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Music
Programme Information
Duration:3 Years
Awards:
BA(Hons) Music (Classical Performance)
BA(Hons) Music (Jazz Performance)
BA(Hons) Music (Popular Music Performance)
BA(Hons) Music (Composition)
BA(Hons) Music (Music Technology)
This programme has been developed in response to the demands of a growing creative music industry in Singapore and Southeast Asia for graduates of enhanced ability, knowledge, and diversity of experience in the areas of performance, composition and new music technologies.
In keeping with the latest industry demands on contemporary musicians, graduates from School of Contemporary Music (SoCM) embrace technology as an integral part of their performance and compositional practice. You will be exposed to traditional techniques that are expanded upon by contemporary ideas, enabling you to engage productively with the creative industries in the new millennium. SoCM presents a unique opportunity to experience a broad cross-section of today's musical practice within one integrated programme. The School fosters important creative relationships between living composers and classical performers, developing highly skilled and creative performer-composers in Jazz and Popular music, simultaneously integrating Music Technology in innovative and practical ways throughout the programme.
Blending the vibrant cultures and diverse ideas found in Asia with a Western musical discourse, you will undertake one of five specialisms: Classical Performance, Jazz Performance, Popular Music Performance, Composition, and Music Technology. You will audition into one of the five specialisms and pursue this stream throughout the course.
To achieve a balanced syllabus, you are given opportunities to gain familiarity with all five specialisms through practiced-based learning within inter-disciplinary ensembles, music technology and music and culture modules. This develops a solid foundation in your chosen discipline, while the shared subjects expose and inform you about other disciplines and practices. This prepares you to confidently situate an individual artistic 'voice' within today's multifaceted musical landscape.
You will be mentored by some of the most experienced performers and educators in the region from diverse backgrounds in both Western and indigenous musical practice. Lectures, workshops, and rehearsals form the backbone of the programme and offer unique opportunities to explore a range of current musical practices, including: chamber ensembles, gamelan, music theory, specialised aural training, musical culture, studio recording, and interactive technologies.
Level 1 introduces the basic approaches, methods, and skills of the course. You will learn to master your chosen instrument and understand the essential components of a musical language. Level 2 builds on performance practice, while introducing new composition techniques and wider areas of knowledge. You will develop aural awareness and learn to communicate music convincingly to the listener. Level 3 is concerned with integrating skills into professional practice, completing a major research thesis, and extending abilities to meet pressures and requirements of production. Graduates emerge equipped to work both collaboratively and independently, with individuality and self-motivation.
Teaching Methods: You will attend lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. You will take part in performing ensembles, masterclasses and in-house and public performances.
Assessments: Assessment is an integral part of the learning process, and will be formative and diagnostic as well as summative and evaluative, providing feedback to students wherever appropriate. Read more about assessments here.
Modules
(Specialism: Classical Performance, Jazz Performance,Popular Music Performance, Composition and Music Technology)
Level 1
Principal Study 1
Principal Study 1 is a specialised module and is delivered in a one-to-one lesson for performers and in-group lessons for composers and music technology specialists. In Level 1, Principal Study introduces the methodologies and practice to develop the fundamental skills required to execute musical ideas.
Ensemble Workshop 1
Ensemble Workshop 1 is both a specialised and a common area of study and introduces you to ensemble skills, enabling you to perform effectively as part of a group. In addition, you learn presentation skills, such as awareness and acknowledgement of an audience, and how to communicate musical intentions clearly, economically and unambiguously to each other.
Music Skills
Music Skills is both a specialised and common module, made up of both a theory and an aural component. The theory component is specific to your chosen specialisms of Classical Performance, Composition, Jazz Performance, Popular Music Performance or Music Technology. The theory component develops your ability to observe, understand, interpret and manipulate oral, written and visual signs denoting music, while developing an understanding of theoretical and aesthetic systems. The aural component is similarly streamed.
