Several weeks ago Malaysian pianist and composer Jessica Cho went to a regional new music festival in Taiwan with little expectation, but came home a proud winner of the third prize in the Asian Composers League (ACL) Young Composers Competition.
A stunning achievement, considering Cho, 23, is at the spring of her compositional career and represented Malaysia with trepidation at the Asia Pacific meet, from which the country had been absent for nearly two decades.
“At the age of 23, I got my works performed by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the MPYO this year, and now I’ve won the third prize in ACL. None of these had I ever thought (were possible) when I first started as a music student in college,” said Cho, fresh from her return from Taiwan.
Cho’s piano work ‘Five Little Pieces For Piano’ competed with nine other entries from around the region from Japan to Israel, and came in after the overall winner from Korea and second place from Singapore.
As the youngest representative at the competition, held at a regular festival of Asian and Australasian new music composers, Cho admitted feeling the heat.
“When I knew that I was one of the youngest competitors I felt pressured being the Malaysian representative as we have not had a representative to the AC for decades.
“But my main intention to join was not about the competition; it’s all about exposure and experience, exchanging perspectives on writing new music, and I think that is what a music conference is all about,” said Cho.
Getting a prize was a real surprise for the young composer from KL.
“All the competitors wrote long and gigantic chamber works for the competitions and mine is the only little piano solo piece. I never expected to get any prize,” she said, adding that the set of five miniatures had been composed for students to play, to give them little different characters to work on.
Not so baby steps
Cho first dipped her toes into composing music, in the formal manner as great masters of the past such as Beethoven and Bach had done, and Malaysians too today as part of the modern take on the tradition, in 2009.
As a student of KL composer Adeline Wong, Cho wrote her charming ‘Rivulet’ for flute and piano for the country’s first ever Young Composers Workshop 08 co-organised by the Malaysian Composers Collective (MCC) and HSBC Bank Malaysia Ltd.
She admitted it was listening to Wong’s brilliant orchestral music, such as the latter’s cello concerto Snapshots performed by the MPO, that had inspired her to follow in her mentor’s footsteps.
“I was attracted by her melodies, rhythms and the colours that she used in her orchestral works … the energy and texture she used…” she said in an MCC feature article.
Cho furthered her studies at the University of Sheffield where she obtained her Masters of Music and composed a number of works, and her return saw the MPO engage her to compose music to accompany the local blockbuster Merong Mahawangsa at a concert this July 9.
Another work, ‘Hypnagogic’ for chamber ensemble, was to be performed that day by the MPYO, alas the Bersih 2.0 rally intervened and that concert was eventually cancelled.
Cho’s amazing adventure
Returning from the ACL festival in Taiwan held from Nov 26 to Dec 3, Cho was euphoric about her amazing experiences attending the week-long concerts and lectures, and presenting MCC’s country report at the festival.
“The ACL festival is obviously one of the largest new music festivals in Asia. This is where you can meet all the contemporary music lovers from well-known conductors to performers, composers and also research students.
“It’s really a week all about contemporary music, no matter if it’s contemporary western classical or contemporary Chinese classical, electronic music, choral music, etc.
“And it’s interesting how composers from different cultures write music about their own experiences,” said Cho.
Asked if classical composers had any role to play in Malaysia, Cho said, “If we have no composers, we have no new music. Imagine what would happen after 20 to 30 years or even 100 years later…
“Composition is something personal, and I think it is our inner/hidden voice, something you couldn’t express by words.
“Besides, composers are creative people; we need creative people in the development of the country. And bring more harmony to the country,” she quipped.
Between composing and performing at the piano, Cho thinks penning music is still her forte.
“I feel a bit like (composer) Robert Schumann, a great composer who had always practised hard to be a concert pianist.
“And I hope I could be half as great as he in the future before I die.”
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