Our founder and solo violinist Tang Tee Khoon is a Raffles Girls’ (Secondary) School alum.  This November, 11 alums were invited to return to RGS as speakers at their inaugural Rafflesian Women’s Conference ‘Redefining Success’.  From CEO of Caregiver Group Yeo Wan Ling, to cardiologist Dr Natalie Koh; from former Wall Street banker and champion of SheEO in Singapore Gail Wong, to Executive Director of Daughters of Tomorrow Carrie Tan; attendees got treated to honest sharings by all 11 alums through the three panels ‘Leadership’, ‘Breaking Conventions’ and ‘Paying It Forward’.

Our founder sat and shared on the ‘Leadership’ panel with Carrie Tan, finance adviser Doreen Abeysundra and CEO of Halogen Foundation Ivy Tse, tackling topics such as personal leadership, daily leadership and effective leadership for the audiences made out of general members of the public and current and past students of RGS.  Thank you for the invite !

#ttkgrandseries #rgsalumnae #rafflesianwomen

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music presented TTKGS pianist Luca Buratto and solo violinist Tang Tee Khoon in their Visiting Artist Series this 30 Oct 2019.  Our TTK Grand Series artists were tasked with the responsibility of bringing 22 students through the last leg of their preparations for a pair of Concerts for Children and Evening Concerts at the end of the week.

A full afternoon of masterclasses meant hours spent polishing 7 Mozart Sonatas for piano and violin as well as his Serenade in E-flat major for wind octet – a fruitful and meaningful time for bonding and for laughs !

#mozart36 #ttkgrandseries #ystconservatory

The Red Pencil Singapore (RPS) and Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series (TTKGS) came together this June for the third time since 2018, to organise Music and Art Therapy sessions for children living within challenging circumstances.  This private art-music experience session held on 9 June 2019 at The Artground featured Mozart’s Sonata KV. 526 presented by TTKGS musicians Sam Haywood and Tang Tee Khoon.

Art Therapist Amanda Chen from The Red Pencil together with TTKGS animateur Sharon Sum then connected musical gestures to big body movements and to hand movements that were captured in pastels onto paper.  This aural, sensory and stimulus experience session was provided for 28 beneficiary children (children on the autistic spectrum as well as from foster families), 36 accompanying siblings and parents and 3 earnest observers within a private setting at The Artground.

#mozart36 #ttkgrandseries #theartground @redpencilorg @friendsofasdfamilies @MSFSingapore

In the intimate space of Music Salon Emmanuel, TTKGS artist Luca Buratto was presented by Emmanuel & Sons in a full-length piano recital featuring works by Couperin, Ravel and Schumann. This petite personal event gave TTKGS an opportunity to close ‘The Golden Prime ~ Schumann, Adès, Brahms’ with representatives from our partnering organisations and our volunteers, who could gather to hear the music up-close one last time before we had to say our goodbyes to 2018.

TTK Grand Series would like to express great thanks to Emmanuel & Sons who believe in our artists and who take the initiative to support the costs of presenting quality chamber music within communities in Singapore.

Partnered with the Writers Studio, our second interactive Concert for Children held on 11 Nov within the theme of ‘The Golden Prime ~ Schumann, Adès, Brahms’ welcomed a small group of students from Pathlight School and their accompanying parents. On the menu was a discovery journey through Brahms’ Rain Songs Op. 59, a pair of songs that formed the inspirational cell for his beloved Sonata for violin and piano in G major Op. 78, written as a gift to Clara Schumann who was grieving for the loss of her youngest son at the time.

Language teachers from the Writers Studio led each group of children in learning their own stanzas of the poems, which they later recited and re-enacted for their entire group of peers in the hall. Lead teacher from the Writers Studio, Carean Oh led the children from Pathlight School beautifully, giving them a fuller experience of the poems which were later sung and presented by tenor Adrian Poon and pianist Luca Buratto.

Held in partnership with the non-profit arts organisation The Red Pencil, this specially designed music-art experience session was crafted for children from Superhero Me (from single parent families, low income families, or who live with autism and cerebral palsy), children from ISCOS (whose parents are ex-offenders seeking to reintegrate into society) and children from My First Skool (from low income families).