Music Production
Music Production introduces you to the recording studio and develops a familiarity with recording equipment and its nomenclature. You gain experience in the usage of an appropriate range of equipment for recording music and are trained to reflect critically in order to evaluate these technologically mediated contexts.
Sound Reinforcement
In this module, you will encounter the challenges of working with sound in different locations and engage in the process of finding practical solutions to these challenges through the study of acoustics and electrical theory.
Music History
Music History is a stream-specific module for students in four specialisms of the course: Classical, Jazz, Popular Music and Music Technology. Composition students elect to take any one of these specialism histories. This module introduces you to the idea of relating music to its historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, economic, spiritual and religious context; and relates processes of change in music to historical, social, and other factors.
Level 2
Principal Study 2
Principal Study 2 refines and develops your physical dexterity and control (technical mastery of the instrument/voice, compositional technique, programming software), together with the necessary powers of sustained concentration and focus established in Principal Study 1.
Ensemble Workshop 2
Ensemble Workshop 2 refines your ensemble skills from the foundation laid in Level 1 and develops your artistic and expressive skills to communicate music convincingly to the listener. In addition, you learn to confront, explore and assimilate unfamiliar musical sounds, concepts, and repertoires inherent in contemporary performance practice.
Composition Techniques
This module builds on the foundation of knowledge laid out in Music Skills Level 1, combining theory and practice with creative outcomes. This module is delivered in both a specialised and common format that develops your capacity to conceive musical ideas, and to manipulate them in inventive and individual ways. You learn how to develop musical materials into well-formed and coherent musical structures; and learn how to compose idiomatically for instruments within various styles.
Audio Ear Training
Audio Ear Training develops your aural awareness while working in the recording studio. Importantly, this skill is crucial for performers, composers and engineers so they can communicate with each other using the same language during the recording and mixing process; and especially so for engineers to mix and master recorded sound in post-production.
Post Production
This module concentrates on the final stages of the recording process in applying the mastering processes necessary for preparing a recording for commercial duplication. You work not only on music recordings but also on soundtracks for film, video or Internet productions and are thereby introduced to the concepts of synchronising audio and video using time-code.
Contemporary Musical Culture
This module introduces major themes in Critical Theory and Aesthetics, and explores methodologies for reading a text. The module also explores and evaluates the cultural, ideological and stylistic influences that have merged from Asia, as well as the impact of external influences upon the Asian region.
Level 3
Principal Study 3
The module builds on the foundation of Principal Study 1 and 2 by developing and refining your powers of interpretation and your ability to find creative links between the results of personal research, textual and musical analysis, scholarship, reflection and listening skills, and the process of performing.
Independent Workshop
The module allows you to form groups and ensembles that are either specialised or have students from a mixture of specialisms within one group from Level 3. It develops your ability to work as integrated members of a team, to respond to partnership and leadership, and to lead others in teamwork.
Production Project
You record a CD of works that showcases your capabilities as a performer, composer and/or music technology specialist. The module builds on the foundation of skills developed in Music Production and Post Production, enabling you to create recordings of your own work and mastering these to a professional standard of CD production.
Music Business
Music Business is a common module that develops your awareness about concepts and practices of career management, music promotion, and statutory functions of Music Business and the law; Contract Law; Intellectual Property Rights, and applying for arts funding. In addition, you will get an awareness of issues within the arts world: cultural policy, funding mechanisms, professional arts structures, and institutions and arts groups within the community.
Dissertation
Dissertation Module builds on the foundation laid in Music History and Contemporary Musical Culture to employ reasoning and logic in order to analyse data, and to formulate relevant arguments and hypotheses; strengthening the ability to express, interpret and discuss such analyses, arguments and hypotheses orally and in written form. This module focuses on advanced research and scholarly writing skills.
