Singaporean pianist Churen redefines classical pianism by blending different musical genres in her personal musical voice. Hailed as “the closest thing I know to be the ‘complete’ pianist” in Singapore by a leading music critic and a “well rounded, versatile performer” by another, she tours internationally as a classical recitalist and orchestral soloist, playing her own compositions and improvisations in concert, in addition to an eclectic repertoire from ranging from Chopin and Debussy, to Michael Jackson, John Williams, and George Crumb.
Praised for her “poise, expressiveness and keyboard abilities”, she opened the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s 2022/23 season in July ‘22 with Grieg’s Piano Concerto conducted by Han-Na Chang. Churen has also been featured in the Singapore International Piano Festival and Singapore International Festival of Arts. In the same year, her debut album Ephemory revealed a composer-pianist of contemporary and post-modern sensibilities adept in a variety of musical languages, delivering original takes on well-known classical themes as well as her own original compositions. In 2018, Churen produced and performed in a concert at Singapore’s well known Zouk nightclub, juxtaposing the Western art songs within a pop culture setting. She was among the ten pianists selected in 2018 to participate and perform in the Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music, and in the same year, at the prestigious Roche Continents programme in Salzburg, an interdisciplinary programme of workshops and lectures in the arts and in science.
Graduating at the age of 19 with a Bachelor’s Degree from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (National University of Singapore) as the youngest in her cohort, Churen subsequently studied with well-known pianist Peter Frankl and Hung-Kuan Chen at the Yale School of Music where she obtained a Master’s Degree. She later went on to obtain a Master of Philosophy in Music from Cambridge University with a dissertation on George Crumb. Since then, Churen continues to be active in the performance and production of new music, working in inter-disciplinary collaborations and across genres.
A prize winner at numerous international piano competitions, Churen has also been invited to perform at music festivals and recital halls all over the world, often appearing in partnership with luxury brands such as Cartier, Chanel and Richard Mille. She was also honoured in Singapore Tatler's Generation-T List in 2018. In 2015, she performed as soloist in a tour of Macau and Hong Kong with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Orchestra, at the invitation of Singapore’s High Consulate in Hong Kong as part of Singapore’s 50th jubilee celebrations of independence. Other concerto engagements include performances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Cambridge University Orchestra, Klassische Budapest Philharmonic, Metropolitan Festival Orchestra Singapore, Mikhail Jora Philharmonic of Bacau and National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
She is also the recipient of prestigious grants, including the Tan Kah Kee Postgraduate Scholarship (2015), the FJ Benjamin-Singapore Symphony Orchestra Bursary (2013) and the National Arts Council Arts Scholarship (2011-15).
Churen currently teaches at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music as an Artist Faculty and was previously an Academic Faculty at Yale-NUS College. She is the founder of the Classical Music Adventures initiative, a series of interactive classical music shows that work with community venues.
Her past teachers include Albert Tiu, Bernard Lanskey, Paul Liang, Peter Frankl and Hung-Kuan Chen.
Bachtrack: Han-Na Chang conducts familiar favourites as the Singapore Symphony's new season opens
Chang Tou Liang
18 July 2022
Li was a graduate from Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, and has garnered master’s degrees in music and philosophy from Yale and Cambridge respectively. Academic achievements aside, her full-blooded approach to the Grieg had much to recommend. Hers was not just a performance of utmost virtuosity but one full of nuances as well. Keen awareness for the music’s inner poetry sat cheek-by-jowl with the requisite barnstorming, not least in the first movement’s Lisztian cadenza. The slow movement’s muted strings ushered in heart-on-sleeve emoting by Li before the finale’s bounding Halling dance. There was a brief lapse of synchronicity but that was shrugged off without issue, the grandstanding close being what what mattered most. Her lovely encore was retiring in stark contrast, Dobrou noc ! (Good Night!) from Janacek’s On an Overgrown Path.
Credit must also go to Korean guest conductor Han-Na Chang, former child prodigy cellist, for her mastery of fine orchestral detail, which would also influence the performance of Grieg’s evergreen Piano Concerto in A minor that followed. It is often said that all conductors will sleepwalk through this work. Not so this evening, as her astute marshalling of the orchestral forces paved the way for Singaporean pianist Churen Li’s showcase.
Now that the pandemic has attained endemic status in Singapore, this opening concert of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-23 season thus marked a complete reset to the “good old days” of before the virus. This reset also saw concert programmes reminiscent of the orchestra’s early years (1979 to early-80s), when wet-behind-the-ears audiences were gradually introduced to popular works of the repertoire in accessible doses. Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich would come much later, but one name was ubiquitous: Rossini. His operatic overtures were de rigeuer in early SSO concerts, so the inclusion of the Overture to William Tell was most apt.
Its opening with massed cellos was atmospheric, with principal Ng Pei-Sian’s solo a real standout. The ensuing Alpine storm was short but riveting, and the pastoral scene with Elaine Yeo’s cor anglais and Roberto Alvarez’s flute contributions being pivotal to the performance’s finesse. This “mini concerto for orchestra” concluded with the most famous musical gallop of all, with brass working overtime. This would have been the perfect primer to the orchestra for any person attending a classical concert for the very first time.
Credit must also go to Korean guest conductor Han-Na Chang, former child prodigy cellist, for her mastery of fine orchestral detail, which would also influence the performance of Grieg’s evergreen Piano Concerto in A minor that followed. It is often said that all conductors will sleepwalk through this work. Not so this evening, as her astute marshalling of the orchestral forces paved the way for Singaporean pianist Churen Li’s showcase.
Li was a graduate from Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, and has garnered master’s degrees in music and philosophy from Yale and Cambridge respectively. Academic achievements aside, her full-blooded approach to the Grieg had much to recommend. Hers was not just a performance of utmost virtuosity but one full of nuances as well. Keen awareness for the music’s inner poetry sat cheek-by-jowl with the requisite barnstorming, not least in the first movement’s Lisztian cadenza. The slow movement’s muted strings ushered in heart-on-sleeve emoting by Li before the finale’s bounding Halling dance. There was a brief lapse of synchronicity but that was shrugged off without issue, the grandstanding close being what what mattered most. Her lovely encore was retiring in stark contrast, Dobrou noc ! (Good Night!) from Janacek’s On an Overgrown Path.
The 52 minutes of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony might seem long-drawn or dragged out, but it did not feel that way. Under Chang, who conducted from memory, the overall pacing was very well judged. The emphatically punched-out two opening chords set the tone; this was not going to be a routine run through. Although brisk and bristling with urgency, the tempos never felt hectic or forced. The ever-pervasive sense of surging forward came in waves, symbolic of the impetuous Napoleonic inspiration, except that Beethoven had angrily scratched out his original dedication. He was not going to honour an emperor and tyrant, but the memory of a hero that was. To that end, the second movement’s funeral march became all the more inevitable. Again, the pacing was just right; not too lugubrious, and the build up to its powerful climax proved to be the highlight. Spurts of premature applause from newbies in the audience seemed like the right response to relieve the tension. To contrast the symphony’s shorter and far lighter second half with the very serious first, the mood softened considerably.
The Scherzo was clockwork in its delivery, capped by the trio of French horns who were in sync throughout. The finale, playing on the comedic Creatures of Prometheus theme, revelled in its humour and busy counterpoint, without being frivolous. This was a nuanced reading which took its time in the quieter bits, which made the furious coda all the more exciting as the symphony drew to its triumphant close. There must have been many first-timers to this concert, and judging by the applause accorded to Chang and her charges, it certainly will not be their last.