Vivacious Virtuoso

Celebrated New York–based pianist Margaret Leng Tan speaks to zara zhuang about reinventing herself, her artistic influences and how being back in Singapore puts her in touch with her roots

PIANIST MARGARET LENG Tan is one of a kind. Her enthusiasm for music, which manifests in her intent focus on the ivories, is uneroded by her 71 years. Her energy and her clipped, excited manner of speaking are infectious. “You should see me give a class — nobody is yawning, nobody is falling asleep,” she says. And with childlike freshness, she readily offers an impromptu imitation of a crow’s caw, featured in a new composition by avant-garde composer George Crumb, in between giving a preview of SATIEfaction.

The Singaporean musician was in town recently to perform the showcase, dedicated to the corpus of French composer Erik Satie and works he inspired, as part of a series of shows organised in tandem with the Singapore Art Week. A fortnight later, she conducted at the National Museum of Singapore’s Beyond the Silence: The Legacy of John Cage, a workshop devoted to the late American composer, writer and philosopher, who was Tan’s long-time mentor and collaborator.