Traverse: Migrant Stories

Composers

Gu Wei

Gu Wei (b. 1991) is a Singaporean composer whose music has been described as having ‘warmth of real splendour'. Having lived in China, the U.K., the U.S. and Germany, he draws his influences from a wide range of sources and is a composer demonstrating versatility in his style and idiom.

Gu Wei’s music has appeared on various occasions in Singapore and around the world, including performances and commissions by Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, Singapore Wind Symphony, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonic Winds, ADDO Chamber Orchestra, AudioImage Wind Ensemble, Princeton Pianists Ensemble and musicians of the JACK Quartet. He has been awarded first prizes in WBAS Wind Band Composition Contest 2018, Macht Orchestral Composition Competition 2017, second prize in Prix d'Eté Competition 2016, and winner of the ‘Singapore Compose!’ Competition 2015. His music has also been featured in festivals such as the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 2016, New Music On the Point Festival 2017 and Etchings Festival 2018.

Besides being a composer, Gu Wei is also a pianist who holds a Licentiate Diploma from Trinity College London. He is particularly interested in the toy piano recently, and has performed several times in Singapore and USA on the toy piano, focusing on contemporary repertoire written for it.

Gu Wei graduated from Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition. He also attained his Master’s degree in Composition and Music Theory Pedagogy at Peabody Conservatory, where he was also inducted as a member of the music honour society, Pi Kappa Lambda. He attained his Bachelor’s degree in Music at King’s College London, where he also received the Purcell Prize and Sambrooke Exhibition in Music Prize for academic excellence. His main composition teachers include Kevin Puts, Oscar Bettison, David Smooke, Rob Keeley and Zechariah Goh.

Chew Jun An

Immersed in cultural diversity, Jun An Chew seeks to seamlessly assimilate his experiences to present a unique voice in his eclectic body of works. He started his musical journey as a Chinese Dulcimer player and began writing music while exploring the synergistic possibilities between distinct musical styles through collaboration. His music exemplifies his influences by drawing inspiration from his wide-ranging artistic interests. Recent premieres include his piano solo piece Hyetal Days at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and his first opera scene, A Madman’s Diary, in collaboration with the Peabody Opera Department and producer Tony Arnold. 2015, he won the Youth Prize in the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestra Composition. In 2018, his voice and electronics piece Hear the Forest Sing was accorded second prize in the Prix d’Ete Competition, and later that year, he was conferred the Otto Ortmann Award in Composition. Jun An’s research interests are equally as eclectic and span from Josquin’s chanson-motets Lacanian feminism in Mozart’s Don Giovanni to topics on the Nanyang style. His current research project is developing a music analytical paradigm using Jungian psychoanalysis. He was appointed Composition Subject Leader and Lecturer at the Singapore Raffles Music College.

Jun An holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Oscar Bettison, having previously studied with Law Wai Lun, Michael Hersch, Felipe Lara, Amy-Beth Kirsten and Jason Eckardt.