Tze Toh
music director / composer
piano
An exceptionally versatile pianist, Tze Toh was described by The Straits Times as “an extraordinary musician whose idiom straddles comfortably between genres of classical, jazz, world and film music" and "possesses an original voice”.
From the age of 10 he taught himself piano, and picked up composition and improvisation. After graduating from National University of Singapore with a bachelor degree in Computer Science, he started working full-time as a freelance composer writing for film, animation and contemporary dance.
In 2011, he received the UK Song-writing Contest First Prize (Instrumental Category) for his fusion piece An Indian Folk song meets Jazz which the judges praised for its "originality in its attempt at fusing traditional Indian music and western jazz".
Some of his works include the original music for Singapore's first animated film Sing to the Dawn, Discovery Channel's Man Made Marvels, theatre director/artist Ramesh Meyyappan's Snails and Ketchup (London 2012 Cultural Olympiad), film makers Royston Tan's film Popiah［薄餅］, Erik Wayne's Sands of Our Our Fathers (an SG50 film) and also original composition Tango for a Film about Love for international harmonica virtuso Yasuo Watani.
His works have also been performed in Brazil, Poland, Spain, France, Scotland, UK, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. With his ensembles, he has performed for the Indonesia Music Expo (IMEX), ASEAN Jazz Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, MOSAIC Music festival, Hua Yi Arts Festival, Kalaa Utsavam Festival.
An integral part of Singapore’s contemporary music community, as both composer and improviser, he was inspired by Singapore's unique identity - a melting pot of diverse and distinctive cultures from east and west that co-exists harmoniously, which led him to explore music creation as a coming together of diverse elements, be it musical, cultural, social or personal. This very idea of harmony itself inspired him greatly and along with the belief that life and music are a constant journey led him to create the unique fusion group.
He loves the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ennio Morricone, Keith Jarrett, Igor Stravinsky, Yoko Kanno, Nobuo Uematsu, Brad Mehldau, John Williams, among others.