Elizabeth Tan And Her Love Of Music

At only ten years of age, Elizabeth Tan has already accomplished much musically. She juggles school curriculum with music training all because of her love of music.

Music relaxes me and helps me feel refreshed and energized, chimed Elizabeth Tan. Classical music does this for her. She finds the pieces from the 4 different periods, which exhibits different characteristics, moods and styles, especially intriguing. The highly complex structure in the various forms that “blend everything in an elegant and sophisticated manner” amaze her.

Inspired by JS Bach (a fellow musician-mathematician) and Baroque music, Elizabeth enjoys playing the pieces that has multiple voices as she finds it “fun” to bring out the interweaving melodies with just 2 hands. She finds it very stimulating mentally. Elizabeth seems to love a good challenge and that might be why she chose to be trained on the electone as it allows her to explore different sounds of a variety of musical instruments and enables her to create and play music as if she is a one-person orchestra.

Although Elizabeth is only ten years of age, she has performed at a number of concerts organized by Yamaha and others such as Octoburst Piano Project by the Esplanade Library. Her unforgettable moments were achieving 1st place in 2009 at Yamaha Piano Competition (Junior Category), being accepted into Yamaha Junior Special Advanced Course, and most recently, winning in the Yamaha Electone Festival (Junior Section) and getting the chance to represent Singapore at the Asia Pacific Electone Festival (APEF) in Thailand! She described her feelings about the electone festivals pre-APEF:

This year was the first time I participated in the Electone Festival – an electone competition! It was a challenging but exciting task and I was very excited when selected to advance from the heats to the finals. I worked hard, but I really enjoyed every minute of the process. I am so happy I have this opportunity to share my music with the audience. I will do my best as I represent Singapore at the APEF.

To Elizabeth, the journeys toward achieving those milestones were even more memorable than the triumphant moments. She particularly enjoyed one time where she had to play a 2-piano piece with a friend. It was hard work, having to coordinate and ensure they were in sync when they were sitting so far apart. However, she thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent practicing together, playing together and finally up on the stage performing together. Other than building up confidence and developing good time management through these experiences, Elizabeth said she will treasure those moments for the rest of her life.