Adrian Tan, Music Director
Adrian Tan (b. 1977) graduated with honours in Theatre Studies from the National University of Singapore. His significant participation in Music and Theatre has distinguished him as a unique multi-disciplinary artist with an impressive repertoire of work and achievements in Singapore and overseas. Adrian is the recipient of the prestigious National Arts Council (Singapore) Overseas Scholarship, and completed his Masters in Music Studies (Conducting) studying with Imre Pallo at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He also studied conducting with Harold Farberman, Robert Gutter and Ovidiu Balan, and participated in master classes in orchestral conducting with Gunther Herbig, and in wind and choral conducting with Jan Cober and Hans Leenders respectively.
Adrian has led wind bands and orchestras at the community as well as professional levels. He had served as Music Director of AudioImage Wind Ensemble from (2000-2006), the Paradigm Ensemble (2000-2002) and the Sydney University Wind Orchestra (2011). He actively champions the music of Singaporean composers and has presented premieres of compositions by Singaporean composers Americ Goh, Chen Zhangyi, Zechariah Goh Toh Chai, Ho Chee Kong, Kelly Tang and Phoon Yew Tien. Adrian has also worked with prominent composers in the Japanese video game industry like Hitoshi Sakimoto (Finanl Fantasy XII), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross) and Hideki Sakamoto (Echochrome, Yakuza) in numerous video game concerts. He was invited to conduct for the recording of the musical soundtrack for the Australian feature film “Next door to the Velinsky’s” (2010) and the short film “The Domestication of Humans” (2010) at Fox Studios Australia.
In 2010, he was appointed Assistant Choir Master of the Willoughby Symphony Choir (Sydney, Australia). He was also the assistant conductor in the production of Otto Nicolai's “Merry Wives of Windsor”, and the Musical Director of the productionof Darius Milhaud's “Les Malheurs d'Orphee” at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has also appeared with the Beecroft Orchestra (Australia), Mosman Symphony Orchestra (Australia), Philharmonica “Mihail Jora” (Romania), Ho Chi Minh Conservatory Orchestra (Vietnam) and numerous guest engagements with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (Vietnam) since 2007.
Adrian Tan is the Music Director of the Singapore Wind Symphony, Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra, and the Saigon Philharmonic Orchestra in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Yan Yin Wing, Conductor Emeritus
Yan Yin Wing completed his music studies in London and obtained the Associate of the Royal College of Music (ARCM) in violin teaching in 1978. In 1984, with a grant from the Singapore Cultural Foundation, he completed an Advanced Orchestra Conducting Course at the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam, Holland.
Having helmed the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra as music director from 1989-2012, Yan’s passion for music and especially promoting classical music and providing platforms for young music talents can be seen with the inaugural Gifted Young Musicians Concerts (GYMC) in 1997. Always keen to engage the community, Yan has started a Junior Orchestra at the Braddell Heights Community Club in June 2012.
Besides teaching, mentoring and conducting, Yan has, on many occasions, represented Singapore or led the delegation at ASEAN Youth Music Workshops and Composers’ Workshops in the region. A keen composer, his composition “Salute” was premiered at the National Tribute Dinner for Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Yan’s compositions have been performed in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and also in China by the National Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra of Beijing. Other compositions include chamber works, overtures, operettas, songs, choruses and his first symphony "Harmony" was premiered at a BHSO concert in November 2008. A CD album, titled “My Favourite Classics” was also recorded by BHSO members in 2006.
An orchestra exchange programme initiated by Yan with the Korea Symphony Orchestra in 1999 has seen him conducting many of their concerts with the most recent one in June 2014 playing to an audience of almost 3,000. Some BHSO members have also performed as guest orchestra members and our young music talents have also been invited as soloists. Other overseas invitations to conduct include Malaysia’s Penang Symphony Orchestra and in Siberia, Russia to conduct the Krasnoyarsk Symphony Orchestra in their concert as part of the 3rd Krasnoyarsk International Music Festival of the Asian-Pacific Region, 2012.
Darren Sim, Assistant Conductor
Darren Sim graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Music Education (first class honours) with a minor in Instrumental Pedagogy. There, he continued with his orchestral and natural Horn studies with Darryl Poulsen and Wendy Page, and Music Education studies with Dr Sam Leong and Andrea Stanberg. Darren recently received his DipLCM in conducting.
In his twelve years of teaching, he has directed and worked with numerous Singaporean and Australian school bands, choirs and orchestras, and has served the Singapore Wind Symphony Youth Winds as Music Director and the Anglo-Chinese School Wind Orchestra as Conductor (Alumni). Darren also has experience teaching Music in classrooms of Australian schools, Singaporean MOE and independent schools and has lectured at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
A talented multi-instrumentalist, he continues to actively play Horn with the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Wind Symphony and the Ventus Wind Quintet. He is now learning the Indian stringed instruments the Sarod and the Sitar. Darren is currently the Band Director at Teck Whye and Admiralty Secondary Schools, and conductor of the BHSO Early Music Chamber Ensemble.
Our Conductors