The Singapore Symphony Orchestra  (SSO) is a full-time ou permanent professional orchestra with ou of 96 members. Nowadays The SSO makes its performing home at the Esplanade Concert Hall, and also plays regularly at the Victoria Concert Hall, home of the SSO since 1979. The SSO scheduled over 50 symphonic programmes a year.  In May 2016, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra is touring in Europe.  Music&Arts Networks meets Mr Chng Hak-Peng, CEO of the SSO.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra was established in 1979. How did you create an orchestra with this international standing in such short time? What are the secrets of success of the SSO?

We have had a tremendous journey as a young orchestra in the classical music world. There is no secret formula for achieving international standing and we believe we have a lot of room to grow to be an even better orchestra. We have reached our current point in our growth because of great leadership in our two music directors, our founding music director Choo Hoey and our current music director Lan Shui. Together with the music director, the musicians of the orchestra have put in hard work to continually improve their orchestra playing across a range of different repertoire. Over time, more and more international soloists and conductors came to Singapore to play with the SSO and many have built a long-term friendship with the orchestra. The orchestra has also built up a strong slate of international relationships through tours abroad.

Can you briefly tell us about the place of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra through the Asian classical music network?

While there is no formal network of Asian orchestras, we have very strong friendships with many orchestras in the region. We participate actively in exchanges of both musicians and administrators. For example, we have a musician exchange programme with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and we participate in administration seminars with orchestras in Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other cities in the Asia-Pacific region. We are privileged to be in the company of many great orchestras in the region.

Your Music Director Lan Shui is coming from China. Is it important for you to work with an Asian musical director?

Where the Music Director is from is not as important as how the orchestra works with the Music Director in its music-making. Lan’s vast experience working with orchestras in the USA and Europe has allowed the orchestra to become familiar with repertoire such as Rachmaninov and Mahler. He has also ensured that we remained familiar with Singaporean and Asian repertoire, encouraging the orchestra to commission new works including from young Singaporean composers, such as Chen Zhangyi, whose work we are performing in Europe in May. We have also worked very closely with our Principal Guest Conductor, Okko Kamu, who has helped us understand, among other great music, the works of Sibelius.  We also invite a range of guest conductors from different backgrounds and countries to work with us of different repertoire.

Since 2003, the Orchestra performs at the Esplanade Concert Hall. Can you tell us something about this concert hall?

The Esplanade Concert Hall seats 1,630 and another 197 in the choir gallery. In 2014, Emporis, a Hamburg-based building data company, chose the Hall as one of the 15 most beautiful concert halls in the world. It is one of only five such halls in the world with similar state-of-the-art acoustic features, which include reverberation chambers and an acoustic canopy, allowing the hall to have an environment for the optimum sound at every concert. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra anchors the classical music programmes at the Hall. In addition, the Hall also presents different types of music such as traditional Asian music, including Chinese, Malay, and Indian music performances.

What are the challenges of your next European Tour? You will perform in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall or during the famous Dresden Festival. Is it a symbol for you?

We are very excited to perform again in Europe. We will return to the Berlin Philharmonie, since our last performance there in Oct 2010, and we will be performing at the Dresden Music Festival for the first time, and it will be in a beautiful church. It will be our third visit to Berlin, Dresden and Munich. We will also be performing for the first time at the Prague Spring International Festival. This is our second visit to Prague, the first time being in 1988. We are looking forward to re-connecting with our audience in Europe. Performing in these various cities is very meaningful for us because we get to share a Singaporean composition with our audiences there, as well as our interpretation of core European repertoire. It is also special for us to be performing with Gil Shaham, Jan Vogler, and Arabella Steinbacher in Europe.

Inside the orchestra, you have got worldwide  musicians. How do you convince them to apply and to work in Asia?

We have musicians from 18 nationalities across the globe. Some of them have been with us for more than 20 years, many have been with us for 10 – 15 years. We have continued to hire musicians every year, and are very fortunate to have applicants from all over the world, who are interested to play with us. We believe that they could be attracted to our positive spirit of hard work and dedication to music, as well as the magic of working in Asia. Singapore is a city where the public sector and private sector are all very supportive of the arts. It is also a clean and green city that offers the sun, the sand and the sea around us, as well as great food!

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra online : http://www.sso.org.sg/

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra on tour : http://www.pr2classic.de/en/pr-kuenstler/singapore-symphony-orchestra/biography/#c2208

CR : Chris Christdoulou-Singapore Symphony Orchestra/ ITW : Pierre-Jean Tribot-Musicartsnet-2016