The TENG Company

The TENG Company has two ensembles: the TENG Ensemble, its central ensemble, as well as the QI Ensemble.

The TENG Ensemble was formed in 2009. It currently comprises eight members: cello, countertenor, keyboards, erhu, guitar, guzheng, pipa and sheng.

In 2009, the TENG Company began providing chamber music performances through its TENG Ensemble.[11] The ensemble then had six members who play a mix of Chinese and Western instruments, including the pipa, sheng, guitar and cello.[12] The ensemble debuted at the 2009 Singapore Night Festival.[13] Since then, it has also performed at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games,[14] the 2010 Shanghai World Expo,[14] the 2016 Star Awards,[15] the 2017 Singapore Heritage Festival[16] and the President's Star Charity 2017.[17]

Its music draws upon a myriad of music genres, ranging from Singaporean folk songs such as "Chan Mali Chan" and "Munnaeru Vaalibaa",[18] to Western popular influences such as the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Frozen themes.[19] From 2016, the TENG Ensemble released a series of "Evolution" music videos,[20] drawing on Chinese historical drama[21] and Disney themes,[22] and Adele[23] and Teresa Teng's songs.[24]

The ensemble has released two albums, Eight (2013) and Stories from an Island City (2016). Both were rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by The Straits Times, which described the former as "high class easy listening which does not dumb down"[25] and the latter, "a very enjoyable exercise in nostalgia".[26]

The ensemble's debut concert in 2010 was described as "a laudable addition to [the Western and Chinese musical] crossover phenomenon".[27]

Also in 2013, the TENG Company founded The QI Ensemble, a quartet comprising a mix of Chinese and Western instruments including the pipa, dizi, keyboard and guitar.[28]

In 2016, the QI Ensemble produced a music video, A Tribute to SG Mandopop, a medley of local hits including Mavis Hee's "Iron Window", Kit Chan's "Heartache", Stefanie Sun's "Begin to Understand", Tanya Chua's "Beautiful Love" and JJ Lin's "Cao Cao".[29] It has also performed at the Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts and Resorts World Sentosa's Chinese New Year festivities.[28]

The TENG Company's education efforts are housed under the TENG Academy, which provides training, resources and exchanges.[30]

The TENG Academy provides training through administering Chinese music instrumental grading examinations and facilitating the Mapletree-TENG Academy Scholarship. The Chinese music instrumental grading examinations, validated by Nanyang Technological University's Confucius Institute, offers Grades 1 to 8 and a Certificate in Professional Performance.[31] Additionally, in 2018, The TENG Academy and Mapletree Investments launched a scholarship programme, which provides youth with financial assistance for a Chinese music education.

The TENG Academy also provides English-language resources for Chinese music learning. It commissioned textbooks from Singapore musicians, on Chinese and Western instruments in English, to bridge the gap for non-Mandarin speaking learners of Chinese instruments.

The TENG Academy facilitates exchanges between musicians and/or other communities. TENG Gives Back is a series of performances for underserved communities. Under the TENG Mentorship & Volunteer Programme, amateur musicians perform for the community. In the After-School Talent Development Programme, musicians teach students in specialised schools such as Spectra Secondary School.

In 2005, the TENG Company published QI: An Instrumental Guide to the Chinese Orchestra, authored by Samuel Wong, to create an English language resource for Chinese instrumental music. In 2007, it reprinted the book to serve an international readership. It remains a reference book for the Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-level H2 Music syllabus.[32]

In 2014, the TENG Company debuted the electro-acoustic pipa, which it had invented.[33]

• Eight (2013)
• Stories from an Island City (2016)