Singapore Symphony Orchestra Season Opening Concert Moves Online 

• Minister Grace Fu to deliver welcome remarks
• SSO's new Chief Conductor Hans Graf to give introductory remarks
• Violinists Chloe Chua and Karen Gomyo to perform Second Movement of Bach's Double Violin Concerto with the SSO

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra will open its 2020/21 Season with an online concert taking place on 11 July at 7.30pm, the day on which the orchestra had originally planned to perform its first concert of the season at the Victoria Concert Hall.

The SSO’s Chairman Goh Yew Lin will welcome the online audience before Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, delivers her welcome remarks ahead of the concert. The orchestra’s new Chief Conductor Hans Graf will then give his introductory remarks to kick off his first season with the orchestra.

The concert is dedicated to the People of Singapore and will open with a digital premiere of Hans Graf conducting the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, filmed live at the Esplanade Concert Hall in January 2020. This will be followed by a special recording of the second movement from Bach's Double Violin Concerto, one of the most beautiful pieces in the orchestral repertoire, with two star violinists: Karen Gomyo and Chloe Chua. Karen Gomyo was to have been the soloist for the original live concert scheduled for 11 July. Each member of the orchestra, as well as the soloists, recorded their parts at home due to COVID-19. 

For the first time, the SSO will be streaming the event on the newly launched SISTIC Live platform using a pay-as-you-wish model, with tickets available for free or for $10, $20, $30 or $50. Registration is required and opens at 10am on Friday 26 June. 

Young violinist Chloe Chua's meteoric rise on the classical music concert stage culminated in being awarded the joint First Prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists. The 13-year-old from Singapore had also garnered the top prize at the 24th Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition, and prizes at several international competitions including the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition (First Prize, Junior 2017, Third Prize Junior 2015).

Born in Tokyo and beginning her musical career in Montréal and New York, violinist Karen Gomyo has recently made Berlin her home. A musician of the highest calibre, the Chicago Tribune praised her as "…a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity". She has performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This is her debut with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.