Showcases

With this music video, I wanted to explore something really bold with traditional Chinese instruments. From its conceptualisation of experimenting with electronic music, interdisciplinary collaborations with fashion and hip-hop, to its final materialisation. This is in line with my vision of reinventing and reimagining the Erhu (and Chinese music) in a modernised society, that also best represents my unique artistic identity.

Grain in Ear 《芒种》 Erhu and Ruan EDM MV

Reimagining the Erhu and Ruan with Grain in Ear《芒种》, featuring interdisciplinary collaborations of Electronic Dance Music, Futuristic Fashion and Hip-Hop!

Calista Liaw

This project was done in collaboration with an audio arts classmate - Amalyn Leong and this is our adaptation of Debussy’s most famous works and made into the very first Erhu-Lofi album. HU is a wordplay on the Erhu (二胡), which is the primary instrument of this entire album. 𝐇𝐔 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐲 is a special project that would not have been possible without the support of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

HU Plays Debussy

“HU Plays Debussy” is a five-track EP featuring the Erhu, that reinvents popular Debussy pieces into lofi music. “Hu” is a wordplay on HU for Erhu, and WHO?

Calista Liaw

This performance is a live collaboration between music and movement by Thanisa Durongkaveroj (pianist), Weerapong Donlakhon (choreographer), and Yuthana Amrarong (choreographer), along with over fifty collaborators from Kid Buak Sip Dance Company. The performance is based on the idea of individual voices that come to merge. Starting with Thanisa hitting piano keys sporadically alone on stage, melodious lines start to form, and the richer harmonic progression invites Weerapong and Yuthana to appear and, with their body movements, mimic the spirits of nature, human expression, and fragility spontaneously with the music. Halfway into the performance, fifty collaborators come along and contemplate the notion of self and social belonging, as they explore the relationship between time and space on stage.

The program notes are thereby quoted here:

"We finish with In(Div)idual, a work that tells the story through the sound of an individual floating in a sea of solitude, trying to land herself ashore, and awakened again with a new voice; The voice of an individual that nonetheless reverberates with the sounds of the world she is emerging from and the new reality that is now hers to discover."

In(Div)idual

Individual Voices That Come To Merge

Thanisa Durongkaveroj

In partnership with the Goethe Institut Philippines and Manila Composers Lab, the Ripieno Ensemble PH launched a concert series that reexamines the Filipino identity through the ‘Kundiman’ - a song form embedded with Filipino values of devotion, unity, and patriotism. Inspired by Johannes Schoellhorn’s notion of trans-composition, the Ripieno Ensemble PH envisions these songs into modern arrangements which incorporates the aesthetics of contemporary music yet uncompromising its core.

PAGTANAW

PAGTANAW is a mini-concert series by the Ripieno Ensemble PH which reexamines the Filipino identity through the Kundiman song form.

Stefanie Quintin-Avila

Rojak City

Commissioned by the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra, Rojak City features a fusion ensemble of SEA instruments and challenges notions of identity, traditions and performance practices.

Item List

Grain in Ear 《芒种》 Erhu and Ruan EDM MV

Calista Liaw

HU Plays Debussy

Calista Liaw

In(Div)idual

Thanisa Durongkaveroj

PAGTANAW

Stefanie Quintin-Avila

Rojak City

Sulwyn Lok