COMMISSIONED WORKS

Since its inception, the Singapore International Violin Competition has sought to champion new works for the violin, commissioning emerging Singaporean composers to showcase their artistry.

The new commissioned work, which is sent to competitors two months before the competition, is performed during the semi-final round and challenges the interpretative skills of the competitors.

2021

BEFORE DAYBREAK 《孤燈挑盡》

Koh Cheng Jin, composer

Before Daybreak pays homage to solitude and loss, and is inspired by Chinese poet Bai Juyi’s Song of Everlasting Sorrow. A violinist and Chinese instrumentalist herself, Koh connects elements of Chinese music such as erhu (Chinese fiddle) technique with her work for solo violin, in a “musical poem dedicated to all forms of yearning”.

The Singapore International Violin Competition 2021 Commissioned Work and Prize for the Best Performer of the Commissioned Work are supported by the Kris Foundation.

Winner of the 2022 BMI Student Composer Award (William Schuman Prize) and ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Cheng Jin KOH is a Singaporean composer, Yang Qin and violin performer currently based in New York. Her music is eclectic and diverse in personalities. As a Chinese and Western trained musician, her works incorporate various influences from these worlds and reflect her passionate enthusiasm in unifying colorful music idioms.

Upcoming lineups include the premieres of Before Daybreak at the 2022 Singapore International Violin Competition and a work for Verona Quartet and Yang Qin at the Smithsonian Gallery. She was the youngest composer to be commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and has also worked with members of the Paris-based, world-renowned Ensemble InterContemporain, New York’s Metropolis Ensemble, Imani Winds, Society of New Music, and the Juilliard Orchestra; in Singapore, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO), Ding Yi Music Company, K口U Musik, Morse Percussion, T’ang Quartet, School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA) Chinese Music Ensemble, The Purple Symphony, ACS Barker Road Chinese Plucked Strings Ensemble and others. Her multiple accolades also include Mirror Visions Ensemble Prize 2021, Society of New Music 2020 New York Federation of Music Clubs’ Brian Israel Prize, the Palmer Dixon and Gena Raps Chamber Music Prizes from the Juilliard School, as well as the Margaret Blackburn, John Eaton Memorial and Boston New Music Initiative Prizes. Her works have been performed at Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, Yale-Norfolk New Music Workshop, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the National Flute Association Convention in San Diego, Australia Woodend Winter Arts Music Festival, Sidney Chapel (Cambridge, UK), China Conservatory Concert Hall, and the Esplanade in Singapore.

As a proficient Yang Qin musician who won the Singapore National Chinese Music Competition (Open Category) with a solo debut with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Cheng Jin is indebted to her teachers Miss Qu Jian Qing and Miss Seah Poh Chun, as well as Dr. Kelly Tang, who was her first mentor in Composition at School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA). She is also grateful to her pedagogues at The Juilliard School, Dr. Robert Beaser and Dr. Melinda Wagner, both who were instrumental in her pursuit of Bachelor’s (Hons) and Master’s degrees in Music Composition generously supported by Singapore’s Loke Cheng Kim Foundation. She was also honored to be the Teaching Fellow for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (Composition) for two years and its Evening Division (Music Theory). She is currently a member of the Composers’ Society of Singapore (CSS) and developing her musical, research and educational interests as a MacCracken PhD Fellow and Teaching Assistant at New York University (College of Arts and Science).

2018

CLARA-LUNA

Chen Zhangyi, composer

“When I was working on this piece, my newborn daughter Clara was turning one month old and we held a customary celebration at our baby’s full moon - thus the title. As new parents, my wife Wynne and I were constantly amused by the little noises that our baby makes, and how she manages to surprise us with new sounds on a daily basis. I also never knew that there is such a variety of baby sounds until I became a parent! This piece is my way of remembering these special moments, as I know well that these wailing, squeals, and cute hiccupping sounds would one day disappear, as she grows up.” - Chen Zhangyi

The music of Chen Zhangyi has been described by BBC Radio 3 as “music from a voice of the future.” He has collaborated with ensembles such as London Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Lyric Opera, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Singapore National Youth Orchestra.

His dramatic works such as Laksa Cantata and Window Shopping seek to explore the musical representation of local urbanism, vernacular language and culture. In his instrumental works, nature is often a source of inspiration, such as Rain Tree, and ‘of an ethereal symphony’ commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for their 2016 Europe tour. In 2014, he was conferred the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council (Singapore). Chen currently serves as Assistant Professor of Composition Studies and Contemporary Music performance at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

2015

KILO<BYTE>

Emily Koh, composer

The piece is inspired by today’s social currents in youth, such as the proliferation of byte-sized information, embodied by social sites such as Twitter, tumblr, and Facebook, that are commonplace in social media today. kilo<byte> is made of many short snippets of ideas that interweave with one another, forming a whole.

Emily Koh is an award-winning young composer of contemporary classical music based in Boston MA, and a native of Singapore. Described as ‘the future of composing’ (The Straits Times, Singapore), her musical interest is currently directed at creating inventive instrumental timbres and acoustic spacialisation. She is the recipient of awards such as the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Prix D’Ete, and PARMA competitions, commissions from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Composers Conference at Wellesley College, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and grants from New Music USA, Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy and Paul Abisheganaden Grant from Artistic Excellence. Emily graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Professor Ho Chee Kong in 2009. She is currently the Director of Concert Series at the Boston New Music Initiative, Principal Bass at the New England Philharmonic and a Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition and Theory at Brandeis University.