Faculty Members
Head, School of Contemporary Music
Timothy O'Dwyer
- BA Music, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia
Timothy O'Dwyer, is a saxophonist, composer, educator and the current Head of the School of Contemporary Music at LASALLE. Trained as a jazz musician at the Victorian College of the Arts graduating with a BA Music in 1993 he furthered his studies in 1995 with contemporary classical composer Richard Barrett in Amsterdam and visionary saxophonist/ improviser Evan Parker in London. He was a founding member of the seminal punk-jazz group bucketrider from Melbourne (1992) and has been a member of the Elision Contemporary Ensemble since 1994 with which he has performed and composed works that have premiered at arts festivals throughout Australia, Europe and Japan including the 2009 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. He formed the Tim O'Dwyer Trio in 2005, and with them has performed at important jazz festivals in Australia, South East Asia, Japan and Europe including the 2010 Montreux Jazz Festival. Timothy has been involved in over 30 cd releases 13 of which have featured his own compositions. He is currently a PhD candidate at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, researching the nexus between improvisation and composition.
Lecturer, Music Technology
Brain O'Reilly
- MA Electronic Music & Sound Design, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
- BA of Fine Arts Sound & Video, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Brian O'Reilly works within the fields of electro-acoustic composition, moving images and noise music. Also he is a contrabassist focusing on uncovering the inaudible textures and hidden acoustic microsounds of his instrument through the integration of electronic treatments and extended playing techniques. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a scholarship for sculpture during which time he perused independent studies in improvisation and composition with members of Chicago's AACM. After which he relocated to Paris to research the composition methods of the composer Iannis Xenakis, receiving a appointment as Musical Assistant at Xenakis' studio. He pursued graduate studies in Electronic Music at the University of California Santa Barbara's Media Arts and Technology program, where his collaborations with Curtis Roads began with the project "Point Line Cloud" which won an Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica in 2002. As Operations Manager of Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco He worked on many project for the Asphodel record label & recording studio, and has received several international residencies/commissions including invitations to work as a guest artist at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Germany, the SH Festival in Shanghai and All Tomorrow Parties festival curated by Autechre in the UK. He has worked on projects with Eliane Radigue, Luc Ferrari, Curtis Roads, Zbigniew Karkowski, Otomo Yoshihide, Matmos, Maryanne Amacher, Zeitkratzer, Christian Marclay, William Basinski, Fe-Mail, Yasunao Tone, Francisco López, Garth Knox, Steina and Woody Vasulka, amongst others. Currently He is performing audio and visuals solo and in the groups Iron Egg & Black Zenith, and is a lecturer at LASALLE's School of Contemporary Music.
Lecturer, Music Technology
Justin Hegburg
- MA of Music (Music Technology), New York University, USA Australia
- BA of Music (Theory & Composition), University of Miami, USA
Justin Hegburg is an audio engineer and composer. He holds a MM in Music Technology from New York University and a BM in Music Theory from University of Miami. Justin began his career in New York and has worked with numerous Grammy winning producers and engineers. His production work can be heard on many commercial releases spanning a wide variety of musical genres. Currently based in Singapore, Justin teaches Music Technology and Audio Production at LASALLE College of the Arts and continues to work both on audio production projects and original compositions.
Lecturer, Popular Music
Darren Moore
- BA of Music (Performance in Jazz), Edith Cowan University, Australia
Darren Moore is a drummer, composer and electronic musician born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Having lived his formative years in Perth, Australia, he graduated from the Western Australian Conservation at Edith Cowan University with a Bachelor in Music (Jazz Performance) in 1997. He has since lived and worked professionally as a musician in Perth, London, Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore. He is an active member of the Singapore musician scene and is regarded as one of the most creative voices in the scene, straddling jazz, experimental, popular, installation work and composing music for theatre and dance. He curates the CHOPPA experimental series and has recently released two solo albums on his own label, Caol Records. In addition, Darren tours internationally performing at major festivals and club circuits in Asia, Australia, Europe and the US. His most recent highlight was a performance with the Tim O' Dwyer Trio at the prestigious 2010 Montreaux Jazz Festival. Darren has been a lecturer in Popular Music at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore since 2007. He is currently a Doctorate of Musical Arts candidate at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, his research looks at the adaptation of Carnatic Indian rhythms to the drum set.
