Maestro Yeh Tsung marks 20 stellar years with Singapore Chinese Orchestra

SINGAPORE – When maestro Yeh Tsung took over the reins of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) in 2002, he had a clear vision of his goals for the young orchestra, inaugurated only five years earlier in 1997.

Better known as Tsung Yeh, he made history then as the first music director in the world to lead a symphony orchestra and a Chinese orchestra across two continents concurrently. Besides his SCO role, he was also music director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra in the United States. He subsequently parted ways with South Bend in 2016 after 28 years of leading it, to focus on the SCO.  

“SCO awakened the Chinese elements in me,” recalls Yeh, who already had a wealth of experience helming Western symphonies by then. “It was a huge transition for me leading a Chinese orchestra, but I was very confident about my new role.”

This year marks the 72-year-old’s two decades with the SCO. On Saturday, the orchestra will celebrate the milestone with a special concert titled Tsung Yeh 20.  

To chronicle his achievements, the SCO has also published a bilingual commemorative book, Tsung Yeh & His 20 Years With The Singapore Chinese Orchestra, written by former Straits Times journalist Leong Weng Kam. The book will be launched at the concert and the digital version will be available for free on the SCO’s website.

Shanghai-born Yeh started learning the piano when he was five, encouraged by his mother, a Russian-trained vocalist teaching at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He enrolled in the conservatory at the age of 10.

In 1981, he received a full scholarship to study at the Mannes College of Music in New York and completed his postgraduate studies at Yale University. He began his professional conducting career with the St Louis Symphony in 1984, and went on to work with many international orchestras before he joined the SCO.

In just two decades, the 2013 Cultural Medallion recipient known for his charisma and animated conducting style has fulfilled his five key goals for SCO.

First, he has developed a rich and unique repertoire for the orchestra. He used his cross-disciplinary expertise to push the frontiers of Chinese classical music, marrying classical and contemporary, East and West. He also developed the SCO’s signature Nanyang music, injecting South-east Asian elements into symphonic works. 

“SCO cannot be another Chinese orchestra, it must be different,” he says. ”It’s like putting in durian and laksa flavours to make it uniquely Singapore.”

To enlarge the repertoire, he launched the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition in 2006 to inspire works with strong local and South-east Asian content. Two more editions of the competition were held in 2011 and 2015, attracting entries from Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and the United States.

Yeh’s efforts to build up Nanyang-style compositions received a big boost from Prime Minister and SCO patron Lee Hsien Loong when he donated $750,000 in 2011. At his National Day Rally Mandarin speech in August 2022, PM Lee cited the SCO’s music as an example of

how Singapore’s sense of national identity is deepening

and closely related to its cultural self-confidence.

Today, the SCO has 200 works comprising traditional Chinese and East-meets-West fusion pieces, as well as those with a Nanyang flavour, from commissions and its competitions.

Yeh’s second goal was to create a uniquely beautiful SCO sound by training his more than 80 musicians to listen to one another and play cohesively together. 

“The individual musicians should not be able to hear themselves but the whole orchestra instead,” he said. “Together, we have developed a round, bouncy and attractive SCO sound that is a big selling point.”

Audience and community development was another of his successes.  To grow his audiences, he organised chamber, children and community concert series.  As the “People’s Orchestra”, the SCO went into the community to perform at parks, community clubs, the heartland, hospitals and schools. Before the pandemic, 70 per cent of the orchestra’s 100 to 120 programmes a year were community and outreach concerts.  

The SCO has also performed around the world to achieve international standing – another of Yeh’s goals for the orchestra.  

He has led it to perform in Europe four times since 2005, including a visit to Scotland in 2009 when the SCO made history by becoming the first Chinese orchestra to play at the Edinburgh Arts Festival. He also took the SCO to perform in China in 2007 and 2014, and to Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur in 2015.

Cultivating a new generation of conductors and musicians was his last key mission. In 2004, the SCO started the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra, which groomed a large pool of musicians. Regular composer and conductor workshops also helped to mould talented conductors such as Moses Gay and Wong Kah Chun.  

While Yeh has produced a stellar report card for SCO, he insists that it must always forge ahead in seeking greater artistic heights. As his contract is due to end this year, the SCO board will be announcing its plans for Yeh and the orchestra soon.

“We took 20 years to achieve what some orchestras achieved in 200 years,” Yeh says. “SCO is my baby and I will do anything to continue to help it grow, in whatever capacity.”

SCO executive director Terence Ho says Yeh has developed the SCO into a distinctive, world-renowned Chinese orchestra.

“Maestro Yeh has made great contributions to the SCO and the music scene in Singapore,” he says. “His vision, vigour and passion have constantly brought SCO to greater heights, locally and internationally.”

BOOK IT/Tsung Yeh 20 

WHERE: SCO Concert Hall, Singapore Conference Hall, 7 Shenton Way

WHEN: Saturday, 7.30pm

ADMISSION: $19 to $88 (live concert), $15 (digital concert) from Sistic (go to www.sistic.com.sg or call 6348-5555). Booking fee not included in ticket prices