PROJECTS

Sharing a bit more about projects that I have thoroughly enjoyed, including dance and music collaborations.

Allan Zavod Performers' Award (2024)

Harpist/Composer/Improviser

It is an incredible honour to have won the 2024 Allan Zavod Performers’ Award! I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Noel and Carmel O’Brien Family Foundation for their generosity and support in this award. This award recognises “musicians who demonstrate excellence in composition, performance and improvisation” (extracted from webpage; more details: https://lnkd.in/gxy_ix4Q)

I performed Take Flight, a 14-minute solo harp composition and improvisation. Take Flight is a metaphor for one taking off and beginning a journey. It draws inspiration from the structure and sounds of a flight, from entering the airport to flying and landing, translating these into a sonically-diverse and theatrical improvisation that captures the ups and downs of life.

Central to Take Flight is the theatricality of the harpist’s physical gestures, highlighted through Dancing Figures, a notation style that I have been developing this year. Take Flight also incorporates less-conventional techniques, like frequent and noisy pedal changes, unstable metallic sounds, and hitting the bass strings, using the pedal harp’s versatility to create timbral and textural variety.

Photo by Amy Lin

Since young, I have loved improvising, composing and performing, and I am grateful for the opportunity to finally combine all three into one. This award encourages me to keep innovating and pushing the boundaries of the harp, while remaining true to my artistic pursuits and love for sound and movement.

AJIRN 7 Conference (2024)

Harpist and Dancer

I was invited to perform at the AJIRN 7 2024 Conference (Australasian Jazz & Improvisation Research Network) and am so thankful for this experience! Drawing on improvisation as the connectivity thread that ties sound and movement together, I combined harp, contemporary dance, composition/choreography and improvisation to explore the deep connections between these two art forms.

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring how movements embodied within playing the harp, such as the harpist's arm gestures or plucking the strings, inform movement choices, broadening the definition of movement beyond dance by approaching from the physicality of a musician. I also demonstrated how the auditory experience can be made visible through the visual experience by translating the timbral qualities of the harp and compositional elements of the 10-minute audio track into movement.

This was my first time trying to play the harp and dance simultaneously, and it was an amazing learning experience. Being able to perform in front of a range of academics was such an incredible honour and I will always remember this brilliant experience! I cannot wait to keep exploring what improvisation can be, and to keep merging my two passions for music and dance together. This is just the beginning! ❤️

Chrysalis (2024)

Co-Director and Co-Composer

I am grateful for the opportunity to co-direct and co-compose Chrysalis, a new dance work by the Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST). Chrysalis explores the ups and downs of growing up, from birth to adulthood, drawing inspiration from our personal experiences of growing up. We wanted to provide audiences with the space to reminisce their own experiences of childhood and growth, while using movement as a vehicle to express deeply personal experiences, stories and emotions that are sometimes challenging to express through other mediums. We created original choreography, inspired by the imagery of the Carnival, and an original music score.

Being able to combine my passions for dance and music to explore deeper connections between the two was incredible, blending them together to support the broader artistic vision of growing up. I have developed greater collaboration, communication and management skills, while gaining experience in directing, choreographing, and writing music for an hour-long show.

This has been an eye-opening and fulfilling journey. I am so grateful to MUST for providing us with this valuable opportunity to create a new dance show, and to my amazing Crew and Cast for bringing this vision to life with their incredible energy, ideas and dedication.

Chasing Shadows (2023)

Awarded the 2022 Composition and Music Technology Prize, Commissioned by the Syzygy Ensemble

I am grateful to have been awarded the 2022 Composition and Music Technology Prize by the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, and to have received a commission by the amazing Syzygy Ensemble! The commissioned work, “Chasing Shadows”, saw its World Premiere at the Melbourne Recital Centre on 30 November 2023. This composition explores a child discovering his/her shadow for the first time and chasing it.

It has been an honour to write for these wonderful musicians and to hear their fantastic interpreation of it. I have throughly enjoyed deepening my composition skills further, especially in adopting a more playful approach towards generating musical ideas and material for this fun and high-energy composition. I particularly enjoyed exploring and creating various combinations of sound colours and textures as well.

Chasing Shadows - Melbourne Recital Centre 1 301123.jpg

I hope this piece allowed the musicians and audience the space to relieve childhood memories of discovery, wonderment and curiosity. I am so thankful for this opportunity and would like to thank Syzygy Ensemble and everyone who has supported me! I will keep working hard :)

Monash Art Ensemble (2023)

Harpist and Recording Engineer Assistant, Monash University

It was a lovely experience being the Harpist and Recording Engineer Assistant in the Monash Art Ensemble this year! As part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, we performed in the Alexander Theatre at the Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts on 26 October, followed by a Recording Session on 6 November.

