top of page

Traverse: Migrant Stories

Musicians

Kira.jpg

Kira Lim

Kira Lim is a third year undergraduate in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, majoring in Voice Performance studying with Professor Alan Bennett. In 2019, Kira graduated from Lasalle College of The Arts with a Diploma in Performance (Theatre).


Kira won First Place for all categories in the American Protege Vocal Competition at Carnegie Hall under the tutelage of Ms Khor Ai Ming.


Kira has participated in some notable singing performances including: Hansel and Gretel (2016) as 'Gretel', Mass of The Children and New York Sounds of Summer, Carnegie Hall (Soloist, 2016), Los Angeles International Music Festival (2018), Carmina Burana (Soloist, 2019), Der Zwerg with The Opera People (2019) as ‘First Maiden’, Baby Shark Live! The Hidden Treasure musical (2021-2022) as ‘Shimmer’, In Our Manner of Speaking performing new locally-commissioned pieces with The Opera People (2022), Come, Ye Sons of Art, Away! with the Red Dot Baroque and YST Conservatory (Soloist, 2022), CabaRED with New Opera Singapore (2023). This summer, Kira performed the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Vienna at the Musikverein. Kira was also in the ensemble in The Opera People’s production of La Sonnambula (2023).


Kira wishes for the arts to be accessible and inclusive to all communities. She enjoys teaching music to people of all ages. In 2022, she and her working partner, Claire Teo, had their first installation at the National Gallery Singapore, working with the visually impaired community. She also acted in An Undefeated Mind - a fundraising theater show to raise awareness for dementia patients.

​

Keane Ong

Lauded for his impeccable musicality, expression, and lyricism, Singaporean lyric baritone Keane Ong is one of today’s most promising soloists, choral directors, composers and pedagogues from Asia.


Greatly in demand in the symphonic and recital world, Keane sang the bass solo in the Orchestra of the Music Maker’s and The Vocal Associate’s production of Mahler’s 8th Symphony for the celebration of Singapore’s 50th Birthday and has also sung the Bass Solo for Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Keane acted as John Styx in New Opera Singapore’s production of Orpheus in the Underworld and Ben in their 2022 Production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Telephone. He has also performed as a chorister and soloist for the non-profit choir EVOKX’s annual evocation outreach series concerts to raise funds for needy causes.


As a pedagogue, Keane believes in helping his students bring out their natural voices healthfully and tap into their inner potential. He helps his students quell the insecurities that the increasingly competitive world has instilled in them and encourages them to engage in continuous life-long learning. Keane has taught many students privately and on internships with the Peabody Institute in Maryland, USA, and as a voice student in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore. Some of his students have also gone to pursue undergraduate studies in vocal performance.


Keane is also a choral conductor who emphasizes healthy vocal production and an attitude of active learning to his choristers. In Singapore, while teaching several local school choirs, Keane is also the music director of The Pioneer Voices, and is the assistant conductor of the non-profit organisation, EVOKX. He had taken minor lessons in conducting with Dr. Harlan Parker at the Peabody Institute and continues honing the art with local choral conductor Terrence Toh.


As a composer and arranger, Keane has composed and arranged pieces that have been premiered by The Pioneer Voices and Evokx. He has made reimagined arrangements of local folk works like Dayung Sampan and Man Jiang Hong, as well as compositions of the classical canon and poetry. His style can be described as one that accentuates natural atmosphere and ambient sounds which pays special attention to the portrayal of text.


Keane has been coached in master classes taught by world-class artists and groups including Sumi Jo, Roger Vignoles, Frederica von Stade, and The King's Singers. He obtained his Masters in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, studying with American baritone William Sharp, and was awarded the George Castelle Memorial Award for Voice. He graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music with a Bachelors of Voice Performance where he studied under Lyric Tenor, Alan Bennett. He was also a part of the Singapore Lyric Opera Leow Siak Fah Artist Training programme.

_DSC6358_edited_edited.jpg
368517512_286504294275459_6290439979249193654_n_edited.jpg

Tzu-Jou Yeh

Cellist Tzu-Jou Yeh (Zoi) is a native of Taiwan. Her extensive performance and education experience encompass all areas of solo, chamber and orchestral music. Yeh holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Cello Performance and Master's from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where she studied under the tutelage of Amit Peled. 
​
Yeh is an enthusiastic educator. She has taught at the Peabody Preparatory Young People’s String Program, and also served as Cello Faculty for the minor lesson program at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University for two years before moving to Singapore. In 2019, Yeh was selected as an InterPlay Resident Artist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where she spent a year working with undergraduate music majors and coaching chamber music.

Her career as a performer has taken her across the Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States, Central America, and through East Asia.

​

Mervyn Lee

Singaporean pianist and Young Steinway Artist Mervyn Lee gave his first public performance at the age of ten during the "#1 Steinway" Roadshow held at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, making his debut a year later as soloist for the President's Young Performers Concert performing with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

 

Under the guidance of Prof. Thomas Hecht, his outstanding performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in D Minor earned him Second Prize in the Conservatory’s 2014 Concerto Competition and he was subsequently engaged to perform the work with the Artsakh State Chamber Orchestra at the Tnjre International Festival of Young Musicians held in the Republic of Artsakh. He later became the First Prize winner and Grand Finalist of the 2015 Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concerto Competition, and also took part in the 2015 National Piano and Violin Competition, achieving First Place in the piano senior category. 

 

In addition to his pianistic endeavours, Mervyn also studies composition with Dr. John Sharpley. His output includes a piano trio, a violin duet, string quartet, and various works for piano. He recently premiered his work In Flux for solo piano as well as his Fantasy for Violin and Piano at the 7th SMTA Performer's Festival, attaining a Platinum Award for the composition category.

 

As a harpsichordist, he has performed on numerous occasions under Bach Collegium Japan conductor Masaaki Suzuki, as well as for numerous local early music performances. He currently pursues harpsichord studies with Arthur Haas, and is also a member of Red Dot Baroque, Singapore’s premier Early Music ensemble.

 

Mervyn has worked with renowned musical figures such as Gabor Takács-Nagy, and Masaaki Suzuki, and has also performed for artists such as Steven Hough, Julian Martin, Robert McDonald, and Christian Blackshaw. He recently graduated with a Master of Music in Piano Performance at the Manhattan School of Music under the mentorship of Dr. Marc Silverman.

 

Currently based in Singapore, Mervyn can be contacted for accompaniment requests, as well as for solo and chamber engagements.

​

​

​

BIMF_MervynLee_NGS+without+red+square+resized_edited.jpg
bottom of page