The Competition and Conductor
About the Singapore International Violin Competition
The triennial Singapore International Violin Competition was launched in June 2014 as a landmark cultural initiative for Singapore and beyond, and has since grown to become one of the most globally distinctive competitions of its kind. Organized and hosted by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, SIVC serves to promote the continued growth and strength of classical music. The competition showcases top young violinists from around the world against the backdrop of Singapore’s world-class performance venues, its national orchestra, and its internationally renowned music conservatory. SIVC is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions.
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CONDUCTOR: JOSHUA TAN
A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, Joshua Tan was 2nd Prize winner of the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition for Conductors and an awardee of numerous scholarships and awards, including the Young Artist Award - Singapore, the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, the NAC-Shell Scholarship, and the SSO/MOE Scholarship. He was also the first conductor to be presented the Charles Schiff prize from the Juilliard School. For an unprecedented two years running, his performances of Bernstein’s Mass and the opera Don Pasquale were selected as the best classical concerts of the year in 2018 and 2019 by The Straits Times.
Joshua has conducted orchestras all around the world. These orchestras include the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, the Okayama Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra amongst others. He has studied with various eminent conductors—James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman, and Kurt Masur—and worked with many others, such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Ingo Metzmacher, and George Manahan.
Known as a versatile conductor, Joshua is at home with symphonic, operatic, and ballet works. His substantial repertoire for opera includes La Traviata, Rigoletto, Der Fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, Turandot, among others. He has also served as a cover conductor for Christoph Eschenbach and Lorin Maazel. He is also equally adept with music for ballet, film, and multimedia. For the latter, his extensive conducted works include Disney’s Fantasia and Pixar, all three instalments of BBC’s Blue Planet Series, West Side Story, Jurassic Park and more.
Presently Principal Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, he has served successful stints as Resident Conductor of the National Center for the Performing Arts (China) Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, and Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Season 21/22 sees his returning engagements with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Singapore Ballet, as well as debuts with the Gunma Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and a new opera premiere in Hong Kong, amongst others.