Founders' Biography

Susanna Saw graduated from the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music majoring in piano and vocal singing as a second study. She attained her Australian Kodaly Certificate from the University of Queensland and has performed in various concerts in Australia and Malaysia; both as a soloist and an accompanist. She was selected to sing with the Melbourne Chorale on many occasions and has worked with various internationally renowned conductors such as Mariss Jansen and Neemi Jarvi.

Starting her choral teaching experience with the Australian Boys’ Choir, Susanna moved on to become Assistant Choral Conductor and Vocal Coach at the prestigious MacRobertson Girls’ High School in Victoria in 1998. On her return from Australia in 1999, she realised that the choral scene in Malaysia was not as vibrant as she had hoped it to be. Thus, she resolved to raise the level of awareness and standard of the local choral scene through education and sharing the experience she has gained whilst in Australia.

With that burning desire, she successfully set up the Ipoh Children’s Choir, The Young KL Singers and The KL Children’s Choir and was involved with the Penang State Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. Further to that, she had also been a choir tutor at various schools in Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur, some of which had gone on to become champions at national and international competitions under her tutelage. She is currently a tutor and choir director at the Malaysian Institute of Arts and University of Malaya’s Music Faculty choir.

When not teaching, Susanna immerses herself in the development and advancement of the choral scene in Malaysia. She founded the Young Singers Choral Festival in 2003, an annual festival for young musicians in Malaysia to gain choral knowledge from the various invited choir tutors from the United Kingdom, Denmark, United States of America, Croatia and Singapore. Through her choirs and numerous choral activities, she has created recognition and awareness on choral singing and its importance. Always eager to share knowledge and experience, Susanna has also organised exchange programmes between her choirs and visiting choirs from South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Croatia, Australia and New Zealand.

Her latest venture in the choral scene was the establishment of the Young Choral Academy in Kuala Lumpur, aimed as a venue for choral lovers to learn more about choral music and a venue for young Malaysian composers and arrangers to compose more choral works.

Interkultur Foundation, Germany invited her to be a Jury at the 1st Asian Choir Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia in November 2007. Her choir from SMK Sam Tet, Ipoh, was invited by the Ministry of Education to represent Malaysia for the 2008 World Choir Games in Graz, Austria. Susanna is now venturing into the international choral scene. She has been appointed the Executive Committee Member of the Interkultur Foundation and is a member of International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM).

Chi Hoe graduated with a MMus with Distinction and the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Performance from the Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK, where he studied singing with Henry Herford and Gordon Sandison. He was a finalist in several competitions including the Conservatoire’s prestigious Singing Prize and the Ashleyan Opera Prize and was named among Birmingham’s New Generation Artists for 2008. He is currently studying for a second MMus degree in Choral Conducting at the Conservatoire on a scholarship with Paul Spicer (Finzi Singers) and orchestral conducting with Daniele Rosina (Thallein Ensemble). He continues to maintain a busy singing schedule, balancing solo freelance work with work as a Choral Scholar at the Birmingham Cathedral of St Philips, with regular broadcasts and concerts for the BBC as a chorister and soloist and with Pro Cecilia (a chamber choir of invited choral scholars from around the country). He has sung with Ex Cathedra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, amongst the most respected and busiest Baroque and Early Music ensembles in the UK today. He is also a member of ADUR Vocal Ensemble based in Spain.

Solo work have included recital, opera and concert performances with the Malaysian National Symphony Orchestra, Penang State Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra among others and recordings with many other UK and international ensembles. As a choral conductor, he worked for many years in Malaysia with choirs in Penang and Kuala Lumpur and is currently on staff at Birmingham Conservatoire’s Junior Department where he conducts the Junior Chamber Choir and the Senior Conservatoire’s Chamber Choir II. He recently completed a successful conducting season with Canzonetta Children’s Choirs in Manchester; formerly the nationally acclaimed Manchester Boys Choir.

Prizes won included 3rd Prize (Sacred Music) with ADUR Vocal Ensemble at the 2008 40th Tolosa International Choir Competition in Spain, two Gold Diplomas and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 2nd Voyage of Song International Choir Competition in Malaysia as well as the prestigious 2002 Robert Edler Prize in Berlin as a member of the World Youth Choir for outstanding contribution in the field of choral music internationally. He is a member of the IFCM (International Federation for Choral Music), the Association of British Choral Directors and a founding member of the Malaysian Choral Federation (MCF).