My work at Prelude Academy of Music: 2007

Monday, August 13, 2007

Yap Ling & Geoffrey Pratley concert Bintulu

Yap Ling and Geoffrey Pratley in action

After concert supper

Yap Ling signing at Joe's antique violin

Yap Ling, Geoffrey Pratley and Thomas Hii

A big congratulation to Yap Ling and Geoffrey Pratley for a successful concert in Bintulu on 11 August 2007. Special thanks to Ming Ong Methodist Church (for renting us the hall), Sin Chew, See Hua, United Daily and Borneo Post for publicity, music schools and music teachers for promoting the event, voluntary workers for the help.

Thank you very much!

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Music Appreciation Workshop

All the participants taking photos with Thomas, Jonas, Wan Ping and Andrew (from left to right, seated)

Jonas and Wan Ping in action!!

Prelude Academy of Music had organised a music appreciation workshop on 21 July 2007 (Saturday). We had 21 students from various brass bands attending the workshop. Millions thanks to Jonas and Wan Ping.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Yap Ling & Geoffrey Pratley musical concert on 11 August

Date: Saturday, 11 August 2007

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: Ming Ong Methodist Church

Organised by Feeltone Classical

Presented by Prelude Academy of Music

(For tickets enquiries - please call 086-316051; 086-331621; 016-8862016)

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Piano Master Class by Ong Wan Ping

Date: 20th July 2007 (Friday)

Time: 2pm to 6pm, 7:30pm-9:30pm (First come first served basis)

Venue: Prelude Academy of Music

The workshop, targeted to all piano students, will be conducted by Miss Ong Wan Ping, a piano post-graduate from London College of Music & Media (LLCM). In 2005, she was awarded the Giuseppe Terroni Prize and nominated best postgraduate student by LCMM. Currently she is the principal of the Musical Talent Education Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

Biography of Miss Ong Wan Ping

Ong Wan Ping currently studies piano under Mr. Loo Bang Hean, and voice under Miss Tan Khar Gee.

She has performed with and accompanied different instrumentalists and singers in various concerts and competitions, such as the National Chinese Art Songs competition (for the elderly), Youth Symphony Orchestra concert (organized by Istana Budaya), Refugee: Images (the musical), and a choir concert organized by the Singapore Choir Association.

She gained a postgraduate certificate in piano performance from the London College of Music and Media in 2005. In the same year, she was awarded the Giuseppe Terroni Prize and nominated best postgraduate student by LCMM. She was one of two pianists chosen by LCMM to perform in that year’s gala concert. She explored an extensive and varied repertoire by Jonathan Harvey, Khachaturian, Olivier Messiaen, George Crumb, Shostakovich and others.

Her former teachers include Dr. Michael Shreider, Philip Mead, Au Yang Yao Chih, Tan Boon Gee, Thean Kin Pin, Cecilia Yap Keat Chee (voice), Yong Yew Yean (voice), Mayya Musaeva (violin), Lim Fang Chee, and Lim Cheng Leng. She has attended masterclasses by Paul Roberts, Bryce Morrison, Mark Kruger, Julian Jacobson, William Fong, Irina Ossipova, Ruth Haigh, Fazliddin Husanov, Leonid Kontorovski, Olga Malisova and others.

She is very active in music activities and music teaching. She is the member of the PJ Youth Chamber orchestra (violin) and the Sound Blender (voice), and is accompanist for various choirs. Currently she is the principal of the Musical Talent Education Centre.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Yap Ling & Geoffrey Pratley concert!

Geoffrey Pratley and Yap Ling will be doing a series of concerts in Sarawak starting in Kuching on 8 July 2007 at the Auditorium, Kuching South City Hall, organised by Arco Strings Music. The series of concerts ends in Bintulu on 11 August 2007 (Saturday) at Eng Kwang Methodist Church, organised by Prelude Academy of Music.

In fact Geoffrey Pratley and Yap Ling had collaborated 19 years ago in Kuching where they first met for a performance for the British Council's dinner, Kuching.

Details of other concerts will be updated here from time to time. So please come back and check.
Below are profiles of the performers:

Yap Ling is a versatile musician who performs, teaches, conducts, arranges music and organises concerts. He started the violin with Marcus Leong and piano with Chan Hui Ling in Kuching. After obtaining his LRSM in 1986, he went to the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), London and studied with Clarence Myerscough. Later he was awarded the Sarawak Foundation Scholarship & RAM’s Alec Templeton Scholarship. While in London he was the Concertmaster for the Chelsea Symphony Orchestra and violinist for the Chelsea String Quartet, The London Chinese Ensemble and the Piano Trio under the Amadeus Quartet’s tutelage. Upgrading and performances has taken him to Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, France, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Moscow (Russia), China and USA.In 1990, he participated in the 1st World Youth Music Camp in KL and the 1st Pacific Music Festival in Japan (under the baton of Maestro Leonard Bernstein). He represented Malaysia as a violin tutor in the 1991 ASEAN Youth Music Workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. He was a string tutor at UNIMAS & conducted their orchestra. He was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for the 1st and the 2nd Sarawak Music Camp in Kuching and Sibu respectively for 1999 and 2001. In 1997 he was conferred the Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in recognition for his contribution towards developing the music standard and promoting music in this part of the world.Now he is the conductor of Sabah Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO), Kian Kok Youth Orchestra (KKYO), the Tshung Tsin String Orchestra and the Guest Conductor for the Miri Orchestra and Choir (MOC). As a chamber musician, his Duos partnership with Singaporean violinist Foo Say Ming has him performing on the viola too. Yap Ling is also the violinist for the MP3rio (Piano Trio), the Malaysian Ars Nova Ensemble (String Quintet with Piano) and the L’espressivo Trio (Vocal-Violin-Piano) which have performed regularly in various parts of Malaysia.Besides giving regular recitals with his wife Grace Lee, he has also appeared as soloist with the Monash Simfonia in Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, the Penang Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) from KL playing the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto. He also conducted the Violin Masterclasses for ABRSM in Malaysia and regularly giving violin masterclasses and orchestra workshops throughout the country. Presently he also teaches at UMS.