Lecturer, Classical Music
Frank DeMeglio
- MBA, University of Michigan, USA
- BA of Music (Piano), University of Michigan, USA
Frank DeMeglio is a classical music teacher, lecturer and writer. He has taught part-time at LASALLE since 2003 and joined the faculty in 2009. Of particular interest to Frank is the efficient technical approach to the keyboard that aligns with sound biomechanical principals, especially with respect of injury prevention and cure. He studied piano at the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor degree in performance. After graduating, he taught with Randy and Nancy Faber, authors of the best-selling Piano Adventures library of piano books. He returned to the University of Michigan for an MBA in marketing in 1992, and was hired by Steinway & Sons as their New York Institutional Sales Representative. While working for Steinway & Sons, part of his duties included managing the famed Steinway Selection Room of concert and studio grand pianos. In 2000, Frank DeMeglio moved to Singapore where he wrote the classical music reviews for the Business Times from 2001 to 2004. He continues to guest review (most recently for the 2007 Singapore International Piano Festival) and his interviews of international pedagogues and performers appear in print and on the web. Frank's modest performing career included recitals in Spain and Japan, where he recorded a special-release CD in honor of the 15th anniversary of the UNESCO chapter of Narita City, Japan.
Lecturer, Aural theory and Pop Composition
Belinda Foo
- Diploma Acoustic Composing & Arranging, The Grove School of Music, California, USA
- Diploma Film & Video Composing, The Grove School of Music, California, USA
Belinda Foo is a Composer, Arranger and Orchestrator. She is also a lecturer in the LASALLE College of the Arts where she teaches Aural, Theory and Pop Composition.
Belinda has been in the music industry for the last 25 years involved with arranging and writing commercial music as well as working as a pianist, music director for various performances and musicals.
Her first love is writing: she has written and orchestrated music for the Singapore and Hongkong Arts Festivals and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
She has also written original music for the musicals, "Darkest Before Dawn", "The Other Wiseman" and "The Three Trees". Her most recent project is "JEREMIAH", a Symphonic Poem. Currently, she is working on a Symphonic Dance, "JOB", which she hopes to complete this August.
"Let the beauty we love be what we do" (Rumi) is her guiding principle. She seeks to draw out beauty from and through her music, the musicians she works with and from her students.
Entry Requirements
Academic Requirements
- Completed High School (Grade 12), Junior College or Pre-University education.
- Recognised Singapore qualification: Singapore-Cambridge GCE 'A' Level: Minimum 'Pass' in 2 subjects + General Paper or recognised equivalent.
- Recognised international qualifications: Please click here to view list.
Note:
Additional subject requirement of Physics or Mathematics with a minimum 'Pass' or recognised equivalent.
Alternative English qualification: IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL iBT80.
Audition & Interview Requirements
You are invited to a live audition on the basis of the prescreening recording and meeting the minimum academic requirements.
Prescreening Recording: You are required to submit a music DVD according to the audition requirements. You are expected to demonstrative a strong knowledge of the music you are presenting, as well as a clear vision of your own musical future.
Live Audition: If selected, you are required to attend a live audition with the School of Contemporary Music, LASALLE in May.
You are required to attend an interview and an audition to demonstrate your creative potential.
You are expected to demonstrate a strong knowledge of the music you are playing, as well as a clear vision for your own musical future.
Music Training Pre-requisites
Theory: ABRSM or Trinity Guildhall Grade 6 or higher.
Previous qualifications in practical exams are preferred but not a requirement for entry into the programme.
You will be judged solely on their ability to perform during the audition and interview process.
Audition Guidelines
Theory / Aural / Academic: Complete a music theory, aural, and written test set by the School of Contemporary Music, LASALLE.
Practical: Present three contrasting pieces with the following conditions for your specialism. (Music scores must be submitted to the audition panel.)
