Mad about music

DRESSED casually with slivers of white hair on his head, Ng Chor Guan has simply only one thing on his mind.

“When I’m not listening to music, my head is working on music, whether in the bathroom, on a train, even when I’m sleeping,” says Ng with a smile during an interview at Starbucks in Bangsar Village, sheltered from the steady drizzle outside.

“Do you like the sound of the rain? Its rhythm is a calming pattern,” adds the soft-spoken 27-year-old from Klang.

With two older sisters and a younger brother, Ng is the only one in his family who’s mad about music, something he discovered at a young age.

“In the 80s I used to love listening to the tunes from TV series and cartoons, you know, like MacGyver, the A-Team or V.

“I remember my grandmother would get irritated and turn off the volume but I could always still hear the music and sounds in my head,” says Ng, who went on to study at Yamaha Academy, graduating with a degree in music composition from Middlesex University, London.

“I did my final year in London and stayed on for a couple of years to work and gain some experience before returning in 2006.”

Ng is now a busy freelance composer creating music for concerts, film, theatre, dance, multimedia and educational productions.

Some of his collaborations with local theatre artistes and choreographers include productions like Antigone, Okiku: A Tragedy Retold, The Curse Of The Forbidden Palace, Whispers Of Love and The Lost And The Ecliptic.

“I find it inspiring to work with many different people,” says Ng, who was nominated for the Cameronian Arts Awards’ Most Promising Artist Award early this year.

His latest collaboration is with Dance Space, for the dance school’s production of The Nutcracker.

This much loved fairy tale-ballet features music originally composed by Tchaikovsky. How do you top that?

“Well his music is perfect and I’m a big fan of his work, so it was a great challenge personally.

“I’ve seen The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House while I was in London and it was brilliant,” he says.

“But what I’m doing is a different take on the original, with electronic and synthesized sounds gelled to newly composed orchestral sounds to complement the pieces that Tchaikovsky originally composed,” says Ng, who uses Apple’s Logic software on a notebook for recordings in a virtual environment.

He describes the music as repetitive minimal motifs that keep on expanding from a very simple idea with lots of different flavours as well.

“I attended rehearsals and worked closely with choreographer Steve Goh to work out the tempos, moods and rhythms,” he says.

The Nutcracker will feature 160 ballerinas performing for about an hour and forty minutes with music throughout and without any intervals.

“This is the biggest group of dancers I’ve worked with so far.

“Some of the dancers are only four years old, so I needed to compose music that’s easy for them to follow and to get the cue. So the music varies from easy to more complex articulations,” he says.

Ng, who plays the electronic organ and French horn, makes a point to produce his own CDs of music he’s done for various projects, which can now also be found on iTunes.

“I’ve put out limited editions of eight albums so far for those who want to bring back an aural piece of the performances they’ve attended,” he says.

Ng also lectures at Universiti Malaya, New Era College and Yamaha Academy.

“I feel that it’s good to promote local music and to produce original compositions.

“Teaching is a good way to train new people and I really love Malaysia,” he says. “That’s why I decided to come back to see what I can do.”

Catch The Nutcracker today (3pm& 8pm) at Pentas 1, KLPac, Sentul Park, Jalan Strachan, KL. Admission is RM90-RM150. Call 03-40479000 or 03-20949400.