SINGAPORE – Composer Wang Chenwei wrote The Sisters’ Islands over eight months when he was just a teenager at Raffles Junior College.

He recalls with a laugh in the VIP room at the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) Concert Hall in Shenton Way: “It took all the time I wasn’t paying attention in class. I actually have sketchbooks of the times I wasn’t interested and got an idea for the piece that I wrote down. But I should clarify, boys and girls, don’t try this at home, you should study for your exams.”

The 35-year-old wrote the work at his music teacher’s prompting for his twin classmates Clara and Sophy Tan, who both played the zhongruan, a Chinese four-stringed instrument.

His efforts paid off as the symphonic poem won the Singapore Composer Award for the then 17-year-old at the inaugural SCO International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition in 2006.

Since then, it has become a popular composition and will receive its 75th performance at the SCO’s Seamless, at the SCO Concert Hall on July 20.

The gala night kicks off the SCO’s 2024/2025 season. It is the second in a trilogy of seasons planned by SCO principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong, 57, since he took the position in January 2023.

He is giving the work a fresh spin by presenting it with Cultural Medallion recipient Osman Abdul Hamid’s Era Dance Theatre. It is the first time a full troupe of dancers will be performing to the music.

Quek says over Zoom: “I wanted to do something to attract a different audience. Rather than simply playing the music, and since the legend is from Malay culture, I thought, why not get a Malay dance group?”

Wang originally wrote the work for an orchestra first, without any soloists. In 2007, he reworked it into a ruan concerto for the Tan sisters to play solo parts.

He says: “I didn’t compose it with a dance in mind. Because I portray something uniquely Singaporean, I wanted it to be recognisable even without lyrics. I used gamelan-type instrumental textures to set up the backdrop of the Nusantara region, and when the sisters enter to perform the Asli dance, we know they are Malay.”

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