Specialism |
Additional Prerequisites |
Classical Performance |
|
Composition |
|
Jazz Performance |
|
Music Technology |
|
Popular Music Performance |
|
Programme Information
Duration: 3 Years
Awards:
BA(Hons) Music (Classical Performance)
BA(Hons) Music (Jazz Performance)
BA(Hons) Music (Popular Music Performance)
BA(Hons) Music (Composition)
BA(Hons) Music (Music Technology)
This programme has been developed in response to the demands of a growing creative music industry in Singapore and Southeast Asia for graduates of enhanced ability, knowledge, and diversity of experience in the areas of performance, composition and new music technologies.
In keeping with the latest industry demands on contemporary musicians, graduates from School of Contemporary Music (SoCM) embrace technology as an integral part of their performance and compositional practice. You will be exposed to traditional techniques that are expanded upon by contemporary ideas, enabling you to engage productively with the creative industries in the new millennium. SoCM presents a unique opportunity to experience a broad cross-section of today's musical practice within one integrated programme. The School fosters important creative relationships between living composers and classical performers, developing highly skilled and creative performer-composers in Jazz and Popular music, simultaneously integrating Music Technology in innovative and practical ways throughout the programme.
Blending the vibrant cultures and diverse ideas found in Asia with a Western musical discourse, you will undertake one of five specialisms: Classical Performance, Jazz Performance, Popular Music Performance, Composition, and Music Technology. You will audition into one of the five specialisms and pursue this stream throughout the course.
To achieve a balanced syllabus, you are given opportunities to gain familiarity with all five specialisms through practiced-based learning within inter-disciplinary ensembles, music technology and music and culture modules. This develops a solid foundation in your chosen discipline, while the shared subjects expose and inform you about other disciplines and practices. This prepares you to confidently situate an individual artistic 'voice' within today's multifaceted musical landscape.
You will be mentored by some of the most experienced performers and educators in the region from diverse backgrounds in both Western and indigenous musical practice. Lectures, workshops, and rehearsals form the backbone of the programme and offer unique opportunities to explore a range of current musical practices, including: chamber ensembles, gamelan, music theory, specialised aural training, musical culture, studio recording, and interactive technologies.
Level 1 introduces the basic approaches, methods, and skills of the course. You will learn to master your chosen instrument and understand the essential components of a musical language. Level 2 builds on performance practice, while introducing new composition techniques and wider areas of knowledge. You will develop aural awareness and learn to communicate music convincingly to the listener. Level 3 is concerned with integrating skills into professional practice, completing a major research thesis, and extending abilities to meet pressures and requirements of production. Graduates emerge equipped to work both collaboratively and independently, with individuality and self-motivation.
Teaching Methods: You will attend lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. You will take part in performing ensembles, masterclasses and in-house and public performances.
Assessments: Assessment is an integral part of the learning process, and will be formative and diagnostic as well as summative and evaluative, providing feedback to students wherever appropriate. Read more about assessments here.
Modules
(Specialism: Classical Performance, Jazz Performance,Popular Music Performance, Composition and Music Technology)
Level 1
Principal Study 1
Principal Study 1 is a specialised module and is delivered in a one-to-one lesson for performers and in-group lessons for composers and music technology specialists. In Level 1, Principal Study introduces the methodologies and practice to develop the fundamental skills required to execute musical ideas.
Ensemble Workshop 1
Ensemble Workshop 1 is both a specialised and a common area of study and introduces you to ensemble skills, enabling you to perform effectively as part of a group. In addition, you learn presentation skills, such as awareness and acknowledgement of an audience, and how to communicate musical intentions clearly, economically and unambiguously to each other.
Music Skills
Music Skills is both a specialised and common module, made up of both a theory and an aural component. The theory component is specific to your chosen specialisms of Classical Performance, Composition, Jazz Performance, Popular Music Performance or Music Technology. The theory component develops your ability to observe, understand, interpret and manipulate oral, written and visual signs denoting music, while developing an understanding of theoretical and aesthetic systems. The aural component is similarly streamed.
Music Production
Music Production introduces you to the recording studio and develops a familiarity with recording equipment and its nomenclature. You gain experience in the usage of an appropriate range of equipment for recording music and are trained to reflect critically in order to evaluate these technologically mediated contexts.
