Heirlooms: Reimagining the Sounds of Our Chinese Forefathers

In 2016, The TENG Ensemble began a research process into the music of Singapore’s early Chinese migrants. Interviewing, documenting and learning from a community of first-generation masters, luthiers, instrument dealers and protégés from the local Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka music traditions, Heirlooms marks the performance highlight of a project that has been four years in the making.

Through modern reinterpretations of our diverse dialect music traditions, the concert will premiere a repertoire of eight commissioned works and will feature instruments found only in these folk ensembles. In Heirlooms, The TENG Ensemble will celebrate our unsung musical pioneers and reimagine the sounds that were carried in the hearts of our Chinese forefathers.

This concert is organised in support of the Singapore Bicentennial.

The TENG Company and The Forefathers Project are proudly supported by Mapletree Investments.