Established string quartets in Southeast Asia, Singapore's T’ang Quartet is marking its third decade with the first concert this year on April 22 at Victoria Concert Hall. Classical music enthusiasts and fans of the Quartet have much to look forward to. Image Credit-Benjamin King Photography
The award-winning ensemble – also Quartet-in-Residence at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music – will begin the celebration with a programme that goes back to their humble beginnings – their intent distilled in their selection of a quartet work by Haydn, an Austrian composer of the classical era known for his part in the development of chamber music.
Image Credit - Benjamin King Photography
T'ang Quartet will perform two pieces – Haydn String Quartet Op.76 No.2 “Fifths”, and Borodin String Quartet No.2 in D Major. Humble Beginnings is part of the Quartet's new anniversary programme – with up to four concerts as well as a commemorative coffee-table book, T'ang At 30.
The T’ang Quartet is known for many things. Ground-breaking. Cutting-edge. Artistically impeccable.
Underlying that patina of acclaim is a lot of hard work. Constant innovation, steady reinvention and regular updates are the name of the game for the T’ang Quartet. For the past 30 years, the group’s musical dexterity has surprised and delighted audiences in Singapore and the rest of the world.
The sheer evolutionary magnitude of the string chamber group is astounding. What started out as a unanimous purpose to break new ground in the sharing of music to a larger audience has grown unwaveringly.
Audiences now hold expectations of no less than yet another ingenious production each time they attend a T’ang Quartet performance.
The members’ charisma and intuitive connection as a group aptly mirrors their music: smart, sharp and cosmopolitan. The T'ang Quartet's creative output is an artful blend of East and West, seamlessly reinterpreting classical work for contemporary fans while appealing to traditional audiences.
Along the way, the T’ang Quartet has collaborated and performed with contemporaries and friends, among them: John Chen, Fingin Collins, Marian Hahn, Qin LiWei, Karin Schaupp, Noriko Ogawa, Tedd Joselson and Horia Mihail, and Carter Enyeart.
