Front Row

It’s classical music dovetailing into classic rock. The conductor tells how he pulls the concert together--composing and arranging the score--as Freddie Mercury had it stored somewhere else. Havens hints of the ocular and the aural experience in store at the concert. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The medical doctor and an expert in occupational healthcare is an accidental collector whose faith in the divine and love for the beautiful coincide in collecting paintings and drawings of Hindu temples.  He has even requested artists to accompany him on his ‘temple-hopping’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Composing original music for a musical may begin with the composer all alone at his keyboard but eventually the composer involves others and then the rewrites. More rewrites. Nick and Cheryl share with us the creative process of working with untried and untested music, and what the composer and singer have to do in the collaboration to succeed.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

A retelling of Joseph’s story. Not the one who led Mary into Bethlehem but  Joseph, the dreamer,  the son of Jacob (later called Israel). What does this adaptation seek to do? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Experimental staging of a scaled-down opera work in a theatre built in a shoplot. The artists are from Korea and Spain, performing a popular opera, ‘La Traviata’. The music director and the soprano tell about the rising above the challenges of not only staging an opera but also staging it in an unusual space where acoustics might pose its own set of issues.   See omnystudio.com/li...

A locally written and produced English-language musical by a company that describes itself as offering a platform for ‘Soul-Based Creators/Energisers to showcase/exercise their creativity while simultaneously building a holistic and diverse Community.’ It has a mission to ‘inspire rapid Change amongst the world’s population towards a Better Way of Living’ and add to t...

  Orang Orang Drum Theatre took its first production ‘Hidup Ini Senget’ on the road to smaller townships in the country. Through its engagement with its audiences, it reworked, re-imagined, deconstructed and reconstructed a new production called ‘LaguKu’. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Young KL Singers have organized a concert and appear to be testing and experimenting with its audience: to engender sight through their singing. The choir if off to test test its audience (its mind’s eye) through sound; to test how and emotions wash over the audience through organized auditory impulses. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pusaka has invited a group of performers from the Congo, the Bayaka Pygmies, to perform here in town. As a culture the Aka (or sometimes called Bayaka) have been dubbed ‘the best dads in the world’ by an organization, Fathers Direct. Will nurturing fathers engender a different kind of music? A different kind of sound?   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The conductor, David Chin, situates the monumental Bach’s St John Passion in its historical context and points out its significance today in the collection of sacred works. The soloists tell about singing sacred music in modern times. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Digital Art and Culture Festival made its first appearance in 2011. That three-day event took place at Suffolk House, Penang, and on display were works from animation, video, design, computer programmers and music. After a hiatus of several years, it’s making a comeback with installations, mobile film screening and more. But what is digital art and how does it intersect with culture? See...

Ben Stock, here in KL to teach a young group of would-be musical-theatre performers the skills required for the genre, tells about life on the road for a performer who has to cross not just international borders but also time zones. He tells about the process of putting his show together and the ingredients to make it successful, and then what’s next to follow the earlier success. He is in t...

The artist talks about his work in a Singapore exhibition titled, ‘After Utopia’. His specific visual work is called ‘Block B’ (a film, a documentary, but not your everyday film/documentary), with all the connotation and preconceived notions the title suggests. Chris Chong describes the process and points to the overt and covert impulses that drive his art and the role of t...

He's back from Taiwan and now readying for his second solo concert in the country since graduating from Singapore's Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. Bryan Lee has been described as ‘so talented it’s also intimidating’, but he humbly shares his reasons for the selected repertoire and explains the harp--the sounds it makes, the mood it creates and its place among other instruments. See...

The playwrights have received funding to stage their locally written and situated play about star-crossed lovers: one a Malaysian and the other, an American. Joanna and Na’s reveal the writing process--often described as an activity for one--with Joanna providing the play's spine and treatment, and Na’a tapping into his TV writing experience, rewriting and fleshing out. Then together w...

When Mark Beau de Silva has plays for both Faridah Merican and Joe Hasham, it’s a rare opportunity to get them to talk about being in the same production. Faridah and Joe reveal how they choose the productions they want to act in and also their fears on stage. Mark tells about why Sisa-Sisa. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A graduation project with requirements to be fulfilled within the academy spilled into the public domain when the graduating student met with the writer-director. Together, they pulled the musical together, allowing the student to become producer and music director; and for the composer-director to work with young artists taking first steps to sing, dance and act on a public stage. See omnystudio....

When the taking of voice classes and training in musical theatre give birth to a career option on the stage. The two young adults, graduating from their musical theatre training, tell about their journey from a sit-down-profession to one that keeps them on their feet and in the spotlight, telling stories as a character through songs and sometimes dances too. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

The choir makes a case for participating in a singing competition in Bali.  Yes, it's a dog-eat-dog world. But should all activities enter the competition arena, including the performing arts which are to build communities, engender imaginative and creative lives, heal troubled spirits? What happens when performing arts stand next to martial arts? Oh, but when the competition is in Bali, well...

This local ballet-interest company not only organizes workshops and competitions for its participating members but also organizes ballet productions that are large enough to go into the Istana Budaya. In the latter part of the month, it will be staging ‘La Bayadere’ a full-length classical ballet with international dancers as principals, and our local star, Joseph Gonzales, also in a p...

Accordion duo, Bayan Brothers, come to town under the sponsorship of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Kuala Lumpur. This 19th century musical instrument has for the most part been associated with folk and ethnic music, but these musician, who have participated in the Polish edition of ‘Got Talent’ do more: classical to pop as well as club vibes. See omnystudio.com/listener for...

He sold everything to buy an old yacht. Then raised funds online to produce documentary videos of grassroots conservation groups in the region fighting pollution, saving the ecosystem, doing what often goes ignored. Jase Kovacs and his first mate, Jolene Burr tell about the Voyage of the Labyrinth and how they want to contribute to saving the planet, one small step at a time. See omnystudio.com/li...

He travels around taking theatre skills to folks who are not going to become performers. In fact, these are marginalized groups of young people that are often in trouble with the law. Tearlach Duncanson tells how taking applied theatre to these people can help transform their lives See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guests give us a view into the creation of this local play, from conception to writing, workshopping and rehearsing to anticipating the opening night. This is a project under the New Malaysian Works Grant for the script writing which was co-organised by National Department For Culture And Arts and Kakiseni. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seeing clone-like physical similarities between dancer Steve Goh and himself, Ng Chor Guan imagines a world where time-travel makes possible such improbabilities. He frames this performance also in the context of the nation’s ‘Vision 2020’ and the optical ‘2020’. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.