During this precious one and a half hour session, TTKGS musicians and animateur, and The Red Pencil art therapist, brought these children through a journey of creating their own rain makers to play along with the musicians in Brahms’ Sonata for violin and piano in G major, inspired by his Rain Songs which were sung and presented by tenor Adrian Poon and Luca Buratto.

On this day, we served a total of 53 children and 37 accompanying adults at this session; with an additional 23 children and 14 accompanying adults invited to our public Concert for Children at 3pm due to oversubscription for this private experience session.

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory presented TTKGS cellist Gabriel Schwabe in their Visiting Artist Series this 5 Nov 2018 prior to his performances at ‘The Golden Prime’ from 9-11 Nov at the Esplanade with the Grand Series.  During this public masterclass, three select cellists from the Conservatory presented core works of the cello repertoire by Beethoven, Elgar and Schumann, for guidance before a small intimate audience.

TTKGS is very glad for joint collaborations with arts organisations which align with our direction of presenting quality classical chamber music to the communities in Singapore.  See here for more information on this masterclass.

Violin, viola and piano students working on their conservatory track programme at SOTA presented duo and solo works for TTKGS musicians Luca Buratto and Tang Tee Khoon in a master class setting that included active peer listeners from SOTA as well as Changkat Changi Secondary School.

In 2018, TTKGS musicians were offered a steady rehearsal venue at SOTA throughout their project production weeks and it is with great pleasure we were able to work with and guide SOTA students towards a greater successful path as performing musicians and interpreters of music.

Designed to engage professionals from different walks of life in the act of contributing towards an upcoming private art-music experience session for children living within challenging circumstances, this juice party featured interactive musical games to widen the knowledge of classical chamber music in our guests. By ordering organic juices with their dinner, guests were able to help TTKGS collect juice bottles to be later cleaned and saved for use at the upcoming private art-music experience session where the children beneficiaries will be crafting their own rainmakers to play alongside TTKGS musicians.

Professionals who attended this juice party included artists, teachers, bank, corporate, engineering and business personnel.

The TTK Grand Series’ interactive Concerts for Children are one of the premier interactive children programmes ever offered in Singapore to young audiences ages 0-12.  Since our first offering in 2010 at the Esplanade Recital Studio, our Concerts for Children have grown to be a staple twice-yearly affair for children and their accompanying parents from all walks of life.

Because of the support we have from our partners and supporters, we constantly consider our position in the society, and what our responsibility is, as a leading arts collective.  And one of our recent efforts, is to use the platform and opportunity our Concerts for Children allow us, to contribute to Singaporean’s efforts in social mixing – combating the growing divide between social groups.

In 2018, we continue our efforts to offer our Concerts for Children to children who are differently abled, and whose circumstances are such that music and art are a scarce occurrence in their lives.

Pictured here is a group of children studying a poem from Schumann’s song cycle ‘Woman’s Love and Life’ with their teacher volunteer from The Writers Studio, before they heard it brought to life by mezzo-soprano Jazimina MacNeil and pianist Luca Buratto.

In May 2018, The Red Pencil, British Airways, LOVE, NILS and Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series came together to design a private interactive music and art experience session at the National Gallery, for children fighting cancer and their accompanying mothers, in celebration of Mothers’ Day.  The children, in connection with the NUH Children Cancer department, were introduced to the poetic world of Johannes Brahms, a younger German Romantic composer; and into the musical poetry found in his last chamber music work, his patient and spacious Clarinet Quintet.

Together with the Grand Series’ fun animateur Sharon Sum, the children discovered the aural textures in this chamber music work, and translated these aural textures into tactile textures with the help of The Red Pencil’s art therapist and the art materials provided ~ with their mums, the children created their own expressive artwork inspired by the aural textures they heard in Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet.

The musicians of TTK Grand Series are always keen to give back to the communities who are connected with us.  This May 2018, School of the Arts in Singapore provided precious support towards ‘The Poetry in Life ~ Schumann, Adès, Brahms’ by providing our visiting and local artists with necessary rehearsal space in preparation for our public presentations.

