Trained individually in London and Moscow, the Quartet was awarded a fellowship to work in the USA with Paul and Martha Katz, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith and Sergui Luca at the Shepherd School of Music.

Performing internationally to critical acclaim the Quartet has garnered numerous international awards. Its repertoire includes works by the classical masters as well as contemporary composers such as Bright Sheng, Peter Sculthorp and Chen Yi.

Prize winners of the 2nd Internationaler Joseph Joachim Kammermusikwettbewerb in Weimar, Germany, the T'ang Quartet also received the Special Jury Prize for best interpretation of a contemporary composition. In the same year, 1999, the Quartet was also awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant from the American government to be a resident ensemble in a special programme of Chamber Music America.

In 2000, the Bartok prize was presented to them for their acclaimed performance of Bartok's first quartet at the Prague-Vienna-Budapest Sommerakademie. The upbeat stage personality and sophisticated sounds of the T'ang Quartet, which has collaborated with celebrated artists such as pianists Horia Mihail and Tedd Joselson as well as cellists Carter Enyeart and Paul Katz, has captivated audiences in the USA, Europe, Australia, China and South East Asia.

The Quartet has been active in mentoring and coaching young musicians through masterclasses at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the University of Missouri- Kansas City and the Arcady Festival, Maine, USA.

Music education programmes are also an intrinsic part of the Quartet's work. It performs more than 60 schools concerts annually and its members have shared their passion for classical music with school children across America, Australia and Singapore. In their tireless efforts to reach out to a wider audience, the Quartet has performed in unconventional venues such as discotheques and has even been filmed by MTV-Asia.

Highlights of the 2005 season include the Quartet's London debut at the Wigmore Hall, the Tanglewood Music Festival in the USA, Cervantino Music Festival in Mexico, performances in Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as the launch of their first CD "The Art of War".

"T'ang" signifies that golden age of the arts in Asia - the T'ang Dynasty. The name T'ang is also an acronym of the players' last names.

Ng Yu-Ying (1st violin), Ang Chek Meng (2nd violin), Lionel Tan (viola) and Leslie Tan (cello) embarked on their professional careers with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra after pursuing their musical education in London.

Yu-Ying graduated with first class honours from the Royal Academy of Music, UK, where he studied with Clarence Myerscough and Erich Gruenberg and was awarded the Dominion Fellowship for his Graduation Recital. Chek Meng also pursued his studies on the violin at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Jean Harvey and Erich Gruenberg, and graduated with honours in 1991. Lionel is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, UK, and studied under Margaret Major and Christopher Wellington. All three shared a common mentor and teacher in Jiri Heger, who is also on the faculty of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

Aside from chamber music performances, members of the T'ang Quartet have also conducted solo recitals in Singapore and overseas. Yu-Ying's collaborations with Jiri Heger have brought him to the Czech Republic where he performed in concerts and in live telecasts on Czech television.

During his studies in the UK, Leslie, a graduate of the Trinity College of Music, performed widely in numerous music festivals and was broadcast by the BBC. While very much in demand as a chamber musician, Leslie also performs as soloist as well as collaborative artiste with performers of other disciplines. He was also educated at the Moscow Conservatory of Music under Natalia Shahkovskaya, and was a cellist in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra for 13 years.

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Updated on 01/06/2009