Front Row

A week into the holy days after Ramadan, we invite singer Lah Ahmad to share with us his journey from being a crooner with R&B roots to his recently launched second solo album of Islamic music, titled “Sempurna dan Terbaik.”  It was less than twelve months ago when he launched his first non-secular album “Jalan Untok Kembali.”

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Last year, as part of the celebrations to commemorate Laura Fygi’s solo career as a jazz singer, Universal Music,  launched a double album with the the singer’s most popular fan-chosen tracks on one CD; and on the second CD, 12 others, described as ‘bonus tracks’. The singer is on her Asian tour and dropped by the studio for us to get acquainted with the person with the voice that sings in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Chinese.

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Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ is presented through the grotesque of Butoh in the shapes of two productions,  ‘Laments of the Dead” and ‘’Car Park and Six Incidents of Murder.”  Swee Keong says that Richard III presents himself first as a man of conscience, however, this voice of morality does not stop him from the mayhem he commits and the blood he spills to reach the throne and hold on to it. We find out if these productions defends evil merely by beautifying it.

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Rarely do we get to see a full dance performance with hip-hop and breakdancing at its core. But we had three dancers from the Par Terre Company who told us how hip hop is different from ballet and contemporary as well as the influence of the internet on the style of hip hop dance around the world. 

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Our guests point out the differences between classical Indian dances and “tribal and folk” dances and why the need to showcase the latter. Today we get a little performance history and a peek into an upcoming celebration called ‘Dhanyosmi’.

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A dozen tux-clad, undergraduates from Harvard University came to town to sing a capella, with proceeds going to Dialogue in the Dark Malaysia, a social enterprise whose aim is to build empathy with those who are visually impaired. For the first time in their 70 year history, the Harvard Krokodiloes performed in the dark, and they shared their experience rehearsing sans visual cues, and their favourite moments of their World Tour so far.

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Odyssey’ is a term now in our general parlance evoking notions of a long journey. Some may remember Homer and his stories about the returning Greek. The Singapore Art Museum has commissioned (mostly Southeast Asian) artists to use that term in ways that would challenge our notions of seas, bodies of water and the boundaries they create and blur. Assistant Curator, Andrea Fam, talks about the works, artists and how space within the museum is used for an immersive experience.

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We get up-close and personal with a young jazz saxophonist who many describe as the best pair of lips on the saxophone in the country. Most recently he was on stage with Branford Marsalis, jamming at a well-known jazz watering hole.

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After more than a year of meeting and talking, the Selangor Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kuala Lumpur City Opera have realized a production, Opera Extravaganza 2016. Like all partnerships, there are compromises. We find out how these musicians negotiate to bring on stage a performance that satisfies both entities.  We also find out about the promised ‘extravaganza’.

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Local arts group TerryAndTheCuz are are taking on the grave issue of human trafficking, through a new contemporary dance and theatre project titled SK!N.

We discuss the in-depth research and background work that went into translating this complex and disturbing issue into an arts production, and the role that the arts play in making these issues more relatable to the masses, with writer and producer Terence Conrad of TerryAndTheCuz.

You can back their Kickstarter fundraising project for the production HERE.

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