Malaysian music prodigy and piano virtuoso, Tengku Irfan, 20, recently announced as the Youth Brand Ambassador for the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), will open the MPO’s 20th anniversary special season with a concert on Friday, 17 August 2018 at 8.30 pm at Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS (DFP).
This is an auspicious date as it marks exactly 20 years after the MPO’s inaugural concert at the venue on 17 August 1998. Since its inception, the MPO has stayed true to its commitment to bring the best in classical music. Nonetheless, over the years, it presented music of other genres to appeal to a wider audience. This season, the MPO will continue to enhance the cultural landscape of Kuala Lumpur through its innovative performances of world class standard.
Renowned Dutch conductor Jac van Steen will lead the MPO in a programme of music infused with exceptional verve and brilliance; Bartered Bride Overture composed by Smetana for one of the best comic operas in the world and the wondrous Scheherazade, a music of intrigue and adventures, composed by Rimsky-Korsakov who masterfully exploited dazzling orchestral colours and sonorities.
Irfan will dazzle the audience with his magic hands on the piano to perform Tchaikovsky’s lyrical “Piano Concerto No.1”. He will also step on the podium to conduct the MPO through Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, conjuring the whirl and frenetic bustle of a carnival, an apt choice of music for this celebratory event.
A musician of exceptional calibre, Irfan started his piano lessons when he was 7 and is today a renowned pianist, composer and conductor in the international music scene. He made his debut with the MPO at DFP in 2009 when he was 11, enthralling the audience with his brilliant improvisation of ‘cadenzas’ from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto. He went on to perform with the MPO in numerous concerts including tours to Sabah and Sarawak, Vietnam and Japan.
Irfan also performed with the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in 2015 and made his conducting debut at DFP with this young orchestra in December 2017 before touring Singapore together that month.
Described by The New York Times as ‘eminently cultured’, Irfan has soared high and achieved the impossible; he became a prize winner at the Aspen Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.2 Competition, and has collaborated with orchestras such as the Singapore Symphony, São Paulo State Youth Orchestra and Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, and luminaries such as Neeme Järvi, Nikolai Alexeev, Evan Rogister, Claudio Cruz and Darrell Ang.
Be part of the MPO’s 20th anniversary celebration, a brilliant showcase of a true Malaysian virtuosity, only at DFP!
DEWAN FILHARMONIK PETRONAS : PETRONAS Twin Towers, KLCC, Telephone Bookings: 03-23317007, Email Bookings: boxoffice@dfp.com.my, MPO website: www.mpo.com.my. Ticket Prices:Premium: RM188, A Reserve: RM150, B Reserve: RM122, C Reserve: RM94
