September 27, 2022
Image Caption: Sulwyn Lok (far right) leading the Victoria Chinese Orchestra, a community orchestra he co-founded, at their very first production Recollections: 华乐回忆 in 2019. (Photo Credit: Dusk Low)
The arts may be a road less travelled but that doesn’t stop two young artists and alumni from NUS’ Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Sulwyn Lok and Li Churen, from braving the journey in pursuit of their love and passion for music. In this mini-series, we catch up with these recipients of the 2019 Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence to find out more about their journey so far.
Sulwyn Lok is a homegrown composer-conductor who writes music for both the stage and screen, and is presently pursuing his Masters in Screen Scoring at the New York University. We’ve had the opportunity to hear from Sulwyn about his artistic journey and inspiration, as well as how the Paul Abisheganaden Grant has made his dreams come true – learning from the most experienced and successful experts in the field through the Hollywood Music Workshop in Austria. He shares some of his most cherished memories as an artist, his magical experience in Austria and how the grant has complemented his career as a musician.
Q: How did your interest in music first begin, and how has that led you to being the composer-conductor you are today?
A: I have always loved music since I was a young child, even though I never realised it until much later. I enjoyed hitting rhythms with kitchen utensils until someone stopped me, and I was fascinated with the instruments the monks were playing at funeral wakes. My dad is a great singer, and my mum was in a choir, so all of that had a great influence on me. The realisation of my love for music truly came when I joined the Victoria School Chinese Orchestra when I was 13, and I would play with the zhongruan all day long. I later joined the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra at 17, and the nurturing environment as well as inspiring teachers made me consider making music a career. After my A Levels, I resolved to dedicate my time and energy to something I strongly felt for and believed in. I decided to apply for the NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST), as the Recording Arts and Science programme felt like an attractive synthesis of my science and music background. My time in YST really solidified the beginnings of this path I have taken.
Q: In creating music, where do you draw your inspiration from, and how do you differentiate yourself from other musicians?
A: Differentiating myself from others has never been something I actively think about. I draw a lot of my inspiration from nature and diverse cultures. Showers and long walks often put me in a creative state that give me new ideas and help me visualise the form of what I am creating, it could be due to the flow of water or life around me. I also love exploring the traditional musical cultures of different ethnic groups, as there is a world of colours to be discovered and mixed into my palette. From them, I get new perspectives in music, and new ways of looking at life.
Q: What would you say are some of the most cherished memories and/or accomplishments of your artistic journey, both within and beyond your NUS life?
A: The 4 years in NUS and YST were really the space I needed to critically think about the role of the arts in society, and grow from a bedroom musician to an artist for the world. Under NUS’ sponsorship and YST’s mentorship, I co-organised a series of music pedagogy sessions for students in Laos, ran a music workshop for Afghan refugees in Indonesia alongside faculty member Leslie Tan and my peers, premiered a triple concerto in Singapore and Korea that was specially written by Assistant Professor Chen Zhangyi, and had so many more opportunities to see the world. The faculty of YST was also really supportive of my friends and I when we founded Poco Productions while we were still students, as we saw the need for a dedicated company for quality digital media production services for the arts in Singapore. Especially when COVID-19 hit the hardest, we are glad that our efforts brought Singapore’s arts to a global audience, through digital concerts and recordings of artists like Chloe Chua and Red Dot Baroque (now one of the Ensembles-in-Residence at YST).
Q: Back in 2019, you were awarded the Paul Abisheganaden Grant and took that opportunity to participate in the Film Scoring Summer Academy by the Hollywood Music Workshop in Baden bei Wien, Austria. Can you share with us more about why this workshop was chosen and how have you gained from this workshop? Other than attending this workshop, what would you say are the highlights of your time in Austria?
A: I chose to attend the summer academy by the Hollywood Music Workshop (HMW) after much research on their programmes. As a media composer who uses music to tell stories in film, I wanted a wider perspective of what I was doing and strengthen my technical expertise. The HMW faculty consists of the most experienced and successful orchestrators, arrangers and composers working on the highest levels of the global film scoring and music industry. We had Grammy Award-winning arranger Nan Schwartz who taught us to completely rethink a melody when rearranging a song. Iconic orchestrator Conrad Pope, who worked on the Star Wars and Harry Potter films, gave us many new ideas for writing for the orchestra, as well as practical tips on avoiding orchestration pitfalls and making musicians happy through what you write, to get the best performance out of them. Downton Abbey composer John Lunn developed our musical language for TV scoring through his pressure-cooking exercises, and No Time to Die orchestrator Oscar Senén gave an intensive workshop on streamlining our technical workflows when working on large projects – getting more done quicker means more time for yourself, your family, life, and sleep.
Simply being in Austria was rejuvenating and inspiring, I lived about 5 minutes away from Beethovenhaus Baden, where Beethoven wrote his 9th symphony. Being a huge fan of the German musical Elisabeth, it was also a huge surprise and honour to watch my favourite actors from the show perform at a live concert, and chat with them. It was like a teenage dream came through.
Q: In what way, has the Paul Abisheganaden Grant helped fulfil your dreams as a musician and complemented your professional career?
A: The Paul Abisheganaden Grant gave me a chance to take an entire month off and completely focus on taking myself to the next level as a media composer by learning from legends in the industry.