Sound Reinforcement
In this module, you will encounter the challenges of working with sound in different locations and engage in the process of finding practical solutions to these challenges through the study of acoustics and electrical theory.
Music History
Music History is a stream-specific module for students in four specialisms of the course: Classical, Jazz, Popular Music and Music Technology. Composition students elect to take any one of these specialism histories. This module introduces you to the idea of relating music to its historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, economic, spiritual and religious context; and relates processes of change in music to historical, social, and other factors.
Level 2
Principal Study 2
Principal Study 2 refines and develops your physical dexterity and control (technical mastery of the instrument/voice, compositional technique, programming software), together with the necessary powers of sustained concentration and focus established in Principal Study 1.
Ensemble Workshop 2 Ensemble Workshop 2 refines your ensemble skills from the foundation laid in Level 1 and develops your artistic and expressive skills to communicate music convincingly to the listener. In addition, you learn to confront, explore and assimilate unfamiliar musical sounds, concepts, and repertoires inherent in contemporary performance practice.
Composition Techniques
This module builds on the foundation of knowledge laid out in Music Skills Level 1, combining theory and practice with creative outcomes. This module is delivered in both a specialised and common format that develops your capacity to conceive musical ideas, and to manipulate them in inventive and individual ways. You learn how to develop musical materials into well-formed and coherent musical structures; and learn how to compose idiomatically for instruments within various styles.
Audio Ear Training
Audio Ear Training develops your aural awareness while working in the recording studio. Importantly, this skill is crucial for performers, composers and engineers so they can communicate with each other using the same language during the recording and mixing process; and especially so for engineers to mix and master recorded sound in post-production.
Post Production
This module concentrates on the final stages of the recording process in applying the mastering processes necessary for preparing a recording for commercial duplication. You work not only on music recordings but also on soundtracks for film, video or Internet productions and are thereby introduced to the concepts of synchronising audio and video using time-code.
Contemporary Musical Culture
This module introduces major themes in Critical Theory and Aesthetics, and explores methodologies for reading a text. The module also explores and evaluates the cultural, ideological and stylistic influences that have merged from Asia, as well as the impact of external influences upon the Asian region.
Level 3
Principal Study 3
The module builds on the foundation of Principal Study 1 and 2 by developing and refining your powers of interpretation and your ability to find creative links between the results of personal research, textual and musical analysis, scholarship, reflection and listening skills, and the process of performing.
Independent Workshop
The module allows you to form groups and ensembles that are either specialised or have students from a mixture of specialisms within one group from Level 3. It develops your ability to work as integrated members of a team, to respond to partnership and leadership, and to lead others in teamwork.
Production Project
You record a CD of works that showcases your capabilities as a performer, composer and/or music technology specialist. The module builds on the foundation of skills developed in Music Production and Post Production, enabling you to create recordings of your own work and mastering these to a professional standard of CD production.
Music Business
Music Business is a common module that develops your awareness about concepts and practices of career management, music promotion, and statutory functions of Music Business and the law; Contract Law; Intellectual Property Rights, and applying for arts funding. In addition, you will get an awareness of issues within the arts world: cultural policy, funding mechanisms, professional arts structures, and institutions and arts groups within the community.
Dissertation
Dissertation Module builds on the foundation laid in Music History and Contemporary Musical Culture to employ reasoning and logic in order to analyse data, and to formulate relevant arguments and hypotheses; strengthening the ability to express, interpret and discuss such analyses, arguments and hypotheses orally and in written form. This module focuses on advanced research and scholarly writing skills.
