Front Row

Our guest thinks the world of Adele, the singer. And she has written a musical--a one-woman musical--to tell her story. We find out from Ms Price where she got her information from beyond what’s in the public domain. We get her to sing a few songs and find out if Adele’s spirit resides in her. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest describes the sound the choir makes and points out why an academically competitive institution like the University of Cambridge could nurture so many choirs. Graham Ross underscores why in the competitive race to recruit undergraduates to his choir, what it offers and what distinguishes this choir from others. The choir, after its recital, sings with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra...

The recent brouhaha precipitated by the award for the Best Malaysian Film has provided the context for the present festival to celebrate diversity in local films. Our guests tell us how these local films were selected to be produced and then to be screened at the festival which will be bookended with a forum at the start and at the end of all the screenings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

Four young people got together to sing but is passion enough to sustain them. The guys tell how they have to market themselves in  order to get paying gigs, and how for a spell must literally sing for their supper. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adibah Noor tells about her life as an artist on Front Row and about her upcoming show at a jazz club.  Here is a performer who has left her mark in music, films and television shows, not counting her presence in TVCs and point-of-sale collaterals. Michael Veerapen places Adibah in the context of singers in the country. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shakespeare in English and set in England is to be expected. But locally we have seen the Bard staged in Chinese and in China; in Malay and in Malaya or some imagined country in Nusantara. Now the Bard travels to Bollywood. Our guests tell us what shakes this Shakespeare into saris and salwar kameez. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest tells us about speaking from the centre of our voice in order to communicate authentically with others and to allow others to be comfortable with us.  He also shares what he has discovered about Shakespeare, and will be sharing this information in his performance which he sings songs based on the Bard’s works, like ‘West Side Story’, and ‘The Lion King’...

Our guests tell us about the Chinese Jazz movement  in the country, the trials and tribulations.  With more venues available for live music performances, opportunities open up for singers in the vernacular to find their audience and to find collaborators. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In-your-face performances of poetry take centre stage in ‘100 Thousand Poets for Change 2016’. Our guest tells why the written word can be persuasive, more so when it is performed often by people who are not necessarily performers but who are honestly trying to share an ideal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We caught up with David Glass on his visit to KL running a workshop on physical theatre. But isn’t theatre by definition physical? David Glass clarifies and tells why theatre must continue to innovate to engage, just like anything else. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Celebrating its fourth international drumming festival, Hands Percussion has invited three acts from overseas. Bernard Goh brings with him US-based Targapa of Burkina Faso (Africa) to share with us the group’s drumming and dancing. Dafra Drum has its roots in the ancient Manding Empire. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A beverage company is anchoring an art exhibition of works in conjunction with the country’s celebrating of August 31 and September 16. This exhibition is co-curated by three practicing artists who chose in a blind selection the works to be exhibited. Fritilldea’s design for the beverage company’s limited edition Malaysian can launch in March this year was the model from which su...

A silver-prize winner in the established-artist category of the United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year last year, Azizi Latiff, explains how and why he creates his works. He also points to the role art competitions play in the lives of artists and explains the need for competition. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We find out what is a sonic poem from one of the creators and the creative producer of Toccata Studio that runs artists residency programs. While each word in ‘sonic poem’ has clear denotative meanings, when yoked together they offer something else. The artist tells what prompts such a project and what he and his collaborator, Kok Siew-Wai, were exploring. See omnystudio.com/listener f...

The artist tells how growing up under the influence of his mother, it is inevitable that he is a photographer, and one who is interested in questions about life. He responds to art critics who categorizes his works as ‘disturbing’ turning the attention back on these art writers.  The artist will hold his Malaysian debut in October at Wei-Ling Contemporary See omnystudio.com/listen...

After ‘Shakespeare’s Women’ it’s a matter of equality to stage ‘Shakespeare’s Men’. Two from the production share what all is involved and which scenes will be staged and in what context. They tell how as actors they participated in the creation of this work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 The La Voce Choir celebrates ten years of its existence with a concert--’A Decade in Harmony’--and outreach programmes. Running a community choir has both its joys and challenges, and our guests tell about competing overseas and composing original works. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The poet-musician is in the country promoting his kind of contemporary music--hip-hop, rap, urban music but shaped by his spiritual and contemplative nature. He tells about the obstacle that blocks people from embracing and accepting The Other--ignorance. This conversation links language, spirituality, connectedness and ‘truths’; touching on the Beatles, Rumi, George Orwell,  base...

A conversation in the gallery where the artist is exhibiting his watercolours and three oils completed recently for ‘Colours of Heritage’. The artist, Alex Leong, points out the characteristics of his works and reveals how he picks up ideas from always teaching and observing his young students. ‘Colours of Heritage’ could just as well be called ‘Colours of Happiness&r...

With its focus on education, in particular arts education, the festival will not only showcase the variety of performing and visual arts available but also point out the evolution of the local arts industry. The artistic director will share how the events and arts offerings are curated while the artist underscores the part her installation plays. The chairman of YSD, YB Tun Musa Hitam has undersco...

When numbers appear, they suggest just by their placement a context. The number 2057, points to the future, beyond the sacred 2020 when Malaysia is supposed to attain ‘developed’ status, leaving behind notions that it is still becoming. A group of artists have been challenged to imagine 2057, some forty years into the future and 37 years beyond 2020. Echoes of Zager and Evans ‘In...

‘La Boheme’ an opera by Puccini premiered in 1896, and notwithstanding its early subdued responses, became very popular.  Even today, the composer’s name ranks very high and ‘La Boheme’ ranks in the top three of most performed operas in the 2014-2015 season. Worldwide. Our guests answer if our local opera audiences are ready to go beyond the La Bohemes and the La...

The London-based guitarist, Robin Banerjee, who has accompanied Amy Winehouse is in town. He is playing  with Dasha Logan. He relates his 20 years as a professional and about embracing different genres to create his own style and feel. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guests introduce us to two different strains of Indian music--North Indian Classical and South Indian Carnatic--and meld them for us in preparation for an upcoming concert. They will be playing the violin and the sitar to give us a taste of what the combined ‘sounds’ of these two different strains of music would create, although the other musicians (tabla and mridangam players) who...

Last year, KataKatha brought together 10 principal Southeast Asian cultural figures--distinguished names from various fields of the arts--from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia to participate in a series of conversations around the theme of ‘Shared History, Shared Culture, Shared Traditions’. This exhibition reflects what they discussed and then explored, to mak...