Two unique musical personalities come together for this special evening. Cellist, singer, and composer Lucinda Chua and violinist Galya Bisengalieva collaborate with the 12-piece Spaceship extended, composed of members of the London Contemporary Orchestra and the Spaceship Ensemble from The Hague.
With her cello, effect pedals, and whispering vocals, Lucinda Chua creates an atmospheric and introspective musical world. Her work moves between ambient, pop, classical, and R&B, offering a unique foundation for an orchestral interpretation. During her set, Chua will perform her debut album YIAN and the EP Reclaiming The Rose.
After the break, Galya Bisengalieva will present her latest album Polygon. The Kazakh composer and violinist is known for her experimental and atmospheric approach, blending traditional techniques with electronic influences. The Spaceship extended adds depth and extra layers to her compositions.
This performance is an initiative of Birds of Paradise in co-production with Amare.
Growing up in the UK, my name, Siew Yian, felt unfamiliar to me. I wanted to be Katie or Chloe, to move through school with the ease and popularity of a Sarah. While my parents had chosen the name with great care, it wasn’t until I was older that I began to understand the significance of each character.
The “Yian” or “燕” as I later learned, translates to “swallow,” a bird that holds special significance in Chinese mythology. According to legend, the swallow symbolises love, loyalty, and good luck; the messenger of happiness and Spring. It’s also a migratory songbird that lives between two places; embodying the idea of moving between different worlds.
I often feel like a swallow; searching for ways to sing a song of my own as I code switch between countries and cultures. I can trace back the English side of my family to Nottingham, the city I lived in as a student, but I don’t know which parts of China my ancestors came from before migrating to Malaysia. Growing up, the kids in my village would tell me to “go back to my own country” and it stung twice as hard because I didn’t know where.
It’s only been recently that the connection to the symbolism of my name has helped me embrace my identity and appreciate my unique perspective. On a recent trip to Malaysia with my father, we spent time with his aunt and cousins in Kuching; many of whom I was meeting for the first time. Visiting the family home, I met my 96-year-old great aunt Pheng Yian; my grandma’s little sister, the youngest of 10 siblings. My grandma, Poh Yian, passed away when I was ten. From my little home in the U.K, I remember saying goodbye to my parents as they flew to Malaysia for her funeral which felt oceans away. I had heard my great aunt’s name spoken many times, but only now made the connection between her name and mine.I learned that in fact all four sisters were called Yian, each with a different adjective to describe the swallow. Gin Yian, silver swallow, the eldest. Bee Yian, beautiful swallow, the next. Poh Yian, my grandma, the precious swallow and Pheng Yian, a peaceful swallow. It was beautiful to see how my family’s naming tradition had carried on through the generations.
Meeting new aunts, uncles and cousins in Pheng Yian’s kitchen, hearing them laugh and joke in Hokkien, my perception of family doubled. I listened to the stories of my grandfather, the kind-hearted doctor, who passed away when my father was just a boy. And my grandmother, who loved more than anything to dance and would stay out so late, coming home in the small hours of the morning. In my mind, the women in my Chinese family are like a flight of swallows, each one unique yet connected, moving between different worlds with grace and strength. My name, Siew Yian, has become a powerful symbol of my identity and my connection to my family and culture. It represents the beauty and complexity of my heritage and serves as a reminder to embrace my unique perspective and to keep moving forward.
In May 2024 I had the honour of performing at the Barbican Centre in London accompanied by London Contemporary Orchestra. It was a truly magical experience to take the stage alongside so many brilliant musicians, and to hear music I had written over the past 10 years come to life.
I co-wrote the short film Golden with my friend, director and collaborator Tash Tung. The film shows me meeting my younger self and draws on themes of diasporic, bi-racial, bi-cultural identity and the importance of role models.
In 2023 I took classes in traditional Chinese fan dance, Chinese ribbon dance and Chinese contemporary dance. Building on this training I worked with my friend and movement director Chantel Foo to create choreography for the music video Echo. These portraits of our movement sessions were photographed by my friend and photographer Milo Van Giap and published in Motor Dance Journal’s inaugural print issue “The Solo” accompanied by a short essay I wrote.
Nhu Xuan is an incredible artist and image maker working with photography. We met years ago whilst working on the artwork for Antidotes and spent many months coming up with the concept artwork for YIAN, passing ideas back and forth.
The album artwork felt like the perfect place to tie all the themes of the record together, a world to house some of the visual themes I’d seeded in the music videos. The rocks that symbolised permanence, the passing of time and connection to the ancestors, the rose – a beloved flower that I use as a symbol for the Asian diaspora; a plant with its ancestral roots in China that was brought to Europe in the 1700s. And of course the swallow, or YIAN, the migratory songbird that lives between two places but belongs to the sky.
The music video for Echo was a collaborative project between myself, director Jade Ang Jackman and movement director Chantel Foo. The choreography explored themes of respecting traditions of the past (the ancestral rocks), whilst also carving a new path towards the future (the overgrown roses and footprints in the snow). The set design and cinematography was inspired by old martial arts movies we had grown up watching as kids.
I am longstanding listener and contributor to NTS radio. I treat these shows like a sketchbook; an opportunity to share my references and memories weaving together different sounds in an hour long story.