Synopsis:

Take a deep breath and step through the looking glass with pianist Wong Yun Qi and writer Agnes Chew (author of "The Desire for Elsewhere", published by Math Paper Press, 2017) as they journey along the parallel planets of our souls, exploring the many sides to our beings - the light and the dark, the melancholic, explosive, joyful, bitingly sarcastic, mercurial, whimsical... - that make us truly unique.

The Multitudes Within Us is the recognition and acceptance of our selves the way we are, sans categorisation. We are, after all, as Agnes puts it, "a living microcosm of the entire emotional spectrum of oxymoronic paradoxes within a single moment that could never be logically construed".

Your adventure begins in the good company of Isaac Albéniz, Maurice Ravel, György Ligeti, Felix Leuschner (Asian Premiere), and the alter egos of Robert Schumann - the fiery Florestan and his pensive counterpart, Eusebius.

"We are both fluid and limitless. We expand and contract according to our whims, our caprices, and our desires. Let us never be limited by the fetters of definition." - Agnes Chew, The Desire for Elsewhere

Concerts generously supported by: The Arts House, Steinway Gallery Singapore, The Music Circle, National Arts Council, Arts Fund and Star Capital Insurance Agency Pte Ltd.

Wong Yun Qi / pianist (www.yunqiwong.com)
Wong Yun Qi is active as a concert pianist, chamber musician, song accompanist, and vocal and instrumental coach. Her collaborations have brought her to places including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Siegfried Matthüs Symposium, Lätzsch Trombone Festival, Philharmonie Essen, Schloss Nymphenburg München, Tempe Center of the Arts (Arizona), and Esplanade Concert Hall/Recital Studio (Singapore). She has been working as a repetiteur at the University of Music in Hannover since 2011, and had the opportunity to conduct masterclasses at NAFA for singers and pianists from 2014 to 2015.

Yun Qi´s interest in contemporary and chamber music has led to projects with theater actors and directors, composers including Walter Zimmermann, Kelly Tang and Vytautas Miškinis, the Singapore Youth Ensemble Singers and Magnetic Band. She has also given the world premieres of works from Snezana Nesic, Americ Goh, Liong Kit Yeng and Felix Leuschner.

Mentored by Lena Ching and Eleanor Tan during her studies, Yun Qi graduated best of her class in 2006 from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. She went on to further study with Beatrice Berthold (Piano) and Jan Philip Schulze (Lied-Interpretation) at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media, whilst learning historical keyboard instruments with Zvi Meniker and Opera Repetition with Martin Brauß. She received her Masters of Music with distinction in 2012.

A scholarship recipient of the NAFA Full Scholarship, NAC Overseas Bursary, Bayreuth Foundation Scholarship and Justus-Hermann-Wetzel Foundation, Yun Qi currently resides in Germany, with Hannover as her home base.

Agnes Chew / writer (https://loveundwanderlust.wordpress.com)
Agnes Chew is the author of The Desire of Elsewhere (2016, 2nd ed.: 2017). Her writing has been published in journals and magazines across Southeast Asia, the UK, and the US. She has presented her work at literary events in Singapore and London. Her desire for elsewhere has led her to 52 countries thus far. Agnes holds a MSc in Development Management (Best Overall Performance) from the London School of Economics, and a double degree in Economics and Business (Magna Cum Laude) from Singapore Management University. A former public servant, she has worked with the UK Department for International Development and Save the Children in London. She currently works at the World Bank.