In 2004, three creative minds came together over a “cuppa”, formed an inspiration and turned it into a reality; impresario-vocalist Leow Siak Fah, composer-pianist John Sharpley and poet-playwright Robert Yeo.

Encouraged by the successful efforts of similar opera establishments, Western Opera had become an indispensable part of Singapore’s arts palette. Feeling that Singaporeans were now ready for another opera company that focus on Baroque and Contemporary opera as well as new works by Singaporean and other Asian composers / librettists, a blueprint was drafted and the groundwork was set in motion judiciously.

LEOW SIAK FAH

Chairman OperaViva, Director, Stage Director, Tenor

Mr Leow Siak Fah read law at the University of Singapore and was called to the Malaysian Bar. He founded the Liberal Arts Society in Kuala Lumpur in the early 60s and was responsible for its many presentations of operetta and musical theatre. He studied voice privately and was coached by Vera Roza in London and Angelo Marenzi in Rome. In Singapore, Mr Leow has sung in the lead role in “Samseng and the Chettiar’s Daughter”, a local adaptation of Kurt Weil’s “Threepenny Opera”, in the first Singapore Festival of Art in 1980.

In 1990, he formed the Singapore Lyric Opera (then known as the Singapore Lyric Theatre), the first professional opera company in Singapore and was its chairman until recently when he chose to step down to pursue other interests. He continue to serve the organization as a Director and honorary advisor.

He has directed “The Merry Widow” in Penang and Ipoh, Gounod’s Faust” for the Singapore Arts Festival and Tosca in Chengdu with the Sichuanese Opera Troupe. He has produced Leong Yoon Pin’s Bunga Mawar and Britten’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Puccini’s “La Boheme”, “IL Trovatore” (which was a collaboration with the Philippines Symphony Orchestra) and “Carmen”.

He was awarded the Public Service Medal in 1996 by the President of Singapore, the Monblanc 2000 Cultural Foundation Award for the Patron of the Arts and the Champion of the Arts Award for the year 2003.

When not featuring his theatrical talents, he is the executive Chairman of the Citystate Management Group Holdings Pte Ltd.

JOHN SHARPLEY

Executive Director OperaViva, Composer, Pianist

Dr John Sharpley, born in Houston, earned a Doctorate in Composition from Boston University; a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Houston; and, diplomas for piano, violin, and composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Strasbourg, France. His composition teachers include Michael Horvit, David Del Tredici, John Harbison and Leonard Bernstein.

He has been featured as both composer and pianist in numerous concerts, institutions, conferences and festivals recently including Illinois Wesleyan University, the New Composition Festival (Bangkok, Thailand), the Texas Music Teacher’s Association, the Asia Pacific Festival (Wellington, New Zealand), Singapore Piano Pedagogy Symposium, the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Symposium (Melbourne), Across Oceans International Festival (Toronto, Canada), the Autumn Artist Festival (Houston) and the Hong Kong Asian Arts Festival. He has held positions as assistant professor of music at Boston University, composer-in-residence for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and currently lectures at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LaSalle College of the Arts.

Sharpley’s honors include the Texas Music Teacher’s Association Composition Commissioning Prize, an American Cine-Eagle Award and a New York Film Festival Award.

Sharpley's compositions include orchestral works, opera, music for theatre, film and dance, chamber music, songs, and solo piano works. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Huqin Quartet, the T’ang String Quartet are some of the prominent ensembles which have performed Sharpley's compositions. He worked with the rock group R.E.M., composing an arrangement for the song Lotus. His song cycle for soprano, children’s choir and piano, The Wild Child, was recently recorded for the Australian Broadcast Corporation by the Young Voices of Melbourne.

ROBERT YEO CHENG CHUAN

Executive Director OperaViva, Librettist, Producer

One of the pioneers of Singaporean drama in English. Yeo is also a poet and editor. Presently, he is a teacher of creative writing, Singapore Management University. He received the Public Service Medal in 1991 for services to drama.

Yeo has published three poetry collections: Coming Home, Baby (1971); And Napalm Does not Help (1977); and A Part of Three (1989). Leaving Home, Mother (1999) is a selection of eighty-five published poems.

Yeo has written six plays. The Singapore Trilogy (2001) comprising “Are you There, Singapore?” (1974), “One Year Back Home” (1980) and “Changi” (1996), dramatizes tensions between individual freedoms and constraints exercised by the state, the need for an Opposition in Parliament, and the costs of friendship. In 1974, “Are You There, Singapore?” made history by breaking all box office records for a theatre performance in Singapore.

A self-confessed compulsive writer, he believes in moving on. The neglect of the Singapore theatre of his plays has made him turn to writing librettos for opera. In collaboration with Dr John Sharpley, he has completed “Kannagi” a one-woman opera based on an ancient Indian epic, the Silappadikaram, as well as a full-length work called “Fences”, about the effects of the 1965 separation of Singapore from Malaysia, based on an idea suggested by Leow Siak Fah which will be staged in February 2010. Finally, “Routes”, his memoirs covering the years 1940 – 1975, will also be published in 2010.