Xinyao pioneer Liang Wern Fook celebrates 60th year with SCO concert
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Xinyao pioneer Liang Wern Fook celebrates his 60th year with a Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert in June.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – Revered writer, singer-composer and educator Liang Wern Fook, who turns 60 in April, said he is fortunate that he can continue with his artistic pursuits as he ages.
“Some professions require youth, but what I do can benefit from a wealth of experiences,” he said.
He also counts himself lucky that he has been a multitasker in music, literature and education.
“I may reach a plateau if I keep focusing on one area,” he said. “I find new creative sparks when I channel my energy into another domain instead.”
While he is a man of many talents, Liang’s name is synonymous with the xinyao movement, a genre of Mandarin songs unique to Singapore.
In the 1980s, influenced by the campus folk song movement in Taiwan, students here started writing and performing their own songs, which were given the newly minted term “xinyao”, meaning songs of Singapore or Singapore ballads.
Today, xinyao is regarded as a musical representation of Chinese-Singaporean culture and history, and Liang is the driving force behind it.
To mark his 60th year, he will collaborate with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) for the first time on a concert in June.
Encounter: Liang Wern Fook’s Composition Showcase is presented by SCO and Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre at the Esplanade Concert Hall, as part of Cultural Extravaganza 2024.
The two-hour concert will offer a retrospective look at Liang’s musical journey.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
The two-hour concert will offer a retrospective look at Liang’s musical journey. His songs at different stages of his music career will be compiled into Chinese symphonic poems with different movements, but organically combined in narrative poetry.
Liang takes on the creative conceptualisation, including the choice of music and words, while SCO composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei oversees the music arrangement.
The concert will be conducted by SCO principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong. Singers Joanna Dong, George Chan, Ric Liu and Chriz Tong will perform Liang’s songs.
Quek said at a media conference at Singapore Conference Hall on Jan 15: “Teacher Liang is celebrated for bridging his interests in literature and music with his poetic lyrics and beautiful melodies. The concert will be a literary, musical and multimedia treat.
“I was thinking about the future direction of SCO, which is to create and present compositions with a strong local flavour. Liang’s compositions are a big part of local culture.”
The concert was supposed to be held in 2020, but was stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not only will the performance mark Liang’s 60th birthday in 2024, but it will also commemorate the first time he walked into a studio to record his xinyao classics, such as Write A Song For You and The Words Of Water, in 1984.
Liang has more than 200 songs, five albums and two Mandarin musicals to his name, and was awarded the Cultural Medallion for Music in 2010 and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Contribution Award in 2021.
SCO principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong (left) and xinyao pioneer Liang Wern Fook will collaborate on Encounter: Liang Wern Fook’s Composition Showcase.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
When the xinyao movement waned in the early 1990s, he went on to pen hits for Cantopop and Mandopop stars such as Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Stefanie Sun.
Liang told The Straits Times that he has closed Xue Er You Language Centre – the Chinese language enrichment centre for primary and secondary school students that he ran with his wife, Madam Law Siew Mui, for about 25 years.
The Associate Professor (Adjunct) for Chinese in the School of Humanities with Nanyang Technological University will have more time for his creative works, and is exploring possible collaborations with others.
“Since the 1990s, fewer students are composing and performing their own songs due to changes in language and education policies,” he said.
However, he is not pessimistic that xinyao’s golden era has passed.
“We cannot force every generation to do the same thing,” he said. “The songs of today may be different in style from xinyao, but xinyao has left a lasting legacy on local Chinese music.”
Book it / Encounter: Liang Wern Fook’s Composition Showcase
Where: Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 Esplanade Drive str.sg/KqDX
When: June 8, 7.30pm
Admission: From $28 to $108 from Sistic (go to www.sistic.com.sg or call 6348-5555)
Info:
