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Next Concert: Tchaikovsky's 4th
Date: 15 June 2013, Saturday
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: School of the Arts Concert Hall
Christopher Adey, conductor
WOLFGANG A. MOZART Symphony No. 40, KV 550 Listen on Spotify
PYTOR I. TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 Listen on Spotify
Principal Guest Conductor Christopher Adey returns to conduct the Orchestra of the Music Makers in two cornerstones of the symphonic repertoire.
Mozart’s 40th is easily one of the most recognisable and popular pieces of classical music. It shows the composer at his most inventive, elegantly lyrical yet coloured by a restless undercurrent.
Tchaikovsky's intensely dramatic 4th Symphony is an epic, with fate, "that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from attaining its goal, which jealously ensures that peace and happiness shall not be complete and unclouded”, at its centre of its powerful discourse.
Buy your tickets here!
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: School of the Arts Concert Hall
Christopher Adey, conductor
WOLFGANG A. MOZART Symphony No. 40, KV 550 Listen on Spotify
PYTOR I. TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4, Op. 36 Listen on Spotify
Principal Guest Conductor Christopher Adey returns to conduct the Orchestra of the Music Makers in two cornerstones of the symphonic repertoire.
Mozart’s 40th is easily one of the most recognisable and popular pieces of classical music. It shows the composer at his most inventive, elegantly lyrical yet coloured by a restless undercurrent.
Tchaikovsky's intensely dramatic 4th Symphony is an epic, with fate, "that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from attaining its goal, which jealously ensures that peace and happiness shall not be complete and unclouded”, at its centre of its powerful discourse.
Buy your tickets here!
Next Auditions: 12 May
Calling all Musicians! Our next audition will be held on Sunday, 12 May. Fill in the form at: http://www.orchestra.sg/contact-us.html
Recent Press Coverage
Music Makers reach out with pops concertThe Straits Times LIFE!
Tuesday, 28 January 2013 (c) 2013 Singapore Press Holdings Reviewer: Chang Tou Liang ------------------------- Concert: OMM Prom 2013: All-American Orchestra of the Music Makers Esplanade Concert Hall Saturday, 26 January 2013 ------------------- The Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) has made its name by performing the larger works of the classical repertoire in subscription concerts. When the young volunteer orchestra chooses to perform shorter pieces and popular classics, it does so in an outreach event called the OMM Prom, its name derived from the BBC Proms. As the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has ceased its Familiar Favourites series, the OMM Prom has become the de facto pops concert of the masses. A very large audience greeted the latest OMM Prom which was an enjoyable salute to American music. The heady spirit of the Boston Pops was immediately relived with the opener, George Gershwin’s Girl Crazy Overture, with popular melodies like Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm and But Not For Me flowing out with the slickness that these Broadway musicals demand. Rhapsody in Blue was next, and clarinettist Vincent Goh’s slinky opening solo set the tone for a totally commanding performance by young pianist Clarence Lee. Not only does he have the physical heft to project above the orchestra, he also gave the score an improvisatory feel by dictating the pace, slowing at will and then upping the ante when it mattered. The orchestra’s razor-sharp reflexes served the music’s rhythmic intricacies to a tee, with woodwinds and brass in splendid form. Conductor Chan Tze Law then touched upon how 20th century American music and popular culture was closely linked, and the next three works were proof of that. Philip Glass’s Heroes Symphony(inspired by David Bowie) provided seven minutes of repetitive tedium in its fourth movement despite some fine solo trumpet and clarinet playing. This was offset by film music from John Williams and Alan Menken, Star Wars and Enchanted respectively, which brought out the loudest applause. The second concertante work was the slow movement of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, with Edward Tan the stylish and sensitive soloist. His beautiful tone, rising to impassioned high, provided the evening’s most reflective moment. Then it was back to the bluster of brass and percussion in Aaron Copland’sFanfare for the Common Man, that familiar standard now subsumed as the final movement of his Third Symphony. Busy counterpoint and development on the theme brought the concert to a rousing close. For its obligatory encore, OMM surprised with that old chestnut, Old McDonald Had A Farm in Leroy Anderson’s uproarious orchestration, complete with barnyard sound effects from five percussionists. The downside to that programming pique was this: it is now almost impossible to rid that melody from the mind! |
Playing Music like the Pros
The Straits Times LIFE! Friday, 25 Jan 2013 (c) 2013 Singapore Press Holdings Journalist: Akshita Nanda ------------------------------ Running an orchestra is not child's play, though the student leaders of the Orchestra of the Music Makers make it look easy. The 140-strong amateur ensemble has presented four successful seasons in Singapore and overseas. It begins its fifth year on Saturday with a concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall, under the baton of conductor Chan Tze Law. The musical programme was designed by the teens and 20somethings who make up the orchestra, and includes George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue and the Star Wars Theme written by John Williams. Executive committee member and viola player Oliver Tan, 23, says: "Our dream is to show the audience that orchestral music is not high-brow or for the well-educated, but is also accessible and immediately rewarding for everybody." The orchestra was formed in 2008, when 80 students banded together to keep playing and performing after they graduated from ensembles in schools and universities. Their 2011 recording of Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony won them invitations to two noted British music festivals last July, the Cheltenham Music Festival and Lichfield Music Festival. Cheltenham's artistic director Meurig Bowen praised their "luxuriant orchestral opulence and collective youthful exuberance". OMM's other concerts this year include a June 15 performance of Mozart and Tchaikovsky at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Hall under British conductor Christopher Adey. In August, the ensemble performs the haunting - some say daunting - compositions of Wagner, including excerpts from his Ring Cycle |
OMM's Mahler Resurrection Symphony CD On Sale Now!
Available by mailing sales@orchestra.sg. Each copy at S$10 (plus shipping)
or from http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/orchestraofthemusicmakers
Hear for yourself what the critics have been raving about!
"There were moments of beatific stasis and terrifying walls of sound. Never, in half a century of hearing dozens of performances of this symphony live and on disc, have I experienced such terror at that moment in the finale when the drums make their agonizingly slow crescendo from the merest rumble to a deafening road. Also in the finale, the initial presentation of the "resurrection" chorale in the brass was as close to perfection as I have heard anywhere."
-Robert Markow, Fanfare Magazine
"...I doubt that this anniversary year will throw up anything quite so rewarding again and if I ever claim to be 'tired of Mahler', just remind me of the Orchestra of the Music Makers of Singapore; guaranteed to inspire even the most jaded of critical palettes..."
-Dr. Marc Rochester
or from http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/orchestraofthemusicmakers
Hear for yourself what the critics have been raving about!
"There were moments of beatific stasis and terrifying walls of sound. Never, in half a century of hearing dozens of performances of this symphony live and on disc, have I experienced such terror at that moment in the finale when the drums make their agonizingly slow crescendo from the merest rumble to a deafening road. Also in the finale, the initial presentation of the "resurrection" chorale in the brass was as close to perfection as I have heard anywhere."
-Robert Markow, Fanfare Magazine
"...I doubt that this anniversary year will throw up anything quite so rewarding again and if I ever claim to be 'tired of Mahler', just remind me of the Orchestra of the Music Makers of Singapore; guaranteed to inspire even the most jaded of critical palettes..."
-Dr. Marc Rochester
