Went up to the neighbouring state of Johor Bahru, Malaysia on 11th July with re: mix to participate in the 8th JB Arts Festival. The programme of oldies pop-classical crossovers/reinterpretations was met with much warmer reception than the heat of the night.
Photo credits: Kenneth Wong (JB, Malaysia)
Resonance Quartet was approached by Fred Perry for their Subculture night held on 22 April at Zouk. We took on UK pop/rock hits as a string quartet and had Tiramisu’s drummer and guitarist + Eswandy from Elektone join us in our final piece “Smoke On The Water”.
Official post-event professional video featuring “Smoke On The Water”:
Fred Perry Subculture // Resonance Quartet from Amnesty on Vimeo.
Amateur video excerpts of pieces we played that night :
Photos highlights:
There is a Season for Everything!
Date: Sunday, 1 May 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Esplanade Concert Hall
Inspired by the concept of the “seasons” and all the rich connotations that the concept brings forth, re: mix’s forthcoming concert in May 2011 at the Esplanade Concert Hall will represent a new peak in the development of the ensemble and its continued dedication towards introducing both creative programming that aims towards enriching the audiences’ musical experience as well as advocating new music by Singaporean composers.
At one level, the concert will explore the notion of “change” (in all senses of the word) and how this change of seasons affects livelihood. Here, “Turn! Turn! Turn! …” will juxtapose movements from Vivaldi’s popular Four Seasons with Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.
>> Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons – ok.. Piazolla’s 4 Seasons??
At another level, the title of the concert is a play on the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by Pete Seeger that is set entirely to the verse from the Book of Ecclesiastes which is an argument on the meaning of life. Here, re: mix is commissioning four Singaporean composers to write their own interpretation of any of the lines from the verse “to everything there is a season”.
re: mix’s programming will then juxtapose the compositions by the Singaporean composers with those by Piazzolla and Vivaldi, thus creating a musical journey through the familiar and the unfamiliar, through the old and the new, and conceptually, through music that is inspired by both notions of life and death.
Ultimately, this programme hopes to create a life-enriching experience for the audience with its marriage of the old (favourites) and the new, through its rich philosophical concept that underlies the programming as well as its choice of music.
$20*, $25*, $100
*20% discount for PAssion Card holders and fulltime students
10% discount for MadAboutArts card holders
Tickets available at all SISTIC outlets.
Call SISTIC @ 6348 5555 or book online by clicking here.
The first quarter of 2011 has proven to be a busy one for Resonance Quartet, a string quartet (2 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello) that I play in. We’ve done some more weddings at beautiful venues such as the Fullerton and the Grand Hyatt, and a couple of interesting corporate functions including a celebration dinner Dyna-Mac’s IPO launch, a car launch for Citroen, and an appreciation event for the People’s Association.
This video was taken of us while we played at the launch of Citroen’s C5, at its Alexandra showroom:
Altered States
7 December 2010, 7.30pm, Esplanade Recital Studio
NYMAN In Re Don Giovanni
PAGANINI-KREISLER Concerto In One Movement
BEETHOVEN-ISKANDAR Samba No.5!
re: mix, Altered States, Esplanade Recital Studio
Tama Goh on set for Iskandar Ismail's Samba No. 5!
re: mix, typically a string ensemble, augmented with winds and brass sections for this occasion
Mr Foo Say Ming taking the helm
re: mix, Altered States
re: mix, Altered States
Lucky to get a profile pic taken by the photographer
Concert review by Chang Tou Liang
Over 2 days on 5 & 6 Nov 2010, re: mix performed “A Date With Friends” at the Esplanade Concourse, playing old-school Mandarin Pop and Western Rock ‘n’ Roll favourites by Teresa Teng, Chiyi Yu, Beatles and more.
While Mr Foo Say Ming, music director and soloist of re: mix plays most of the violin solos, we violinists had a chance to do so for one of the pieces in our repertoire – a Baroque arrangement of the Beatles’ “She Loves You”. Here’s Linglu and I on one of the sets:
Not merely adaptations of the originals for string ensemble/small orchestra, I am enthralled by how these arrangements by talented local composers such as Kelly Tang, Chen Zhangyi and others take on new perspectives and breathe new life into these classics that effectively blended familiarity with new surprises. Do join re: mix on our Facebook page to be updated of our newest projects.
Last October on Halloween night, as part of the Video Games theme at Outdoors Cafe, the Resonance Quartet performed 2 sets of specially-arranged video games music. We had quite a bit of fun dressing up and performing to the passing-by crowd at Orchard, and even discovered a One-Winged Angel fan amidst the cafe’s patrons!
Here’s some excerpts of the pieces that we played:
Hyperion Overture (Main theme from Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty)
Medley from Pokemon Yellow/Red/Blue
Premonition from Final Fantasy VIII
One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII
Tetris Medley
Christmas in the 13th Month from Ragnarok Online
A Mario Medley
Yes, that’s what I’ve been attending a lot of recently, thanks to my part as a violinist of Resonance Quartet. The small string quartet of ours have, in the span of 4 months (October 2010 to January 2011), performed for close to 20 events at various locations in Singapore for weddings and corporate functions. I’ll let the pictures do the talking:
We’ve been blessed with nice clients who’ve sent us pictures and words of affirmation:
Hi Jay, Adrian and I, including our guests were impressed by your performance. Thanks for spicing up the celebration. Please extend our appreciation to your team mates.
Thanks for the wishes Jay (and Happy New Year!)Your music definitely made a big difference and we’ll be recommending you to our friends may be in need of a string quartet!-KevinMany thanks to the Resonance Quartet for your help in making the event a very successful one, Jay, and for your kind wishes for Satsuki & Kevin.- Yen
Your music definitely made a big difference and we’ll be recommending you to our friends may be in need of a string quartet!
- Kevin
Many thanks to the Resonance Quartet for your help in making the event a very successful one, Jay, and for your kind wishes for Satsuki & Kevin.
- Kevin’s father
I think now my friends want a garden wedding with strings too. The whole day was such a party! Thanks for playing such a big role to that party.
- Christine
We are indeed very thankful and are looking forward to our engagements in the year ahead. Do visit the Quartet’s website at www.ResonanceQuartet.com to find out more about our services and to be updated of our performances. Well, we also keep our Facebook page updated with lots of photos as well, so do join us over there!
It has been rather eventful ever since I came back from a month-long study/trip at Austria. Besides catching up on teaching, most of my time was spent practising, rehearsing and performing. In summary:
All the above were interesting and fruitful in their own right, and would deserve dedicated posts for memory’s sake. Despite all that, I also managed to sneak a quick getaway to the quaint city of Hoi An (no, not Hanoi), Vietnam!
Thinking that it may take some time before I actually get down to writing about those past events, I thought I’d instead promote a future event that I’m involved in:
For those who are familiar with re: mix or have been to one of their concerts before, it would not come as a surprise that re: mix is once again challenging the frontiers of accepted musical genres, and this time, it’s to “take a cheeky look at the centuries-old classical music programme format of Overture-Concerto-Symphony, but with a twist.” In fact, I think it’s more than just that – what with rock-techno, violinistic pyrotechnics and … samba! Just read the programme summary:
NYMAN: In Re Don Giovanni
Mozart’s catalogue aria from his opera Don Giovanni receives a serious deconstruction and an extreme makeover in the hands of the British composer Michael Nyman. Inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis’ piano style, Mozart’s distinctive lyricism is given a rock-techno facelift.
PAGANINI-KREISLER: Concerto in One Movement
Paganini’s violin showpiece Concerto No.1 exudes the composer’s great Italian operatic and bel canto voice heritage. Fritz Kreisler, born some one hundred years later, reworked the monumental showpiece into his native Viennese flair, while preserving most of Paganini’s original thematic material and violinistic pyrotechnics. This is possibly one of the earliest and most charming ‘remixes’ in classical music.
BEETHOVEN-ISKANDAR: Samba No. 5!
2008 Cultural Medallion Winner Iskandar Ismail takes on Beethoven! From the ranks of notable versions such as Walter Murphy’s 1976 disco treatment and the Klazz Brothers’ 2002 Cuban take, top Singaporean arranger/composer titillates Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5, and transforms it into a sizzling and virtuosic samba, a special commission for re: mix, Singapore’s “hippest crossover group” (Straits Times, LIFE!).
7 Dec (Tue), 7.30pm, Esplanade Recital Studio
Tickets for Altered States are priced at $25, free seating. Students and PAssion Card holders get tickets priced at $20.
Please call 9770 9131 or email 2006remix@gmail.com to purchase tickets.
Resonance Quartet will be performing today (30 October) at Outdoors Cafe (opposite Somerset MRT station) for “Halloween Killed The Video Stars”. We’ll be playing theme songs from Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Tetris, Super Mario and others! Catch us from 9pm onwards!
Heineken pint @ $9.90 all night and a Best Costume Contest to go with! Do come and support us!