Xin Saxophone Quartet
A highly versatile chamber group, Xin Saxophone Quartet (XSQ) is one of Singapore’s leading professional saxophone quartets. Founded in 2016, the quartet’s name plays on the Chinese character for “Heart” and also the first character in Singapore’s Chinese name. It is the quartet’s motto to represent Singapore by always performing with sincerity from the heart; an additional reason for the name is because its members all love to perform new music, commissioning Singaporean composers to write music for us; Xin also means new in Chinese. As advocates for new music, the quartet has a resident composer, Jay Ong, who has written two beautifully crafted works to this date – Enclosures and Sea Scenes.
Xin Saxophone Quartet comprises of Singaporean musicians from different walks of life. Michellina Chan graduated with a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music; Alexis Seah graduated with a Bachelor of Music with Honours from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in collaboration with Royal College of Music; Yi Xiang Ang is a regular with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Band as well as regular soloist with The Philharmonic Winds; and Samuel Phua, a recent graduate of the Singapore School of the Arts, is the first local saxophonist to perform as a soloist with the prestigious Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
The Xin Saxophone Quartet debuted at the 6th Singapore Saxophone Symposium in 2016 as guest artists, performing the fifth movement of David Maslanka’s Recitation Book, an extremely upbeat and exciting piece which was very well received by the public. The quartet had its first completely sold-out recital in December 2016 titled Back to Basics, where they premiered Jay Ong’s Enclosures for Saxophone Quartet. In 2017, the quartet was invited by The Philharmonic Winds to perform the groovy Histoire du Tango by Astor Piazzolla arranged for saxophone quartet, at their concert titled A Music Tapestry. Shortly after, the quartet was invited to perform at the Esplanade Concourse as part of their Cool Classics series.
Performers
Soprano saxophone: Michellina Chan
Alto saxophone: Alexis Seah
Tenor saxophone: Jay Ong
Baritone saxophone: Yixiang Ang