Support Message from Our Patron YAM Tunku Zain Al-'Abidin ibni Tuanku Muhriz
"I'm pleased to support the Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composer's proposal to organise the SMCC SoundBridge Contemporary Music Festival 2013. I have witnessed Malaysians with no prior interest in contemporary music being stimulated and interested as a result of previous SMCC performances, and I'm confident that this festival will boost the genre's profile even further. Furthermore, the festival's international participation will help strengthen cultural links and foster cooperation and healthy competition."
"I'm pleased to support the Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composer's proposal to organise the SMCC SoundBridge Contemporary Music Festival 2013. I have witnessed Malaysians with no prior interest in contemporary music being stimulated and interested as a result of previous SMCC performances, and I'm confident that this festival will boost the genre's profile even further. Furthermore, the festival's international participation will help strengthen cultural links and foster cooperation and healthy competition."
On behalf of the Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers (SMCC), I am delighted to present the first Soundbridge Festival 2013. This festival is a festival of contemporary new works by contemporary art music composers which rarely happened in Malaysia. We definitely need more of this kind of festival to keep promoting new works and composers. I am excited and glad that Kee Yong as artistic director and Kah Hoe as festival director, as well as team members have taken great initiative in organizing this event. Hopefully this festival will be a yearly event. I hope the festival will be a success and will stimulate and create interest in new audiences of art music in opening new boundaries of listening to new contemporary art music.
As a Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers, we have organized events and promoting new works since 2010 and we are hoping to keep continuing this further and representing Malaysia internationally. I hope we will receive support from arts institutions, private and government organizations and individuals to create and promote more events and new works by Malaysian composers in the future.
Thank you.
Prof Madya Dr Tazul Tajuddin
President of SMCC
As a Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers, we have organized events and promoting new works since 2010 and we are hoping to keep continuing this further and representing Malaysia internationally. I hope we will receive support from arts institutions, private and government organizations and individuals to create and promote more events and new works by Malaysian composers in the future.
Thank you.
Prof Madya Dr Tazul Tajuddin
President of SMCC
Malaysia, as well as Southeast Asia contemporary music scene is growing gradually on the right track, but there is still room for improvement. We hope to create a platform for musical exchanges in the contemporary music scene within the Southeast Asian region and also from all over the world. SMCC Contemporary Music Festival 2013 -"SoundBridge" aims to fulfill that mission.
I would like to thank our sponsors, the working committee members for your outstanding support and especially to our artistic director, Mr. Chong Kee Yong who has put a lot of effort to organize this wonderful and meaningful music festival. Under his direction, we are opening the festival with two meaningful events, the open rehearsal and composers’ workshop followed by a panel discussion, and lastly, our two main concerts, “Malaysian Voice III” and “Sound Bridge”.
We look forward to welcoming all our friends who are interested in music, video art, dance, calligraphy and live electronics to ‘SoundBridge’.
I wish you all a joyful festival!
Yii Kah Hoe
Festival Director
Vice president of Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers
I would like to thank our sponsors, the working committee members for your outstanding support and especially to our artistic director, Mr. Chong Kee Yong who has put a lot of effort to organize this wonderful and meaningful music festival. Under his direction, we are opening the festival with two meaningful events, the open rehearsal and composers’ workshop followed by a panel discussion, and lastly, our two main concerts, “Malaysian Voice III” and “Sound Bridge”.
We look forward to welcoming all our friends who are interested in music, video art, dance, calligraphy and live electronics to ‘SoundBridge’.
I wish you all a joyful festival!
Yii Kah Hoe
Festival Director
Vice president of Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers
"SELAMAT dan SUKSES!!!"..Congratulations to the "SoundBridge Festival 2013" especially to Kee Yong, Kah Hoe in conceiving the idea of this festival, and to all the members of the SMCC for running this wonderful festival. Without all your hardwork, this festival won’t be possible.
Hopefully this is just the beginning, and will be followed by subsequent SoundBridge Festivals, as it would be meaningless to have only one festival.
We know it is not easy to host the contemporary music festival such as SoundBridge Festival, but with your dedication, I believe nothing is impossible. Happy New Ears.
