Lionel Tan started music lesons on the violin and picked up the viola under Jiri Heger. After only two years, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London where he graduated both in performance and pedagogy. He also won the Lionel Tertis Prize, awarded for outstanding performance.
His has also been under the tutelage of Martha Katz and Karen Ritscher in the USA, and with Margaret Major, Christopher Wellington and Milan Skampa in Europe. As a member of the award-winning T'ang Quartet, he was a pupil of Paul Katz, Norman Fischer and Kenneth Goldsmith at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, USA.
Graduating from London in 1986, he began his professional career by winning the Diners Club String Player of the Year Competition, after which he began a 11 year stint with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO).
He is also a founding member of the T”ang Quartet. The quartet went on to become Singapore’s only professional chamber group, winning international prizes and awards and garnering critical acclaim worldwide for their incisive and passionate playing and innovative programming. Awards include the Bartok prize at The Vienna, Prague, Budapest Festival, 2nd prize and Special Jury prize at Joseph Joachim International competition, National Endowment of the Arts, America, Residency Grant and Singapore Youth Awards.
Of the many accolades received, The Strad in UK praised the T’ANG QUARTET as ‘a fine-toned, well-balanced, thoughtfully blended ensemble without a weak-link – and with an excellent sense of style’. And the Boston Globe described the Quartet ‘astounding’… for their ‘confidence, bravura and charisma’; Critics at London’s Evening Standard commented that 'this ensemble is outstanding. Unanimity of attack is uncanny, and the intonation and internal balance both impress greatly. These are plainly minds which share a wavelength '.
Known for their direct and musical approach to teaching, they have been appointed as teachers and resident quartet at international venues such as the Tanglewood Festival, USA, Port Fairy Festival, Australia, University of Kansas, Missouri, USA, Dijon Conservatory, France, as well as many of Singapore schools and institutions.
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Updated on 23/09/2012
