Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s performance of composer Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands (2006), with choreography by Cultural Medallion recipient Osman Abdul Hamid's Era Dance Theatre. Seamless Singapore Chinese Orchestra Singapore Conference Hall July 20 The opening concert of Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s (SCO) 2024-25 season, led by principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong, was nothing short of spectacular. True to its credo of being the “people’s orchestra”, SCO’s exploration of transcultural genres bore fruit with its collaboration with 2023 Cultural Medallion recipient Osman Abdul Hamid.
The Malay dance master’s Era Dance Theatre (EDT) took centre stage in a choreographed performance of SCO composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands (2006), his award-winning symphonic poem based on a well-known Malay legend. The music’s deft use of lilting asli, zapin dances and the pelog scale made it eminently suitable for choreography. Seventeen dancers filled the aisles and stage, re-enacting the graceful sashaying of the eponymous sisters and villagers, before their abduction by pirates.
The playful and later angst-filled movements echoed the dramatic programme music, adding another dimension to an already vividly detailed score. The sisters’ immortalisation as the island pair in the Straits of Singapore was represented by both dancers held aloft high above the orchestra as the music reached its climax. After this impressive showing, it is now .