Michael Asmara
Composer
Artistic director of Yogjakarta New Music Festival
Hopefully this is just the beginning, and will be followed by subsequent SoundBridge Festivals, as it would be meaningless to have only one festival.
We know it is not easy to host the contemporary music festival such as SoundBridge Festival, but with your dedication, I believe nothing is impossible. Happy New Ears.
Michael Asmara
Composer
Artistic director of Yogjakarta New Music Festival
All the best to our colleagues and friends for the great effort in organizing "SoundBridge Festival 2013" even through the most difficult circumstances. We can all be proud that the work made by key persons Chong Kee Yong and Yii Kah Hoe and other members of the SMCC is very significant not only in building connections within the Southeast Asian region, but also in creating and developing a contemporary music culture that we can call our own! Cheers!"
JONAS BAES
Composer/Ethnomusicologist
Professor, University of the Philippines
Director of Manila Composer Lab
JONAS BAES
Composer/Ethnomusicologist
Professor, University of the Philippines
Director of Manila Composer Lab
I am once
again amazed by how
through sheer
passion my Malaysian brothers and
sisters in new music have come
together again to create a
gathering of works and minds
and people on such an incredibly
contemporary topic exploring bridges
from the sonic across to other
sensations, and through that renewing and
reviewing of kontakte and with
one another, we congregate
and co-create!
Congrats!
Dr. Hoh Chung Shih
Composer
Lead Teacher at Raffles Institution
again amazed by how
through sheer
passion my Malaysian brothers and
sisters in new music have come
together again to create a
gathering of works and minds
and people on such an incredibly
contemporary topic exploring bridges
from the sonic across to other
sensations, and through that renewing and
reviewing of kontakte and with
one another, we congregate
and co-create!
Congrats!
Dr. Hoh Chung Shih
Composer
Lead Teacher at Raffles Institution
I have great respect and admiration for SMCC's vision and diverse programing to showcase the new works by not only Malaysian composers but also many composers in Southeast Asia. I would like to send a big congratulation to SMCC and its upcoming contemporary music festival 2013 "SoundBridge." I must say that SMCC that has established a new platform and network among Asian composers and its vision and distinguished voice continue to be heard loudly to the world of contemporary music. Congratulations again!"
Koji Nakano
Director of International Programs, Music and Performing Arts International Festival
Lecturer in Music, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Burapha University, Thailand
Koji Nakano
Director of International Programs, Music and Performing Arts International Festival
Lecturer in Music, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Burapha University, Thailand
Within our global culture, young composers face a challenging situation between complete availability, freeness and the desperate need to carve one‘s own musical path or as I used to say “to find one’s own culture”. To be a contemporary composer does not mean to enter a supermarket of techniques and models, although they are available, and sometimes seem to be too easy to apply: Any instrumental technique can be downloaded from the internet. New notation software increasingly suggests systematized models and everything seems to be so “practical”. Composers all over the world are struggling with these issues and have found different ways to deal with it, but very often fall into the trap.
However, the path in Southeast Asia that has been pioneered by some exciting composers, now in their 30s and 40s, is from my point of view one of the most successful ones all over the world. While my main contacts with the contemporary music scene in Southeast Asia have been in Indonesia for a long time, my encounter with the Malaysian scene started in 2009 (later also Singapore, Philippines and Thailand). And it had given me a completely new perspective about the lively scene here. Thanks a lot to the initiators (SMCC and some of their collaborative friends from the above mentioned countries) and organizers of the “Soundbridge 2013” Festival that there is now an international festival without any ideological limitations. They all belong to that creative “gang”. I admire the open attitude, the creative and often critical exchange, but always based on mutual acceptance and less on national or even ethnic differences. Seen from that point of view, this festival and all the other activities across all borders may also become a model for mutual appreciation that fosters differentiation and defies superficial standardization. You all know that in a way I feel the region to be my second home area, and I am full-heartedly and with highest curiosity following the further developments that nonetheless have also a significant impact on my own development. Finally let me quote one of the most influential philosophers for me, because he has got it to the crucial point that I feel is also the attitude here: The American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emersion writes in his Essay “An Adress”: Let me admonish you first of all to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, (...) Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. I feel that Southeast Asian composers stick to this challenge as well. And what can we ask more for in our global world?
