After longing has run its course or found fulfilment, what next? An impending sense of loss, of losing the ideal and the idea of what could have been, becomes all too real. In this 30-minute companion performance to ‘Longing’, this session examines the low points and turning points that make us wish that the longing had never been. In their poetry-meets-music collaboration of five pieces, Natalie Ng and Mervin Wong draw from well-known classical music composers such as Gluck and Debussy, to which Felix Cheong pens poems.  

The Ghost In Your Head, where you get to enjoy 6 unique immersive experiences at The Arts House. Meet spirits of great writers of the past and literature’s beloved villains and heroines as you flit between portals of reality and imagination. This special commission will thrill you, kill you, and provide endless chills.

Two classically-trained musicians, a poet and one theme. Natalie Ng (on piano), Mervin Wong (viola and electronics) and poet Felix Cheong put their talents together to offer songs that speak of longing – the human need for love, for the divine, for something eternal that readies and steadies the heart. With poetry written to pieces selected from classical music composers such as Beethoven and Brahms, this performance will open up your senses to how music and poetry spring from essentially the same source of yearning. 

Presenting a bespoke visual interpretation of Ravel’s La Valse by Theemptybluesky (Mervin Wong), performed together with the YST Conservatory Orchestra under the baton of Principal Conductor Jason Lai

Nine years after his new and selected anthology – supposedly his swansong to poetry - Felix Cheong makes a comeback with his fifth collection. 

Like an album of B-side singles, B-Sides and Backslides: 1986-2018 puts together a warts-and-all portrait of the poet as a young man - an undergrad hung up on T.S. Eliot - through the ups and downers of career and marriage, to middle age. It is an insightful mapping of his craft over 30 years and a typography of turns and returns of themes and images. 

At the launch, art collective Osmosis, comprising Felix, musicians Natalie Ng and Theemptybluesky (Mervin Wong), will perform his poems to reworked versions of well-known classical pieces.

“Phenomenon ONE is the first in a series of contemporary dance events at various locations, which seeks to inspire the youth and public, allowing them to see how dance may be presented in alternative contexts.”

Theemptybluesky collaborates with choreographer Peter Gn as well as artist Jireh Koh on “Fluid”, where dynamic flow meets pure, fluid calm. A moving sculpture in a sea of sounds.

Theemptybluesky performs with students from Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary and Hougang Secondary Gamelan Ensemble at the National Gallery Singapore in two eclectic showcases as part of the Singapore Youth Festival Celebrations in the City 2018.

A compendium of sounds extracted from the viola producing these States of Mind, it is a piece of sonic art that seeks to reflect upon the world through the lens of Theemptybluesky. We trek through the various faucets of the human condition, the things which make us human, and just the things which make up our lives.

Enter the Void is an electro-acoustic reflection on a series of art and artists featured by The Culture Story in their exhibit: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (2017). A void into which sound unfolds and unravels.

Multimedia Visuals by Theemptybluesky! YST Conservatory’s final orchestral concert of the year offers masterworks from three of the late nineteenth century's most iconic composers, each linking in a different way to its Dreams & Apparitions theme. 

Man & Machine is a collaboration between Christopher Clarke & Mervin Wong that features works that explore the relationships, dualities and possibilities of man and machine. This eccentric collection features 4 different works by Christopher, Mervin, or both. Music to a Talking Robot explores a robot’s existential dilemma , Tessellations is a work that involves live coding to produce sonic material, which is then tessellated and improvised upon. Sieve This is a sonic sieve that decides the overall structure of the work live. Mangle is a piece involving the mangling and daisy chaining of sound generators, synths, and human input.

Gildon Choo on the pipa meets Mervin Wong on electronics; a traditional wooden lute creates sparks on the electronic spectrum. This performance features contemporary music such as new age composer Lin Hai's Language of the Pipa, Pleasures and music from Wong Kar-wai's film, In the Mood for Love.

Theemptybluesky’s full length debut Aphelion takes the listener into a deep enchanting journey that crosses dimensions. An album meant for deep listening, with its dense and intricate textures and an unconscious everlasting flow, Aphelion surprises with each re-listening.

Mervin Wong is joined by visual collaborator Ryan Benjamin Lee in this exclusive launch of Aphelion. Ryan’s method mirrors Mervin’s production, generating a plethora of visuals, sometimes ethereal, sometimes grungy, sometimes wacky that accompany on this journey.

Various alumni from the NAFA School of Music, led by violist Christoven Tan, present an eclectic programme which includes works from Scelsi, Berio, Saariaho, Pärt, Hindemith, Mansurian, and Ligeti.