Sok Wah Ng

Biography & Career

Sok Wah is a recipient of National Arts Council Overseas Arts Bursary and graduated from Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney in 2002 with a Bachelor in Music Studies. Originally enrolled in the Music Education course with piano as her main instrument, she decided that percussion performance was more suitable for her and switched course. Upon graduation, she received NAC's Emerging Artist Fund for her homecoming recital, titled Sounz at the Young Musician's Society auditorium. Most recently in October 2012, she received the Artist Development Fund to attend Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Austin, Texas and travel to New York to receive framedrum instructions from Yousif Sheronick and Glen Velez who are both notable teachers and performers. Since graduation, Sok Wah has been very active in the local arts scene. Besides freelancing with Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO), Singapore Festival Orchestra (SFO) and Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) , she performs with many other arts groups. Her repertoire covers a wide range of settings and genre from Chinese opera, western classics to middle-eastern music and modern dance music. She performs as a soloist as well in chamber music, musicals, operas and orchestras. Most recently on 31st March 2013, she premiered a double percussion concerto with wind band, Landscape Gradations composed by Philip Tan with Riduan Zalani as the other soloist and the Singapore Wind Symphony. She loves travelling and enjoyed her stint to Osaka, Japan with SSO in 2003, attending the Festival D'Avignon- Off in Avignon, France 2005 as part of a dance-violin-percussion trio, performing and coaching the Ntu Symphonic Band percussion section for the World Music Contest, in Kerkrade, Holland in 2005, multi cities in China, 2007 with SCO and performing as a guest percussionist with The National Symphony Orchestra (Malaysia). Her latest trips were to Penang and Kota Kinabalu in East and West Malaysia respectively to coach the combined percussion team of Musica Sinfonettaia (Penang) and Jesselton Phiharmonic Orchestra (KK) for their annual music camp and tour. 2012 has been a huge milestone for her in many ways as she celebrates a decade of music making. The highlights include being invited to perform a duet with Shane Thio (pianist) in Instrumentally Yours series as part of Esplanade's 10th anniversary celebrations, finally attending PASIC and many more. In addition to performing, Sok Wah is also an active percussion coach, teaching and sharing her music knowledge with everyone who wish to know more. She has taught percussion to students from Australian International School, German-European School, Nanyang Girls' School, Victoria School, Nanyang Technological University, Raffles Girls' Primary School, Singapore American School and many others. She is currently a part-time lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts for percussion studies and runs her own percussion and piano studio.