Nicholas Ng and His Music

Dr Nicholas Ng 黄建文 is an award-winning performer, composer and researcher. Nicholas was born in Singapore and arrived in Australia at a very young age. He traces his ancestry to China through his paternal grandfather from Fujian province. Committed to the practice of Chinese music and the awareness of Chinese culture in Australia, Nicholas established the ANU (Australian National University) Classical Music Ensemble in 2003 and completed a PhD on the music of Sydneys Chinese community at the ANU in 2008. He later edited ENCOUNTERS: Musical meetings between Australia and China, a book based on the 2010 Australia-China festival that he curated while on staff at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. In 2015, he was engaged by Arts Queensland and Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre (BeMAC) to bring traditional Chinese music and story-telling into remote areas of Queensland. Nicholas now teaches erhu in the Chinese Ensemble at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and is an accompanist (piano) at Conservatorium High School.In the interview with SBS Radio reporter Li Zhou, Nicholas said,I like recording and sampling traditional Chinese and Asian instruments and manipulating them using digital technology. I also enjoy performing traditional instruments live, but in a modern way."I used a similar technique for 'The Lost Buddhas' exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, where I attempted to recreate the music of the Northern Wei Dynasty." "My favourite piece of Chinese music would be, well, it's hard to choose a favourite as it changes everyday. Maybe right now, it is Jiu Kuang, an ancient composition for qin. "Nicholas told SBS Radio Mandarin.

Nicholas Ng Source: Nicholas Ng