Singapore Symphony Orchestra
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (Chinese 新加坡 交响乐团, pinyin transcription Xīnjiāpō jiāoxiǎng yuètuán ), often abbreviated as SSO, is a symphony orchestra based in the city-state of Singapore .
history
Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee gave the impetus to found the orchestra in autumn 1997. Choo Huey , who was born in Indonesia but grew up in Singapore and was living in Greece at the time, was asked to set up and lead a symphony orchestra according to Western standards. On January 24, 1979, the orchestra presented itself to the public for the first time in the Singapore Conference Hall. At the time, the orchestra comprised 41 musicians, only eight of whom came from Singapore. In order to increase the proportion of local musicians, a scholarship program was launched in the early 1980s, which enabled young, talented Singaporean instrumentalists to study abroad. In return, an eight year commitment to service in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra was expected. In this way, a total of 55 musicians were recruited for the orchestra. In 1993, the number of musicians had almost doubled to 83 compared to the year it was founded, and today the orchestra employs around a hundred musicians. The orchestra received a considerable boost in development when it took possession of the Victoria Memorial Hall, which was rebuilt at the end of the 1970s and reopened on October 1, 1980 under the name "Victoria Concert Hall" with a capacity increased from 600 to 900. Foreign guest performances as well as a recording contract with the Swedish label BIS Records in 1999 represented further important stages of professionalization. With the concert hall in the cultural center Esplanade - Theaters of the Bay, which opened in 2002, the orchestra received a venue at the beginning of the 21st century in which the large symphonic repertoire could also be represented without any problems. The "Community Outreach" program also regularly leads the orchestra to appearances in Singaporean universities and on the concert shell called the "Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage" in the Botanical Garden.
Organization and financing
The orchestra is managed by the Singapore Symphonia Company Limited, which was founded in 1978 and was granted the status of an "Institution of a Public Character" in 1993. She also manages the Singapore Symphony Chorus, founded in 1980, the Singapore Symphony Children's Chorus, founded in 2006, and the Singapore Office of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). The business is conducted by a board of directors presided over by a chairman. The first chairman from 1978 was the Singaporean attorney general Tan Boon Teik, currently Goh Yew Lin holds this office. Chng Hak-Peng has been Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Symphonia Company Limited since October 2015. He was preceded in office from 2004 to 2015 by Chng Kai Jin. The orchestra receives regular grants from the Ministry of Information and Communication (via the National Arts Council) and the Singapore Totalizator Board. These grants make up about 64% of total income.
Conductors
- Music director
- Lan Shui 1997-2020
- Choo Hoey 1979–1997 (since then "Conductor emeritus")
- Chief Conductor
- Hans Graf 2020–
- Principal Guest Conductor
- Andrew Litton 2017–
- Okko Kamu 1995-2017
- Associate Conductor
- Joshua Tan 2011–
- Jason Lai 2013–
- Young Associate Conductor
- Darrell Ang 2008-2013
- Resident Conductor
- Lim Yao 2001-2011
Guest musician and conductor
The orchestra's most famous guest conductors include Lorin Maazel , Edo de Waart , Gennadi Nikolajewitsch Roschdestwenski , Kent Nagano , Vladimir Ashkenazy and Neeme Järvi . Soloists included Hilary Hahn , Evelyn Glennie , Angel Romero , Kiri Te Kanawa , Yo-Yo Ma , Gil Shaham , Bobby McFerrin , Shlomo Mintz , Josep Carreras , Fou Ts'ong, Dmitri Hvorostovsky , Lang Lang and Hélène Grimaud at the SSO .
literature
- A Chronological Timeline of Milestones and Important Events: 1979–2004 , Singapore Symphony Orchestra season brochure 2004, p. 3.
- Singapore symphony. Photographs by Russel Wong, with an introduction by Gretchen Liu . Singapore: Landmark Books, n.d. [1994], pp. 7-17.