In turn, the musicians of TTKGS contributed to the flourishing SOTA school life by providing solo instrumental guidance for their students on the Conservatory path.  In April 2018, Tang Tee Khoon took a violin, viola instrumental class.  And in May 2018, violist of the Daedalus Quartet, Jessica Thompson and solo French clarinetist Florent Héau, each took a class for their respective instruments.  Much to the delight of the faculty and students of SOTA.

On 29 May 2017, after the close of Beethoven Heroic Years, Tang Tee Khoon spent her evening with approximately 50 very special patrons of the TTK Grand Series.  They were patrons who had attended the Victoria Concert Hall events the day before, and who had decided it was worth making the trek to Esplanade Recital Studio the very next evening, to be part of this intimate Prelude and Sharing Session.

So as a Prelude to the upcoming 6+6ach project, Tee Khoon shared 45 minutes of solo Bach music with the audiences, and then took the rest of the time to hear from the audiences how their experience with TTK Grand Series has been so far, what they would like to see more of and what in particular have they enjoyed about the Series until now.  She also used the time to share candidly with these audience members about the philosophy behind the design of this Series, and answered some of their burning questions about what chamber music collaboration is like.

It was a lively Session and the sharing done by the audience will definitely leave a mark in the design evolution of this Concert Series. 

The community of Nanyang has consistently been a strong supporter of the activities of TTK Grand Series.  Just as luck would have it, Nanyang Primary School’s 100th Anniversary Celebrations fell on the same weekend the international artists visiting Singapore for Beethoven Heroic Years were in town.  So three of the musicians withstood the heat and presented three movements from Dvorak’s Trio for 2 violins and 1 viola outdoors, heavily mic-ed, and for 5,000 audiences.

We are glad to have been part of Nanyang’s Celebrations.  It was also a pleasure to see the children put in their efforts for the school in their dance, song and wushu performances !

Sharing movements from the late string quartets of Beethoven, in the intimate setting of the Orchid Club Lounge at PARKROYAL on Beach Road hotel, is perfect if one wants to feel the drama and story line of the music directly and personally. It was a wonderful evening of variety as we explored the emotional palettes of Beethoven’s String Quartets Op. 127 in E flat major and Op. 132 in a minor with our attentive guests.

We thank PARKROYAL on Beach Road hotel for their wonderful foray into classical music with us, and for their total commitment in making it possible for us to bring great classical music to the communities in Singapore.

When Eliane Reyes visited Singapore to bring the music of ‘The Parisian Chevaliers’ to audiences in November 2015, it coincided with the annual Belgian King’s Day, which fell on the same week.

The Belgium Embassy in Singapore had a celebratory event planned, and invited Eliane Reyes to present a selection of Chopin Waltzes and with Tang Tee Khoon, some of Franck’s music.

We were able to bring great classical music into the community this evening, not only because of the invitation from the Belgium Embassy in Singapore, but also with the kind sponsorship from Yamaha Music (Asia) Pte Ltd of their Bösendorfer Grand piano.

Music is best when shared. So when we had the opportunity to work with PARKROYAL on Beach Road, our hotel partner, on an open rehearsal at the hotel’s lobby for special invited guests and interested public, the musicians agreed to take up this unique and unconventional experience.

To make the occasion possible, Yamaha Music (Asia) Pte Ltd also provided a loan of their Bösendorfer baby grand piano. This made the experience all the more enjoyable for listeners and musicians.

Sam Haywood opened the evening with 2 gems in the form of Impromptus by Schubert – the composer in question for this evening. And the string players continued with the open rehearsal of Schubert’s String Quintet for 2 violins, viola and 2 cellos.

An open rehearsal is where audiences are allowed to have a peek into rehearsal sessions that are normally held behind closed doors. The musicians work as they would normally, and for those curious about the work process of chamber musicians prior to being onstage, this is the opportunity for them to see the real interactions and negotiations behind the scenes.

Click here for Mediacorp’s video coverage of this event.

In the lead up to Russian Colours, we were able to have an intimate and personal session for the community at the Steinway Gallery. Sam Haywood and Tang Tee Khoon presented select movements from Stravinsky’s Divertimento and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher, and afterwards, there was time for plenty of discussion on subjects like programming choice, thematic design of concerts and the use of quality instruments.