Geoffrey Pratley has enjoyed a long and illustrious career as one of Britain’s best known accompanists. After studying at the Royal Academy of Music he went on to accompany many world famous singers and instrumentalists in concert worldwide , especially the mezzo soprano Dame Janet Baker, the French cellist Paul Tortelier and the leading British violinist of his time, Ralph Holmes; others include Placido Domingo, Leon Goosen, Jack Brymer, Rita Streich, Takayoshi Wanami and many more. He has also broadcast widely on radio and television; especially notable were his appearances on BBC2TV as accompanist to Tortelier’s famous Cello Masterclasses. He taught Piano Accompaniment and coached singers at the Royal Academy of Music from 1965 till June 2005, and he has taught at Trinity College of Music since 1990. His publications from Kevin Mayhew Ltd include “Great Operatic Melodies” arranged for piano duet, “Great Orchestral Melodies for Violin” (1 book) and for Cello (2 books), all arranged with piano accompaniment, “Six Irish Folksongs” and “Six English Folksongs,” most of which were written for Dame Janet Baker’s recitals. Other publishers include OUP, Faber Music, and Stainer and Bell.He has performed and taught in many countries, especially the Far East. His two-piano and piano duet partnership with Anne Applin performs a wide range of unusual items as well as more standard duet repertoire: in particular composer’s arrangements of their own works for four hands, mostly 19th Century items. He has also had a busy schedule as examiner and Festival adjudicator for many years.

For more information, please contact Prelude Academy of Music at preludeacademy@gmail.com or 086-316051, 018-8862016.

See you at the concert!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Trumpet workshop

Jonas Brolin (MMus)

Ong Wan Ping (LLCM)

Please be informed that we are going to have a trumpet workshop on this coming 21th July 2007 (Saturday) at Prelude Academy of Music, from 9 to 12 noon. It is our pleasure to have Mr Jonas Brolin from Sweden to conduct the workshop and Miss Ong Wan Ping (LLCM) as his accompanist.

Mr Jonas has graduated with MMus from London College of Music & Media in 2006 and a BA from Royal Academy of Music in 2004. Currently he is a member of Oslo Brass and Holmia Concert Orchestra in Norway and a freelance musician in London, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

He plays regularly with West London Sinfonia, South Bank Symphony, Misbourne Symphony Orchestra, LSE. Christmas Spectacular, Royal air force band, Norway, Mathew Taylor, Richard Jacklin, Ole Edvard Antonsen, Patrick Bailey, Philip Hersketh, Thomas Blunt, Neil Thompson and Christian Lindberg.

Mr Jonas has won several prizes, including John Packer brass prize (2006), Medal winner of The Worshipful Company of Musicians, London and a scholarship from Carl Göran Adelswärdh music foundation, Sweden.

The repertoires he had played include Verdi's Requiem, Shostakovich.8, Mahler's symphony no5, Beethoven symphony no5, 6 and 8. Elgar's Enigma variations. Schrabin symphony no1. Mendelsohns, Bruch violin concertos and Handel's Messiah. Besides, he had also played as 1st trumpet in Oliver Twist and Kiss Me Kate.

Flute workshop by Ms Michelle Lee, Trinity Guildhall examiner

It was our great pleasure to have Ms Michelle Lee, one of Trinity Guildhall's examiner, to conduct a flute workshop after examination session on 25 May 2007. Our flute students had gained a lot from the workshop. Millions thanks to Ms Michelle Lee!

"Remember to practise in front of your big mirror!!"

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Some words for The 1st Bintulu Music Camp

Finally, the 1st Bintulu Music Camp is over. In fact, it was a great pleassure to be the organizer for the camp. Of course it was not a perfect one. But, at least, we did it. Bravo!!

Let me give you some reports on the camp. We had 83 campers all together, including those vocal workshop. And we had 5 tutors, i.e. Yap Ling, Grace Lee, Sook Peng, Bryan Leong and Joseph Hii. All together we have eaten 365 packs of rice (lunch for a year), buffet lunch for 240 people during the 3 1/2-day camp. Campers from Miri and KK had occupied 9 hotel rooms, while tutors occupied 3 rooms. In total, 44 nights of accommodation.

For the concert night, we have over 70 musicians performing and over 130 audience. The youngest musician was only 7 years old (Yap Qin) and the oldest was Josephine Ting, aged 50.

For media release, we were on Sing Chew once, Lian He twice, and See Hua Daily more than three times. Million thanks to all the reporters.

Campers had attended over 30 hours of lessons and practise. I think most campers had never done such practices before. A big applause to all the campers.

As for me, this is the first time i organised music camp, the first time i organised camp in Bintulu and the first time organising private camp in a church. Thanks to Eng Kwang Methodist Church, and Rev Ting Chu Yi.