Participants in the Artist and Senior categories for both violin and piano are required to perform a set piece in the semi-finals. This is in addition to their full solo programme and concertos. The piece is always written by a local composer: for the 2023 edition, the composer is Terrence Wong.
Singaporean composer Terrence WONG (b. 1989) graduated with a Master of Music in Composition in 2021 from the Royal College of Music (RCM) with the aid of both the Robert Anderson Award as well as the National Arts Council (Singapore) Arts Scholarship (Postgraduate). Apart from having studied composition with William Mival, he has also previously studied under the tutelage of Zechariah Goh and Kenneth Hesketh, as well as conducting with Lim Yau and Leonard Tan.
Wong has been commissioned to compose music for events such as the National Piano and Violin Competition 2013, as well as notable ensembles such as The Philharmonic Winds and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. As the Composer-in-Residence at the Singapore Wind Symphony from 2015 to 2017, he aided in the creation of many new wind band works by young composers through the Young Composers Challenge and Co|Lab programmes.
Being equally passionate about education, Wong has also worked as an Assistant Band Instructor in various public schools from 2012 to 2019, nurturing a lifelong passion for music in the hearts of youths. Additionally, Wong has also been teaching composition and orchestration as a part-time lecturer at the School of Music, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and currently works full-time as a senior executive in the community engagement department of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
He believes that music composition is a lifelong yet fulfilling process of research, appreciation, creative thinking and performance, and aims to express the intricacies of life, love, loss and death through his work.