In a themed concert tomorrow as part of its Coda series, Raffles Winds (alumni band of RI, RGS and RJC bands, also known as Rwinds) will present a programme of animal related repertoire under conductors Lee Jin Jun and Darren Sng.
“Darren and I had been thinking of a few themes and tried a few possible programmes, and it turned out that animals was the easiest to get an accessible yet varied programme, and at the same time something not so commonly found in Singapore; as compared to the many geographically themed ones,” said Jin Jun, who recently just returned home from his music studies abroad.
Themed concerts are usually easier to program, as the concept helps to narrow the search for repertoire and makes more logical sense for the audience.
“Sometimes, narrowing the search can also end up with limited possibilities, and that’s when we would try other themes. Rwinds has been theming concerts for quite some years now – we’ve had transportation, around the world, and even a throwback concert last year!” he said.
With music inspired by animals, listen out for familiar tunes from the film and musical ‘The Lion King’, and the classic opera ‘Die Fledermaus Overture’.
The highlight of the concert is ‘Baby Bird in the Forest’, written by Rwinds’ very own conductor-composer Darren Sng, an imaginative work of symphonic safari, where audiences might hear the call of the wild.
The work uses only mouthpieces to create sounds, but these sounds are purposeful and not simply atmospheric sound effects, and combined with percussion, creates a work that has a logical progression.
Also programmed is ‘Sunrise and Safari’ by composer Adam Gorb, which was commissioned as the set pieces for Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) 2007.
“This, I believe is one of the more eye-opening syf set pieces ever written. It uses a not so famous folk tune Ikan Kekek, and it becomes the source material that carves out a piece with a wide variety of imaginative colours and moods, without sounding like an arrangement of a folk tune.” Jin Jun said.
From this concert, Rwinds is planning to organise a combined music festival with the other alumni performing arts groups.
“There are no firm details yet, but watch this space and perhaps something collaborative would appear soon!”
Coda XII
30 August 2018 (Thursday)
Victoria Concert Hall, 7.30pm
Tickets: $20
Available from admin@raffleswinds.com or coda.chair@raffleswinds.com
A contributing editor at TBP.