I wish the festival the utmost success that it really deserves.
(Dieter Mack, September 2013, currently from Bandung, Indonesia)
Prof. Dieter Mack
composer and ethnomusicologist
Vice-president of the University of Music Lübeck
Participation in various committees at the DAAD, Goethe Institute.
However, the path in Southeast Asia that has been pioneered by some exciting composers, now in their 30s and 40s, is from my point of view one of the most successful ones all over the world. While my main contacts with the contemporary music scene in Southeast Asia have been in Indonesia for a long time, my encounter with the Malaysian scene started in 2009 (later also Singapore, Philippines and Thailand). And it had given me a completely new perspective about the lively scene here. Thanks a lot to the initiators (SMCC and some of their collaborative friends from the above mentioned countries) and organizers of the “Soundbridge 2013” Festival that there is now an international festival without any ideological limitations. They all belong to that creative “gang”. I admire the open attitude, the creative and often critical exchange, but always based on mutual acceptance and less on national or even ethnic differences. Seen from that point of view, this festival and all the other activities across all borders may also become a model for mutual appreciation that fosters differentiation and defies superficial standardization. You all know that in a way I feel the region to be my second home area, and I am full-heartedly and with highest curiosity following the further developments that nonetheless have also a significant impact on my own development. Finally let me quote one of the most influential philosophers for me, because he has got it to the crucial point that I feel is also the attitude here: The American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emersion writes in his Essay “An Adress”: Let me admonish you first of all to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, (...) Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. I feel that Southeast Asian composers stick to this challenge as well. And what can we ask more for in our global world?
I wish the festival the utmost success that it really deserves.
(Dieter Mack, September 2013, currently from Bandung, Indonesia)
Prof. Dieter Mack
composer and ethnomusicologist
Vice-president of the University of Music Lübeck
Participation in various committees at the DAAD, Goethe Institute.
Only the current art has an opportunity to change the current society. It is a great pleasure to see that SMCC organized the "Sound Bridge" Contemporary Music Festival to enrich the living art. It's really a great opportunity for many artists in Southeast Asian Countries to meet and exchange their ideas and culture. It's great collaboration between senior composers, great artists, and young composers to create a stronger foundation for the music society in the region. I strongly support this festival and certainly know that it will create a great impact to the society around that area.
Narong Prangcharoen, composer
Artistic director of Thailand International Composition Festival
Narong Prangcharoen, composer
Artistic director of Thailand International Composition Festival
Worldwide contemporary music is developing and is establishing its place in society. Naturally the composers and their music are responsible for this. Their music, of which many of them are masterpieces, appeal even to an inexperienced and sometimes sceptical public. But works, too, require not only audiences, but also institutions, musicians and concert halls. And there are people and experts, who have devoted themselves to contemporary music and who organize festivals like this. What is very special about the SoundBridge festival is this new and innovative approach of using cross-media approaches. This will further challenge our senses and our intellect and I am sure that we will be enriched by it. I would like to congratulate the organizers of the festival for this great achievement and I wish the festival and the participants in it success.
Rolf Stehle
Director
Goethe-Institut Malaysia
Rolf Stehle
Director
Goethe-Institut Malaysia
“SoundBridge”, a music festival by the Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers goes beyond what festival can achieve as a platform for artists to meet. “SoundBridge”, bridges across people of different disciplines, and at its crossing point, makes dialogue, exchanges and creates together music, with the understanding of love and a friendship.
With perspectives from different experiences, this festival takes a leap forward to the place where different echoes of art meet. Crossing the boundaries of forms, spaces and frequencies, “SoundBridge” sounds out what can be possible when we learn to cross the bridge of our own idealistic mind.
Dr. Anothai Nitibhon, composer
Vice President, Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music
With perspectives from different experiences, this festival takes a leap forward to the place where different echoes of art meet. Crossing the boundaries of forms, spaces and frequencies, “SoundBridge” sounds out what can be possible when we learn to cross the bridge of our own idealistic mind.
Dr. Anothai Nitibhon, composer
Vice President, Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music