Orchestral Institute: Cross-Currents
Saturday, 14 February 2026
YST Concert Hall
Saturday, 14 February 2026
YST Concert Hall
Orchestral Institute: Cross-Currents
YST ORCHESTRAL INSTITUTE WITH
JASON LAI, PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR AND ASSOC. PROF. ERIC LAMB, FLUTE
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Syrinx for Solo Flute, L. 129
GUSTAV MAHLER
Symphony No. 4 in G major <1892-1900; rev. 1901-1910> III. Ruhevoll
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
La Mer (The Sea), L. 109, CD. 111 <1903-1905>
Vice Dean’s Message
O man! Take heed!
What saith deep midnight’s voice indeed? “I slept my sleep— From deepest dream I’ve woke and plead:— The world is deep, And deeper than the day could read.”
— From Zarathustra’s roundelay (1799), Friedrich Nietzsche (trans. Thomas Common)
Welcome, and thank you for joining us for this evening’s Orchestral Institute performance, Cross-Currents, under the music direction of YST’s Principal Conductor, Jason Lai. On this Valentine’s weekend, tonight’s programme unfolds as a continuous journey through elemental, emotional, and ethereal landscapes—tracing a path from land to heavens, from heavens to sea. Through the imagination and artistry of our students and faculty, this arc of transformation invites us to experience the cyclical nature of the natural world alongside the inner terrains of longing, wonder, and connection—fundamental elements of what it means to be human.
Our journey begins in solitude, with Debussy’s Syrinx. Inspired by the ancient myth of Pan, the music evokes the breath of the natural world: earth, wind, and the quiet intimacy of a single voice emerging from silence. From this grounded beginning, we move upward into the luminous stillness of the Ruhevoll movement from Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Here, time seems suspended as Mahler alternates between deep mourning and radiant visions of a child’s heaven— music poised between the earthly and the eternal, between fragility and wonder.
Bridging these worlds is a newly created connective transition devised by members of the Orchestral Institute, guiding us in a descent from the heavens toward the vastness of the sea—from midnight into the frst light of Debussy’s dawn. This collaborative
creation refects a central pillar of the Orchestral Institute’s mission: empowering our students not only as performers, but as imaginative curators and creative partners in shaping the concert experience. We are also grateful to Neo Jie Ning, our fourth-year Music, Collaboration & Production student, whose beautiful images and slides deepen the visual dimension of tonight’s concert experience.
Our voyage culminates in Debussy’s monumental orchestral masterpiece La mer, a work that dissolves boundaries between sound, colour, and movement. Here, the sea becomes both destination and origin—an elemental force, a giver of life, and a reminder of the profound interconnections that shape our existence.
We are grateful to share this musical journey with you. May this evening’s music invite you to listen for the fow that connects earth, heavens, and sea—and to rediscover the cross-currents of the worlds within and around us.
Associate Professor Brett Stemple Vice Dean (Performance & Research)
Programme Notes
Chapter I: The Earth Awakens
SYRINX FOR SOLO FLUTE, L. 129
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Debussy’s Syrinx opens the programme in solitude and breath.
Composed in 1913 as incidental music for the play Psyché, the work draws inspiration from the myth of Pan, the pastoral deity of forests and wild landscapes. Written as a single unaccompanied melodic line, Syrinx dissolves traditional structural boundaries, allowing the performer’s phrasing and breath to shape the music organically.
The work evokes an elemental landscape where sound emerges directly from air itself. In this opening chapter, music arises from stillness, grounding the listener in the living earth. The solitary voice establishes the frst current of the programme’s journey—nature before humanity, breath before motion.
Chapter II: In Heaven’s Hold
SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN G MAJOR <1892–1900; REV. 1901–1910>
III. RUHEVOLL
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Without interruption, Mahler’s slow movement expands the sound world upward into vast emotional and spiritual space.
The third movement of the Fourth Symphony serves as a profound meditation, poised between earthly sorrow and transcendent consolation. Mahler constructs an extended set of variations that moves between mourning and luminous serenity, culminating in moments of radiant stillness that seem to glimpse the threshold of the celestial.
Within this suspended musical atmosphere, humanity appears beneath a vast and living sky—grieving, refecting, yet also reaching toward innocence and renewal. The movement foreshadows the symphony’s fnal vision of childlike paradise while embodying the fragile balance between loss and hope. Here, the current widens and deepens, held gently between earth and the infnite.
Chapter III: What Midnight Says
ORCHESTRAL INSTITUTE CREATIVE INTERLUDE
Emerging from Mahler’s suspended stillness, this original creative interlude marks the turning point of the programme. Conceived and realised by students of the Orchestral Institute, the work unfolds in darkness, guiding the listener through a nocturnal descent from the heavens toward the elemental.
Textures gather density, atmosphere thickens, and motion begins to stir beneath the surface. Midnight becomes a space of introspection and transformation—a threshold where the still air of contemplation yields to the pull of gravity and the gathering of tides. This chapter refects the Institute’s role as a laboratory for artistic creation, allowing young musicians to shape the connective current that leads toward Debussy’s oceanic world.
Chapter IV: The Living Sea
LA MER, L. 109, CD. 111 <1903–1905>
I. DE L’AUBE À MIDI SUR LA MER [FROM DAWN TO NOON ON THE SEA]
II. JEUX DES VAGUES [PLAY OF THE WAVES]
III. DIALOGUE DU VENT ET DE LA MER [DIALOGUE OF WIND AND SEA] CLAUDE DEBUSSY
The journey culminates in Debussy’s vast seascape, where the breath of the opening fute line expands into the dynamic forces of wind, water, and light. Rather than depicting the sea in literal terms, La mer captures the fuid interplay of movement, colour, and atmosphere through orchestral innovation and impressionistic sound design.