Faculty Members
Head, School of Contemporary Music
Timothy O'Dwyer
- BA Music, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia
Timothy O'Dwyer, is a saxophonist, composer, educator and the current Head of the School of Contemporary Music at LASALLE. Trained as a jazz musician at the Victorian College of the Arts graduating with a BA Music in 1993 he furthered his studies in 1995 with contemporary classical composer Richard Barrett in Amsterdam and visionary saxophonist/ improviser Evan Parker in London. He was a founding member of the seminal punk-jazz group bucketrider from Melbourne (1992) and has been a member of the Elision Contemporary Ensemble since 1994 with which he has performed and composed works that have premiered at arts festivals throughout Australia, Europe and Japan including the 2009 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. He formed the Tim O'Dwyer Trio in 2005, and with them has performed at important jazz festivals in Australia, South East Asia, Japan and Europe including the 2010 Montreux Jazz Festival. Timothy has been involved in over 30 cd releases 13 of which have featured his own compositions. He is currently a PhD candidate at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, researching the nexus between improvisation and composition.
Lecturer, Music Technology
Brain O'Reilly
- MA Electronic Music & Sound Design, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
- BA of Fine Arts Sound & Video, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Brian O'Reilly works within the fields of electro-acoustic composition, moving images and noise music. Also he is a contrabassist focusing on uncovering the inaudible textures and hidden acoustic microsounds of his instrument through the integration of electronic treatments and extended playing techniques. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a scholarship for sculpture during which time he perused independent studies in improvisation and composition with members of Chicago's AACM. After which he relocated to Paris to research the composition methods of the composer Iannis Xenakis, receiving a appointment as Musical Assistant at Xenakis' studio. He pursued graduate studies in Electronic Music at the University of California Santa Barbara's Media Arts and Technology program, where his collaborations with Curtis Roads began with the project "Point Line Cloud" which won an Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica in 2002. As Operations Manager of Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco He worked on many project for the Asphodel record label & recording studio, and has received several international residencies/commissions including invitations to work as a guest artist at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Germany, the SH Festival in Shanghai and All Tomorrow Parties festival curated by Autechre in the UK. He has worked on projects with Eliane Radigue, Luc Ferrari, Curtis Roads, Zbigniew Karkowski, Otomo Yoshihide, Matmos, Maryanne Amacher, Zeitkratzer, Christian Marclay, William Basinski, Fe-Mail, Yasunao Tone, Francisco López, Garth Knox, Steina and Woody Vasulka, amongst others. Currently He is performing audio and visuals solo and in the groups Iron Egg & Black Zenith, and is a lecturer at LASALLE's School of Contemporary Music.
Lecturer, Music Technology
Justin Hegburg
- MA of Music (Music Technology), New York University, USA Australia
- BA of Music (Theory & Composition), University of Miami, USA
Justin Hegburg is an audio engineer and composer. He holds a MM in Music Technology from New York University and a BM in Music Theory from University of Miami. Justin began his career in New York and has worked with numerous Grammy winning producers and engineers. His production work can be heard on many commercial releases spanning a wide variety of musical genres. Currently based in Singapore, Justin teaches Music Technology and Audio Production at LASALLE College of the Arts and continues to work both on audio production projects and original compositions.
Lecturer, Popular Music
Darren Moore
- BA of Music (Performance in Jazz), Edith Cowan University, Australia
Darren Moore is a drummer, composer and electronic musician born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Having lived his formative years in Perth, Australia, he graduated from the Western Australian Conservation at Edith Cowan University with a Bachelor in Music (Jazz Performance) in 1997. He has since lived and worked professionally as a musician in Perth, London, Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore. He is an active member of the Singapore musician scene and is regarded as one of the most creative voices in the scene, straddling jazz, experimental, popular, installation work and composing music for theatre and dance. He curates the CHOPPA experimental series and has recently released two solo albums on his own label, Caol Records. In addition, Darren tours internationally performing at major festivals and club circuits in Asia, Australia, Europe and the US. His most recent highlight was a performance with the Tim O' Dwyer Trio at the prestigious 2010 Montreaux Jazz Festival. Darren has been a lecturer in Popular Music at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore since 2007. He is currently a Doctorate of Musical Arts candidate at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, his research looks at the adaptation of Carnatic Indian rhythms to the drum set.
