Arts Picks: Jalan Besar audio tour closing, SYC’s 60th anniversary, The Asian Bookshelf podcast
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New World's End, the immersive audio experience which captures the sights and sounds of Jalan Besar's history, will close on July 14 after three years.
PHOTO: AXEL TOH
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OH! Open House’s New World’s End
This is your last chance to catch OH! Open House’s immersive audio experience New World’s End, which takes audiences around the Jalan Besar area. The experience, which has been running since 2021, is set to close on July 14.
Hear the sounds of old Jalan Besar come to life in this tour, which invites audiences to listen to 16 tracks on an old-school MP3 player telling the story of Kiran and Rosa falling in love at a defunct amusement park.
The area was home to New World Amusement Park from 1923 to 1987, and the experience captures some of the rich sights and sounds of the area’s storied past with detailed sets and an atmospheric soundtrack.
Those wanting to engage their taste buds can look forward to visiting 1960s-inspired bar Exit Stage Left at the end of the journey. Unique tipples like Haw House Sour ($22) and mocktails like Wang Sa and Ye Fong ($14 each) will transport you to a bygone era.
Executive director of OH! Open House Alan Oei says of the experience, which has attracted more than 18,000 visitors: “When we created New World’s End, it was with a vision to introduce a slower, more immersive form of tourism. If Singapore is known for Jewel (Changi Airport) or Marina Bay (Sands), it should also be known for the rich histories and layers of its streets.”
Ticket prices have been slashed from $35 to $17.50 for the final lap of the show. Those who have experienced New World’s End might consider returning, as the organisers are promising a special-edition experience which offers deeper insights into the characters and 1960s Singapore.
Where: 85 Desker Road str.sg/4Kx5f
MRT: Jalan Besar
When: Till July 14, various timings
Admission: $17.50
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SYC & Friends: 60 Years Young
The SYC Ensemble Singers celebrates its 60th anniversary with a concert that will feature the work of Singaporean composers.
PHOTO: SYC ENSEMBLE SINGERS
The SYC Ensemble Singers, which began in 1964 as the Singapore Youth Choir (SYC), will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a concert featuring commissioned works by Singaporean composers.
Artistic director Jennifer Tham, who joined the choir as a singer in 1981 and has been conducting it since 1986, says: “When I started conducting, there was very little music to call our own. We were singing madrigals, sacred music from other lands and folk song arrangements.”
Tham, who is the first choral conductor to receive the Cultural Medallion in 2012, adds: “Now, we have a library of more than 60 new works, commissions, as well as gifts that arrive in my inbox, written for the SYC. This is music of our place and time – a modern city-state of the 21st century – sophisticated, unique, complex, wondrous in scope, with a polyphony of voices as diverse as our population.”
The Singaporean composers on the programme include Cultural Medallion recipient Leong Yoon Pin, Joyce Bee Tuan Koh and Diana Soh.
The programme also includes Estonian composer Arvo Part’s Te Deum, a piece that Tham says “has been on our bucket list for more than 30 years”. She describes the 30-minute work as the ensemble’s Mount Everest, “the litmus test of choral excellence”.
Where: Victoria Concert Hall, 11 Empress Place sistic.com.sg/events/syc600624
MRT: City Hall
When: June 1, 7.30pm
Admission: $27 to $32
Info:
The Asian Bookshelf
For those looking to introduce more South-east Asian literature into their reading diet, a new literary podcast will bring conversations around regional fiction and non-fiction to listeners in bite-size episodes.
Hosted by Singapore-based writers Jon Gresham and T.A. Morton, as well as former radio journalist Devika Misra, The Asian Bookshelf opens with a spotlight on Singapore literature.
Its first episode – which premiered on May 5 – discusses Melissa de Silva’s ‘Others’ Is Not A Race (2017), which won the Singapore Literature Prize for creative non-fiction in 2018. The book examines what it means to be Eurasian in Singapore and weaves together food writing, narrative fiction, memoir and other genres of writing.
Future episodes will include a discussion of Elaine Chiew’s historical romance The Light Between Us (2024) and speculative fiction, an interview with new independent bookstore Book Bar’s owner Alex Chua, and a discussion on the work of the Singapore Book Council and creating a “city of literature”.
While the focus of the upcoming episodes will be on Singapore, Gresham says: “In future episodes, we shall be discussing more books from around Asia, and talk to transnational and diasporic Asian authors who are finding readers across the globe.”
The podcast is available on platforms including Spotify and Apple, and can also be heard on YouTube.
Where: Online on multiple podcast platforms str.sg/BT6U
When: New episodes released fortnightly
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