Choral concert showcases composer Zechariah Goh's wide-ranging works

CONCERT ZECHARIAH GOH: A CHORAL LEGACY Victoria Concert Hall Aug 6

- Chang Tou Liang

Singaporean composer Zechariah Goh Toh Chai, recipient of the Young Artist Award in 2003, was once described as promising. Twenty-two years later, he has established himself as one of Singapore's most important composers.

This two-hour mostly a cappella choral concert, the first dedicated to a single composer since the late Leong Yoon Pin's retrospective in 2008, featured 271 singers and nine choirs from three countries. Sixteen songs, from 1993 to the present, showcased Goh's versatility in wide-ranging styles.

Opening the show was the Singapore Symphony Children's Choir (conductor Wong Lai Foon) with Rose Of Sharon (2014), ushering in a lush unison and series of echoing voices.

More complex was Four Tones (2019), which played on Chinese words yin, yang and shang as resonating bell sounds, later ornamented with animal and bird calls to maximal effect.