PHOON YEW TIEN - An Inktroduction

PHOON YEW TIEN is one of the most promising, imaginative and prolific composers of his generation, as well as Singapore's most recorded classical music composer. Phoon is not only well-grounded in both Eastern and Western musical vocabularies, his output covers the entire spectrum of chamber music, songs, music for theatre and concert hall. He has earned a fine reputation as a significant composer, both in Singapore and in the international arena.

For three consecutive years, 1977 to 1979, he won the Distinguished Prize in the National Song Writing Competition - the prizes were awarded for the works Our Song in 1977, Nanyang University (1978) and Song for Workers (1979). While attending the Queensland Conservatorium of Music on a Singapore Symphony Orchestra scholarship, Phoon was awarded the Dulcie Robertson Prize in composition thrice (1980, 1981 and 1983), for best composition.

In 1984, Phoon won the prestigious Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize for Composition, awarded by the Asian Composers League, one of the highest awards to be given to a young Asian composer. In 1996 and 1997, he was also awarded the top Local Serious Music Award by the Singapore Composer and Authors Society (COMPASS).

Some of Phoon's outstanding compositions include: Han Shi (1983) for Chinese Orchestra, commissioned and first performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chinese Orchestra; Ping Diao (1984) commissioned and premiered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra; Autumn (1984) for strings, percussion and harp, which was performed both at the Asian Composers League Conference and Asia Pacific Festival in New Zealand in 1984; Mediation of a Poet for chamber orchestra (inspired by a poem by Singapore artist Tan Swie Hian), premiered at the New Music Forum in 1987 and subsequently performed during the 1st International Chinese Composer Conference in Taiwan; Dances of Singapore (1990), for mixed orchestra, commissioned by the People's Association.

On 14th April 2000, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra premiered his Variants on an Ancient Tune as one of a series of new works commissioned for the 20th anniversary of the orchestra. On 12th October 2000, the Beijing China Film Orchestra performed works by Phoon Yew Tien in his solo composition concert in Beijing Concert Hall. The concert was jointly presented by the government of the People's Republic of China and the Singapore National Arts Council.

Since 1987, Phoon's compositions and arrangements have been recorded by the Orchestras of the Singapore Symphony, the Russian Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, Shanghai Music Conservatory Symphony and the Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra of Taiwan.

Phoon has collaborated with many Singapore choreographers including Lim Fei Shen, Som bte Said, Yan Choong Lian and Neila Sathyalingam. His greatest success came with the music for a dance drama, Nu Wa (1988), which was choreographed by Goh Lay Kuan for the Singapore Festival of Arts 1988. It was described as one of the most substantial lengthy large-scale works of music Singapore has ever produced.

Right: The cover of the 1997 UTN of Phoon Yew Tien's Si Nian (Chinese, "Reminiscence"), an album of chamber works by the composer. The caricature on the cover bears more than a slight resemblance to the composer, of course.

Phoon has also written incidental music for plays, including Kopi Tiam (1986), Lao Jiu (1990), Evening Climb (1992), Fishing Eagle (1994) and Descendent of the Eunuch Admiral (1995). These works were performed in the Singapore Festival of Arts and the Festival of Asian Performing Arts. Outside home, Phoon's works have been performed by various groups in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, England, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, France, Italy and the United States of America.

Phoon's music successfully combines a Chinese idiom with contemporary compositional techniques and styles. It is often transparent and spare in texture, making effective and careful use of tone colour.

Phoon Yew Tien has been a Committee Member of the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts (1988), a member of the National Arts Council Resource Panel, and Associate Conductor of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. From 1993 to 1996, he was Head of Music at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, where he lectured from 1984 to 1999.

Phoon has been appointed as an Arts Advisor to the National Arts Council. In 1996 he was awarded the Cultural Medallion by the Singapore Government, the highest award given in the field of the arts in Singapore.

In 2000, Phoon was appointed by the Singapore government to re-arrange the National Anthem.

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