Lecturer, Classical Music
Frank DeMeglio
- MBA, University of Michigan, USA
- BA of Music (Piano), University of Michigan, USA
Frank DeMeglio is a classical music teacher, lecturer and writer. He has taught part-time at LASALLE since 2003 and joined the faculty in 2009. Of particular interest to Frank is the efficient technical approach to the keyboard that aligns with sound biomechanical principals, especially with respect of injury prevention and cure. He studied piano at the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor degree in performance. After graduating, he taught with Randy and Nancy Faber, authors of the best-selling Piano Adventures library of piano books. He returned to the University of Michigan for an MBA in marketing in 1992, and was hired by Steinway & Sons as their New York Institutional Sales Representative. While working for Steinway & Sons, part of his duties included managing the famed Steinway Selection Room of concert and studio grand pianos. In 2000, Frank DeMeglio moved to Singapore where he wrote the classical music reviews for the Business Times from 2001 to 2004. He continues to guest review (most recently for the 2007 Singapore International Piano Festival) and his interviews of international pedagogues and performers appear in print and on the web. Frank's modest performing career included recitals in Spain and Japan, where he recorded a special-release CD in honor of the 15th anniversary of the UNESCO chapter of Narita City, Japan.
Lecturer, Aural theory and Pop Composition
Belinda Foo
- Diploma Acoustic Composing & Arranging, The Grove School of Music, California, USA
- Diploma Film & Video Composing, The Grove School of Music, California, USA
Belinda Foo is a Composer, Arranger and Orchestrator. She is also a lecturer in the LASALLE College of the Arts where she teaches Aural, Theory and Pop Composition.
Belinda has been in the music industry for the last 25 years involved with arranging and writing commercial music as well as working as a pianist, music director for various performances and musicals. Her first love is writing: she has written and orchestrated music for the Singapore and Hongkong Arts Festivals and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
She has also written original music for the musicals, "Darkest Before Dawn", "The Other Wiseman" and "The Three Trees". Her most recent project is "JEREMIAH", a Symphonic Poem. Currently, she is working on a Symphonic Dance, "JOB", which she hopes to complete this August.
"Let the beauty we love be what we do" (Rumi) is her guiding principle. She seeks to draw out beauty from and through her music, the musicians she works with and from her students.
Entry Requirements
Academic Requirements
- Completed High School (Grade 12), Junior College or Pre-University education.
- Recognised Singapore qualification: Singapore-Cambridge GCE 'A' Level: Minimum 'Pass' in 2 subjects + General Paper or recognised equivalent.
- Recognised international qualifications: Please click here to view list.
Note:
- Additional subject requirement of Physics or Mathematics with a minimum 'Pass' or recognised equivalent.
- Alternative English qualification: IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL iBT80.
Audition & Interview Requirements
Music Training Pre-requisites
- Theory: ABRSM or Trinity Guildhall Grade 6 or higher.
- Previous qualifications in practical exams are preferred but not a requirement for entry into the programme. You will be judged solely on their ability to perform during the audition and interview process.
Audition Guidelines
You are invited to a live audition on the basis of the prescreening recording and meeting the minimum academic requirements.
Prescreening Recording: You are required to submit a music DVD according to the audition requirements. You are expected to demonstrative a strong knowledge of the music you are presenting, as well as a clear vision of your own musical future.
Live Audition: If selected, you are required to attend a live audition with the School of Contemporary Music, LASALLE in May.
You are required to attend an interview and an audition to demonstrate your creative potential. You are expected to demonstrate a strong knowledge of the music you are playing, as well as a clear vision for your own musical future.
- Theory / Aural / Academic: Complete a music theory, aural, and written test set by the School of Contemporary Music, LASALLE.
- Practical: Present three contrasting pieces with the following conditions for your specialism. (Music scores must be submitted to the audition panel.)
Specialism |
Additional Prerequisites |
Classical Performance |
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Composition |
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Jazz Performance |
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Music Technology |
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Popular Music Performance |
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Careers Paths
Educator, Music Reviewer, Voice Talent, Vocal Coach, Music Industry Worker
