Three Singapore orchestras mark milestone anniversaries even as challenges loom
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(Clockwise from left) Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong; the Orkestra Melayu Singapura; and Resound Collective artistic director Mervin Beng (left) and associate artistic director Yang Shuxiang.
PHOTOS: KEVIN LIM, ORKESTRA MELAYU SINGAPURA
- The Singapore Chinese Orchestra, celebrating 30 years, is revamping its image with new commissions inspired by Singaporean cultural icons to highlight its unique multicultural identity.
- At 35, Orkestra Melayu Singapura faces independence after leaving the People’s Association, aiming to become a national orchestra by focusing on music research and defining Malay music.
- Resound Collective, turning 10, aspires to grow its chamber orchestra into one of Asia’s best despite limited resources, dreaming of international performances and better instruments for its musicians.
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SINGAPORE – The Republic’s classical music scene is celebrating a string of milestone anniversaries in 2026, with orchestras large and small making their mark on a bustling scene.
The Straits Times speaks to three classical music groups – the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Orkestra Melayu Singapura and Resound Collective – that share how the scene has changed over the years, and their milestones and plans.
At 30, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra is rethinking multiculturalism
Singapore Chinese Orchestra's principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong is leading the SCO into its 30th anniversary.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
At 30, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) is still mistaken by international programmers for an ensemble from mainland China. This despite decades of efforts spent on forging a distinct multicultural Nanyang-style repertoire since maestro Yeh Tsung’s music directorship started in 2002.
Quek Ling Kiong, 59 – SCO’s first Singapore-born and Singapore-raised principal conductor who has been with the orchestra since 1997 – has a plan to revamp that international image. Since he was appointed principal conductor in 2023, Quek has been busy beefing up a new touring menu through commissions inspired by Singaporean cultural titans from xinyao legend Liang Wern Fook to the late grandfather of sculptor Ng Eng Teng.
Facing closure, Orkestra Melayu Singapura reinvents itself as arts group at 35
At 35, Singapore’s first Malay orchestra Orkestra Melayu Singapura is going back to basics as a newly formed independent arts company.
PHOTO: ORKESTRA MELAYU SINGAPURA
In 2024, after more than three decades under the wings of the People’s Association (PA), the Orkestra Melayu Singapura (OMS) faced an existential crisis – close down or go independent. At 35, past the gates of youth, the first Malay orchestra of Singapore is going back to basics as a newly formed independent arts company.
“This is an opportunity for us to really chart our own path,” says OMS’ first artistic director Zulkifli Mohamed Amin, 43, who joined the orchestra as a trombonist in 2000 and was appointed assistant music director in 2021.
His long-term aspiration is to establish OMS as a national orchestra but, to get there, he believes there is a need to double down on music research and find compelling answers to a perennial question he gets asked: “What is Malay music?”
Only 10, Resound Collective wants to grow into one of Asia’s best chamber orchestras
Resound Collective artistic director Mervin Beng (left) and associate artistic director Yang Shuxiang are leading the young chamber music collective into its next decade.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
Resound Collective artistic director Mervin Beng describes his chamber music collective – which does not even have a space to call its own – as a minnow among larger fish. But, turning 10, the collective has outsized ambitions to grow its re:Sound chamber orchestra into one of Asia’s best.
“Getting to Europe to perform is a dream and getting our top players some magnificent instruments to play on would be a dream,” says classical music reviewer Beng, who co-founded Singapore’s first professional chamber orchestra in 2016, when the Western classical music scene was dominated by bigger players like the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra of the Music Makers.
