邱旭泉
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Way to go Mr Sow Yoong Wai
Youth orchestra trained by MPO members
I was appalled to read that Lim Guan Eng had described the Petronas-funded Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra as a waste of money in a recent Parliament debate. Apart from the figures he pulled out, his argument holds little merit, and Guan Eng should attend a few concerts before shooting off his mouth. The cheapest tickets cost the same as cinema tickets (or twice the sum for a symphonic concert), so one cannot say the average Malaysian cannot afford it.
One also gets more than a bang for the buck since he can listen to the work of Mahler, Shostakovich, Bartok, Stravinsky or Ravel, which other local ensembles cannot play due to their high technical demands, and which thus can only be tackled by an orchestra of MPO’s calibre. Compared with other orchestras in Asia, MPO stands on top of the heap and can even be called Asia’s finest.
Guan Eng said the MPO has not benefited local musicians. That’s laughable, since he forgets the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra consists entirely of local talents trained by members of the MPO. Other local musicians have benefited from training under MPO musicians via the Encounter programme, not to mention numerous workshops and masterclasses which are open to the public.
We cannot deny that a lot of money has been spent on this orchestra – half a billion ringgit in 10 years since its inception. However Malaysians have no qualms about paying RM1000 for a Celine Dion concert or some pop act performing here. No prize for guessing how much of our local currency flew out when they performed.
MPO musicians are trained under rigorous conditions at music conservatoires and universities, not from some American Idol reality show.
If Guan Eng still insists MPO is a waste of money, how about also disbanding FAM and other sports organisations that have wasted millions of our taxpayers’ money? After all, money is better used to build hospitals, schools or fund food subsidies for the people, right?
There is a reason governments spend considerable sums of money on preserving and promoting the arts and culture. Virtually every big city in the world has its own world class orchestra, and Berlin alone has taxpayers funding four symphonic orchestras (including the world famous Berlin Philharmonic) and two opera houses. It would be shameful if KL has the Twins Towers and Formula 1 but no world-class orchestra to boast. The biggest shame of all if the MPO is gone is where do classical music lovers go? An Akademi Fantasia concert?
Sow Yoong Wai
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian politicians nowdays... tsk.. what are they thinking?!?!?!? MPO a waste of money?!?!?!?!? my gosh...
really a no brainer..
I was appalled to read that Lim Guan Eng had described the Petronas-funded Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra as a waste of money in a recent Parliament debate. Apart from the figures he pulled out, his argument holds little merit, and Guan Eng should attend a few concerts before shooting off his mouth. The cheapest tickets cost the same as cinema tickets (or twice the sum for a symphonic concert), so one cannot say the average Malaysian cannot afford it.
One also gets more than a bang for the buck since he can listen to the work of Mahler, Shostakovich, Bartok, Stravinsky or Ravel, which other local ensembles cannot play due to their high technical demands, and which thus can only be tackled by an orchestra of MPO’s calibre. Compared with other orchestras in Asia, MPO stands on top of the heap and can even be called Asia’s finest.
Guan Eng said the MPO has not benefited local musicians. That’s laughable, since he forgets the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra consists entirely of local talents trained by members of the MPO. Other local musicians have benefited from training under MPO musicians via the Encounter programme, not to mention numerous workshops and masterclasses which are open to the public.
We cannot deny that a lot of money has been spent on this orchestra – half a billion ringgit in 10 years since its inception. However Malaysians have no qualms about paying RM1000 for a Celine Dion concert or some pop act performing here. No prize for guessing how much of our local currency flew out when they performed.
MPO musicians are trained under rigorous conditions at music conservatoires and universities, not from some American Idol reality show.
If Guan Eng still insists MPO is a waste of money, how about also disbanding FAM and other sports organisations that have wasted millions of our taxpayers’ money? After all, money is better used to build hospitals, schools or fund food subsidies for the people, right?
There is a reason governments spend considerable sums of money on preserving and promoting the arts and culture. Virtually every big city in the world has its own world class orchestra, and Berlin alone has taxpayers funding four symphonic orchestras (including the world famous Berlin Philharmonic) and two opera houses. It would be shameful if KL has the Twins Towers and Formula 1 but no world-class orchestra to boast. The biggest shame of all if the MPO is gone is where do classical music lovers go? An Akademi Fantasia concert?
Sow Yoong Wai
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian politicians nowdays... tsk.. what are they thinking?!?!?!? MPO a waste of money?!?!?!?!? my gosh...
really a no brainer..
posted by Mattster at 2:57 AM
3 Comments:
i thought m'sian politicians hae always been like that :p hahaha.
what does qiuxuqian mean anyway? just wondering.
oh yea. HELLO! :p
MLee - lolx.. yea.. they have.. but i didn`t know they could go to that extent.. lolx.. qiu xu quan is my chinese name.. :) and hey!! haha :)
I think Guan Eng's concern is the misuse of the funds by Petronas. An average foreign musician earn RM20,000 and an average university graduate at entry level earns RM2000. He argues that it would be better to increase our local musicians from the present 5% now.
In my humble opinion, I think the MPO is good as there is no value we can place on arts and culture. However, there has to be some plans to increase the local representation.
Just take a look at the office furniture of Petronas' offices and the 6-9 months of salary bonus their employees received gives you a feeling of their typical ways of wasting.
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