Singapore Symphony Chorus - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Singapore Symphony Chorus (SSC) is the performing choir

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is a 96 members professional symphony orchestra. Its main performing venue is the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore although it has also toured widely in Asia, Europe and the United States...

(SSO). The SSC performs solely with the SSO, presenting an average of three programmes a year. The SSC was initiated in 1980 under the direction of Choo Hoey

Choo Hoey

Choo Hoey is a Singaporean musician and conductor. His father, Choo Seng, was an immigrant from Chaozhou and his mother from Nanjing...

, then Music Director of the SSO. The SSC gave its first performances in June 1980.

The SSC's present chorus master is Lim Yau, and most concerts are performed at Singapore's Esplanade Concert Hall.

The associated children's choir is SSCC - Singapore Symphony Children's Choir

Singapore Symphony Children's Choir

The Singapore Symphony Children's Choir is the associated children's choir of the Singapore Symphony Chorus ,.In June 2006, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, together with choral conductor par excellence Maestro Lim Yau, laid the groundwork for the Singapore Symphony Children's Choir...

.

Application may be made through SSO to join SSC and SSCC.

Repertoire and Collaborations

The Chorus has performed under the baton of Choo Hoey

Choo Hoey

Choo Hoey is a Singaporean musician and conductor. His father, Choo Seng, was an immigrant from Chaozhou and his mother from Nanjing...

, Lan Shui

Lan Shui

Lan Shui is a Chinese-American conductor and currently holds the post as Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of Copenhagen Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of Denmark's Aalborg Symphony.-Early life and career:...

, Lim Yau, Okko Kamu

Okko Kamu

Okko Kamu is a Finnish orchestral conductor.Kamu was born into a family of musicians. His father played double bass in the Helsinki Philharmonic. He began violin studies at age two and entered the Sibelius Academy at age six. He formed his own string quartet, the Suhonen, in 1964 where he played...

, Gilbert Kaplan

Gilbert Kaplan

Gilbert Edmund Kaplan is an American businessman, former journalist and amateur conductor.He founded the magazine Institutional Investor in 1965. He was publisher of the magazine until 1990, and editor-in-chief for three more years, although he sold it in 1984 for $72 million...

, Andrea Quinn, Justin Brown

Justin Brown

Justin O'Mara Brown is a professional American, Canadian football and Arena football defensive end for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Indianapolis Colts in 2005...

, George Cleve, Wang Jin and John Nelson

John Nelson (conductor)

John Wilton Nelson is an American conductor. Nelson studied at Wheaton College, and later at the Juilliard School of Music with Jean Morel ....

. Vocal soloists that have appeared with the Chorus over the years include Sir Willard White

Willard White

Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone.-Early life:He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole...

, David Wilson Johnson, Michael George, Neil Mackie

Neil Mackie

Neil Mackie CBE, CStJ, FRSE, FRCM, FRSAMD is a Scottish classical tenor and Professor at the Royal Academy of Music. During his 30 year international career as a singer, he was closely associated with the works of 20th century composers, particularly Benjamin Britten, and Peter Maxwell Davies...

, Susan Chilcott

Susan Chilcott

Susan Chilcott was an English soprano, considered one of the best of her generation. She died of breast cancer at the age of 40...

and Nathan Berg.

The repertoire of the SSC includes Hindemith

Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...

’s Requiem, Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

’s The Planets
The Planets
The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst...

, Lambert

Constant Lambert

Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...

’s Rio Grande, Orff

Carl Orff

Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...

’s Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana (Orff)
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...

, Rachmaninov

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

’s The Bells, Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

’s Symphony of Psalms, Tippett

Michael Tippett

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...

’s A Child of Our Time, and the masses and oratorios of J. S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

, Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

, Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, Berlioz

Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...

, Gounod

Charles Gounod

Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...

, Dvořák

Antonín Dvorák

Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...

, Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

, Fauré

Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...

, Verdi and Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

.

The chorus has taken part in opera productions such as Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...

(1990), Cosi fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....

(1999) and The Other Wise Man (2000), and is a regular feature in the Singapore Arts Festival

Singapore Arts Festival

The Singapore Arts Festival is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. Organised by the National Arts Council, it is one of the most significant events in the regional arts scene. The festival, usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month, incorporates theatre arts, dance, music and...

.

Most recently, the SSC has performed Janáček

Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...

's Glagolitic Mass
Glagolitic Mass
The Glagolitic Mass is a composition for soloists , double chorus, organ and orchestra by Leoš Janáček. The work was completed on 15 October 1926...

(2004), Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral"

Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...

(2005), Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

's Elijah (2005), Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)
The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie,...

in April 2006 and Haydn's The Creation later in 2006, followed by John Rutter

John Rutter

John Milford Rutter CBE is a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music.-Biography:Born in London, Rutter was educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the...

works in the Christmas concert. In 2007, two particular highlights are Seven Last Words from the Cross by James MacMillan

James MacMillan (musician)

James MacMillan CBE is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.-Early life:MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977....

and Handel

HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

's The Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...

performed without scores!

For first half of 2008, works performed are Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

's 3rd Symphony, Misa Tango by Luis Bacalov, and later in the year, Brahms Deutsche Requiem
Ein deutsches Requiem
A German Requiem, To Words of the Holy Scriptures, Op. 45 by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms's longest...

.
In 2009, the chorus went on to perform Mahler

Gustav Mahler

's 2nd Symphony with John Nelson

John Nelson (conductor)

John Wilton Nelson is an American conductor. Nelson studied at Wheaton College, and later at the Juilliard School of Music with Jean Morel ....

back as guest conductor, and later, under Lan Shui

Lan Shui

, Haydn's Nelson Mass and Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral"

Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)

together with the Singapore Symphony Children's Choir

Singapore Symphony Children's Choir

. Of special note in 2009 was Damnation of Faust by Berlioz

Hector Berlioz

.

In April 2010, as the Chorus celebrates its 30th anniversary, old members are invited to return to perform Verdi's Requiem - this time in the fantastic Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is a waterside building located on six hectares of waterfront land alongside Marina Bay near the mouth of the Singapore River, purpose-built to be the centre for performing arts for the island nation of Singapore...

, its performing home since 2002.

Chorus Masters

1980-1981 Susan Ashton
Susan Ashton
Susan Ashton is a best-selling and award-winning American Contemporary Christian Music and country music artist who topped the Christian charts throughout the 1990s...
1981-1997 Lim Yau
1983 William Zimmerman (Caretaker)
1997 Robert Casteels (Caretaker)
1998-2000 Bart Folse
From 2001 Lim Yau

External links

The Singapore Symphony Chorus - Official Website
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra

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