music teachers during his early days.

Naturally adept with the piano right from the very day he learnt how to finger through its black and white keyboards, the intriguing creations of musical harmony produced by the piano was one of the main reasons why Lim Yan chose the piano as his instrument of practice.

He mentioned "I've always heard of music as harmony, and harmony is an important part of music. So I had to choose an instrument that I was capable of playing, which is the piano."

Moreover, Lim Yan has always been fond of the sonorous sounds produced by the piano and his parents were also supportive of his decision to pursue a full-time career in music, which he emphasized periodically that he felt very fortunate to have gained his parents' blessings to study music.

To date, Lim Yan has "graced the stage on numerous occasions as an accompanist, soloist and chamber music collaborator in numerous performances here, in addition to being rehearsal and accompanist pianist for many SLO productions as well as their Children's Chorus", as mentioned by Singapore Opera Magazine's Blog writer, Steven.

His recent collaboration with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra (TMSO) and renowned conductor Maestro Kazuhiro Koizumi

In his first and most recent collaboration together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra (TMSO) on the 19th April 2009, Lim Yan recounted of his experience, "It was a really enjoyable and really good experience for me. TMSO is excellent and Mr Koizumi is very experienced and has great ideas about music. It was really good for me."

Speaking of his views on his rehearsal sessions together with TMSO and Mr Koizumi, Lim Yan said, "Even within the 3 rehearsals, we had some give and take (views on the interpretations in performance of the music), some really nice discussions about some musical details in Grieg*so yeah, it was really good for me as it was for them, too.”

*The piece in which he mentioned here is Grieg's piano concerto in A minor, composed by Grieg during the Romantic period.

If you are interested to read the feedback by music lovers who had attended TMSO's 2009 -10 Harmony World Tour concert together with Lim Yan, click HERE!!!

An Evening With "Take 5 Piano" Quintet Series-Concert IV

Speaking of his upcoming chamber repertoire "Take 5" Piano Quintet Series-Concert IV together with its composer Dr Joyce Koh and 4 other prominent musicians this Sunday at the Esplanade, Lim Yan was eager to provide us with highlights of this upcoming repertoire.

“It's a short concert, so the whole concert should be a highlight. Again, Shostakovich piano quintet is one of them and Dr Joyce Koh's pieces are going to be a world premium as it was commissioned for this concert, so yeah, should be quiet exciting. Do come along!"

"Dr Koh will do a short introduction about her piece before we actually perform it, partly because sometimes, new music can be a bit less acceptable unlike classical pieces. Also, it is not easy to write simple music which expresses such deep emotions compared to difficult pieces."

When asked on what he hopes to achieve out from this concert, Lim Yan thought hard to himself for a split second before replying us. "What we hope to achieve, well, that's a good philosophical question. We hope to achieve...well, to share with the audience the gift of music and hopefully to inspire, which is a lofty ambition."

"If not, then just spend an enjoyable evening together."

The End... .

Hereby we wish him all the best for his concert. Music lovers should buy the tickets asap...the concert falls on today 17 May 09... .Click HERE to find out more about the concert!!!