VIRTUAL TOUR
2010
21 JanUCSI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS COMPOSE FOR THE INDUSTRY
Kuala Lumpur, 21 January 2010 - UCSI University students attending song writing classes from the School of Music recently held a concert of their own on campus, performing 10 of their own compositions from various genres. Aptly named Song Writers’ Night, the concert kicked off with a love ballad written by Catherine Januarius, entitled I Gave My Heart Away. This was followed by a techno number from Lim Shunmin entitled Dirty Beat and another two ballads entitled, It’s Gone and Falling in Love, composed by Vivian Chan Pui Ching and Ben Ng Eng Ping respectively. Eddy Lim You Cheng wrote and sang the gritty rock number, Free. The only Chinese number for the night, Happy was composed and sung by Low Sim Ni and Chan Shally, showed that girls too, can rap!
No Longer, a bossa nova number written by Karen Lui Kai Wen, was sung by Sara Ngooi, the lecturer herself. This was followed by another slow rock number entitled Holding You, composed by Tong Sin Ee and Ong Chong Han. Most anticipated were the last two songs entitled Love Game and Nak Tak Nak. Angela Ong Chin Yin and Dennis Law Chu Sing composed and presented the former while Dennis improvised beautifully on the final song of the night which speaks of indecisiveness in love.
Sara Ngooi said, “The main purpose of this concert is to provide a platform for the students to perform their compositions and also to attract Malaysian artists and producers to come for this annual concert to search for potential songs for their albums. It also creates an opportunity for the students to meet and make contacts with professionals in the music industry, as each time a concert such as this is held, we will feature special guests to perform, and share their experiences with the students, as well as to encourage them.”
The guest performer this round was Simon Lee, a composer, musician and alumnus of the Berklee College of Music, Boston, United States of America, who improvised an original composition of his entitled This is How I Feel. He was very enthusiastic about the whole concert and said, "I am personally very happy to be able to witness and perform at the concert. It is a great step for the music community to give birth to more original artists by learning from what is already out there and to incorporate them into their own musical writings. Another thing that awed me was the diversity of music in terms of styles that were performed; definitely needed as music has diversified tremendously in tandem with human development. The ability for the students to express themselves comfortably in a genre that is familiar is a great leap ahead!”
Also present at the concert was UCSI University alumni, Lenny Lysandra who is now a singer song writer in the Malaysian Malay indie music scene. She said, “It was an awesome and exhilarating experience for me because it's always a joy to listen to "new" and fresh music from budding, young talents. As a vocalist cum recording artiste, I'm always on the lookout for great songs and tonight, I have discovered many songs that have the potential to become hits, both in the local and international music scene.
“I have also finally found the next song to be featured in my upcoming EP, which is Dennis Law's original composition, Nak Tak Nak! I was particularly impressed with his song because it was very unique and suited my pop/jazz genre. The way he blended simple lyrics with the not-so-simple instrumentation made the song very well-balanced and rather outstanding,” she said.
Thirty-five students had gone through the song writing courses conducted by Sara at UCSI University starting from the January 2009 semester before this concert. Each composer had classmates from the class play the instruments or provide vocals for the compositions.
Sara promised that the event will be expanded and become a prominent feature not only on the School of Music’s event calendar but also UCSI University in the coming years.