As the Recording Engineer Assistant, I set up microphone stands, microphones, and patched them into inputs the day before the Recording Session. On the Recording Day, I mainly helped with changing the recording setup when transitioning between the first piece (a big 18-musician setup) and second piece. I also helped to position some of the microphones for the drum kit, which was a valuable learning experience.

As a Harpist, I was encouraged to think more creatively and critically about the role of the harp in the new collaborative composition by Robert Burke and Michael Kellett. This has deepened my improvisation and listening skills. It was an honour to play alongside such incredible and amazing musicians!

This has been such a fun experience and I am so grateful for this holistic opportunity to further develop both my recording and studio skills, as well as being an improvising harpist. Thank you to everyone who has mentored me through this process!

Wasteland (2023)

Dance Captain and Harpist/Improviser

It has been two fruitful seasons with Wasteland - our sold-out season in May 2023, and our second season in Oct 2023 as part of Melbourne Fringe. I have enjoyed being a part of this dance production, as a dancer and as a music collaborator! As the Dance Captain, I occasionally led the Cast in warm ups, helped to clean the choreography, and filled in for any absent Cast members during rehearsals. Taking on this leadership role allowed me to develop my communication skills when breaking down steps in the choreography, and challenged me to offer advice to help my fellow dancers build their unique movement vocabulary.

It was also a huge honour to collaborate with composers Daniel Parr and Anusha Yellapragada as a harpist and improviser. The three of us recorded our single live-take 11-minute improvisation for "Fire Sermon", the third section in this dance piece, which I then danced in. I have learnt a lot from this collaboration and really enjoyed improvising with these inspiring musicians and seniors!

Photo by Amy Naylor

Thank you to MUST for this amazing learning experience, to our director Siobhan Judge for putting this show together, and to everyone in this amazing cast and crew. I have loved every part of this journey!

Moving Still (2022)

A collaboration with Ms Ng Xian Cui

I am extremely thankful to have received the opportunity to write music for dACADEMY Singapore's annual dance production, BREATH 2022! Collaborating with dancers has always been a dream of mine. Under Ms Cui's guidance and creative direction, I wrote Liminal Spaces and Duality (slower version).

Thank you to the dancers of Moving Still for bringing these pieces of music alive, it has been an honour to write music and dance with all of you. It also felt surreal to dance onstage to original music! Thank you Ms Cui for this priceless experience! I have learnt a lot from this collaboration and I am looking forward to working more extensively with dancers in the near future.

Ferry Corsten (2020)

Selected as a collaborator for the final track, Free

I submitted an entry for musician Ferry Corsten's UNITY fan collaboration contest in April/May 2020 on SoundCloud because I wanted to try something new. I am extremely honoured to have been chosen as a collaborator for this global project ("Lee Su Min [SG]"). Being a part of this collaborative experience with musicians from around the world has been incredibly meaningful and I am deeply thankful to have had the opportunity to do so.

Through this experience, I had the chance to explore using electronic instruments to create various textures and layers in the music. I also gained more familiarity with exporting stems.

Renew (2019)

Awarded the Jury's Choice Award (Category 3)
Awarded the Outstanding Harp Composition Award

Renew is a winning entry from the Creative Composition Competition of Harpfest 2019. It was awarded both the Jury’s Choice Award in Category 3 (16 - 25 years old) and the 2019 Outstanding Harp Composition Award. This was my first solo harp composition, through which I explored integrating traditional and new extended techniques to create a variety of sound colours on the harp.

Written as a response to the theme “Sounds of the Forest”, I was invited to perform Renew at the University Cultural Centre in Singapore during the Harpfest Gala Showcase in September 2019. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have shared this composition with listeners from different parts of the world. It was a surreal and exciting experience!

Photo by Rave Harps Singapore

Resonates With... (2019)

The Forest Experience, premiered at the National Gallery

I am grateful to have been selected by the Music Faculty at School of the Arts, Singapore (SOTA) to compose a new piece combining a Chinese instrument and a western instrument, in response to Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong's artwork. I was captivated by his artwork "Thick Leaves", and wrote The Forest Experience as a response to the painting.

Written for the Dizi and Harp, The Forest Experience describes a traveller's experience of walking through a forest and coming upon a magnificent tree. Extended techniques are used to mimic the forest soundscape, recreating the sounds of leaves crushing under one’s feet against the forest floor and rustling in the wind, birds chirping, and animals scratching their nails against tree trunks and a flowing waterfall. To reflect the multitude of textures observed in the painting, I used a variety of articulations and rhythmic patterns in this piece.

Photo by Mr Woon

It has been an honour to work on this piece and to have received feedback and advice from the Music Faculty. This piece premiered at the National Gallery Singapore, as part of the Resonates With... programme on 27 April 2019. It was performed by Neo Rui Zhi on the Dizi and myself on the harp. Thank you SOTA for this amazing learning opportunity!