Presenter(s)
Presenters
Chee Meng Low
Damrih Banawitayakit
Leonard Tan
Benjamin Yeo
Bio(s)
Chee Meng Low
Low Chee Meng is an artist-educator for Yamaha Music Ltd. and enjoys a diverse career as a conductor, educator, administrator, and performing on saxophone as an orchestral, chamber, and solo musician. Chee Meng was the host for the 2019 Region 9 North American Saxophone Alliance regional conference, a member of the International Committee, World Saxophone Congress (2006-2009) and the Asia Saxophone Conference (2019 – present), regional representative of the Asia Pacific Band Directors' Association (2007-2010), and current member of the North American Saxophone Alliance. Recent creative activities included as concerto performance with the Red Deer Symphony for their 2022/23 season and at the 2022 North American Saxophone Alliance Region 9 conference which he shared the stage as soloist with esteemed saxophone professor Claude Delangle from the Paris Conservatoire.
Damrih Banawitayakit
Damrih had served as a full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Music, Silpakorn University, and Presidents of Feroci Philharmonic Society. Damrih is also active as a composer, music arranger and conductor. The conducting performances are included musical ensembles such as New Siam Wind Orchestra, Metropole Stage Orchestra, Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and Dreambox Stage Orchestra@MTheatre etc. He also appears as a guest conductor for the musical theatre: Koogum the musical(Dreambox Production) in 2005, incidental music for the Chinese melodrama The Story of Butterfly Lovers in 2006, Man of La Mancha at Ratchadalai Theatre(Co-production of Theatre 28 and Scenario) in June 2008, Kurt Weil.
Leonard Tan
Singaporean musician Leonard Tan is a prolific conductor with a strong presence in the Singapore arts scene. He has conducted numerous leading ensembles, including the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore National Youth Orchestra (Principal Conductor), Ensemble de la Belle Musique (Principal Conductor), Philharmonic Wind Orchestra (Music Director), and Indiana University Orchestras.
He earned his doctoral degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied orchestral conducting with David Effron, Arthur Fagen, and Murray Sidlin. Additional conducting studies were with Leif Segerstam and Alexander Polischuk in Russia, where he worked with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, and with Johannes Schlaefli, where he worked with Academic Orchestra Zurich. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Benjamin Yeo
Benjamin Yeo is a well sought-after composer-conductor, Benjamin largely writes commissioned works and remains an active clinician and conductor with both local and overseas invitations. He is a member of the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS). Benjamin Yeo is a Singaporean composer-conductor who is internationally recognized for his original wind band works. His works have since been performed at both national and international platforms such as the locally-held Singapore Youth Festival Arts Presentation for Brass/Concert Bands, the Japan Band Clinic in Hamamatsu and the prestigious Midwest Clinic, an annual International Band and Orchestra Conference held in Chicago, Illinois. He has also been invited to serve as an adjudicator for events such as the Junior Band Festival in Singapore, the All Chinese Wind Band Competition in Taiwan and The Sichuan Wind Orchestra Competition in China.
Diversity, inclusion and equity of the wind band movement in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. A panel discussion on how to strengthen the relationship between the three Southeast Asia countries wind related ensemble, and what’s the difficulties we facing.
Located in the Southeast Asia, the three countries are blessed with the diversity in lifestyle and languages: from the practice of primarily Theravada Buddhism in Thailand, to a two-third population that practices Islam in Malaysia, and to the modern city-state of Singapore. Connected through the land between Thailand and Malaysia, and a narrow strait between Malaysia and Singapore, the three countries witness the growth of wind band programs for the past many decades, in a similar but yet different approached from the government, the music community and the general public. While the language of English is practice by many in the region, language barriers was, and is still playing a key influenced in the information flowing in and out from the three countries. This has created a very diverse approach to wind band movements in the school system, tertiary level and at the community level. In-depth conversation, research, and how to promote the wide varieties of wind band movements in the three countries are essential for the continuous growth.