The work unfolds in three continuous panels, tracing the sea’s transformation from the quiet emergence of dawn, through shimmering wave-play, to the elemental dialogue between wind and water. The ocean appears not only as destination, but as origin—the generative force from which life itself arises.
In this fnal chapter, stillness becomes motion, solitude becomes immensity, and the programme’s single musical current fnds its vast and sustaining source.
Creatives & Production
Jason Lai
CONDUCTOR
Jason Lai is the Principal Conductor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, Principal Guest Conductor at the Orchestra of the Swan, and former Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
Jason has been a prominent fgure in Singapore’s musical life since his arrival in 2010, but also active internationally giving masterclasses in Europe and China. He has also guest conducted the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Podlasie Opera Philharmonic in Poland, Macao Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. Intent on broadening the appeal of classical music to audiences who would not normally think of going into a concert hall, Jason has built a unique reputation as a communicator with mass appeal through his television appearances in both the UK and Asia. He has appeared on the BBC as a judge in both the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and the classical talent show Classical Star. He was also a conducting mentor in the series Maestro and won the competition with his celebrity protégé.
Since settling in Singapore he has continued with his television work and was presenter and conductor for Project Symphony, an eight part series which followed him in his quest to set up a community orchestra. Other shows for BBC World News include Heart of Asia exploring the contemporary arts and culture scene in Thailand, Indonesia, Korea and the Philippines, and Tales from Modern China, a voyage through contemporary China. Most recently in Singing to Remember for Channel News Asia, Jason set out to test the theory that regular group singing in choirs helps slow down the damaging effects of dementia.
Orchestral Institute
FIRST VIOLIN
_______________________________
Chen Shu-Yu, Concertmaster
Huang Chia-Ying
Aureitsevich Natallia
Andrea Lin^
Chen Yun-Li
Chen Yi-Tien
Chien Hsin
Foong Shu Yan Ashley
Ng Ee-Jun
Zhan Qihui
Kim Kyu Ri^
Renee Toh
SECOND VIOLIN
Syu Cheng-Yi, Principal
Kuo Fang-Chen
Gao Wei Tina
Varvara Gritsenko
Yeo See Kang
Chen Hui^
Peng Yiyang
Viktoria Ivaylova Marinova
Xu Zhuorui
Siew Xuan Ying
VIOLA _______________________________
Kung Yu-Ning, Principal
Liu Wei-Jia
Yu Yang
Wu Haiping
Xiao Lei
Yang Yvonne
Claudio Khang Loo An
Lee Hung
Cher Zhi Xian Timothy
CELLO
Ren Zhiyi, Principal
Liu Yubin
Liu Yiduo
Assenbay Alan
Lev Alieiev
Sun Xiaoran
Zhu Ruoning
Chai Siming
DOUBLE BASS
Loewe Lim Li Tong, Principal (Mahler)
Huang Yung-Ting, Principal (Debussy)
Yuan Moer
Cheng Hsu-You
Yu Wenpeng
Zhou Yutong
FLUTE
Simeon Yap Sheng Kiat, Principal (Mahler)
Oh Seonyoung, Principal (Debussy)
Chen Chih-Ying
Qi Yufei
Lazutina Anna Vladimirovna
OBOE
Reynard Ardian Simanjuntak, Principal
Valentino Gerry Febrian Banggul
Goh Jing Zhong, Jasper
CLARINET
Yang Jinliang, Principal (Mahler)
Zhang Liangliang, Principal (Debussy)
Dominic Koh
Hayden Chung-Hei Butt
Sean Nicholas Alexander
BASSOON _______________________________
Liu Jiayu, Principal
Chen Sihong
Chen Chia-Wei
CONTRABASSOON
Wen Xiyu
FRENCH HORN _______________________________
Luo Tianhao, Principal (Mahler)
Lin Shu-Yu, Principal (Debussy)
Harsharon Kaur
Popetorn Buangam
Tseng Hua-Chih
Luo Tianhao
TRUMPET
Chiu Fang-Meng, Principal (Mahler)
Ravit Leelaisiri, Principal (Debussy)
Aw Ping Hui
Wen Chia-Chun
Quek Han Jie Alvin
Chang Ching-Hsuan
Jia Liye
TROMBONE
Huang Shao-Wei, Principal
Toh Chang Hui
Kwai Ming Yang Lucas
TUBA
Lai Chong
TIMPANI _______________________________
Evelyn Kuo Chan
Isabel Chin Chun En
PERCUSSION
Ko I-Ting, Principal (Mahler)
Christian Daniel Ragay Borres, Principal (Debussy)
Hu Yue
Hsu Zih-Ciao
Lin Yen-Ting
Evelyn Kuo Chan
Lai Jo-Wei
HARP
Zeng Yan, Principal
Jesslyn Gautama
^Guest/Alumni
Administration
ORCHESTRAL INSTITUTE
Vice Dean (Performance & Research)
Brett Stemple
Orchestra & Ensembles Manager
Yap Zi Qi
Orchestra & Ensembles Assistant
Uvahraaj S/O Anbarasan
PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
Committee Chair
Brett Stemple
Committee Members
Abigail Sin
Faezah Zulkifi
Jason Lai
Kenny Ooi
Lim Yan
Qin Li-Wei
Yap Zi Qi
PRODUCTIONS
Artistic Coordinator &
Strategic Project Manager
Kenny Ooi
Production Coordinators
Benny Lim
Christopher Ong Yadao
Technical & Operations Managers
Zhang Feng Tee
William Yee
DEAN’S OFFICE
Executive Assistant to the Deanery
Lim Yang Zhi
Communications Offce
Faezah Zulkifi
Toh Yan Ee
