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Symphony 92.4 DJ Kiat Goh releases Christmas single

SINGAPORE — ’Tis the season to be ... jazzy?

Local singer-songwriter Kiat Goh releases Christmas songs

Local singer-songwriter Kiat Goh releases Christmas songs

SINGAPORE — ’Tis the season to be ... jazzy?

Two-time Singapore Hit Awards nominee Kiat Goh has released a new single, Oh, The Season, a pair of songs based on his experience of Christmas in Berlin.

The Singaporean singer-songwriter was schooled in Moscow and Berlin under the tutorship of Grammy-award-winning singer Reiner Goldberg, receiving five years of training in classical vocals.

“This period always makes me reflect on the year that has passed,” said Goh. “You think about what you have achieved in the year and what you could have done better. Being away from home definitely added a sense of longing, but there is always a great sense of warmth and hope, that everything is going to be just fine.”

Written and produced by Goh, the songs — Oh, The Season and Fortunate — were arranged by Kerong Chok, one of Singapore’s top jazz musicians (and a graduate of The Manhattan School of Music), and feature a live jazz trio.

It has been a banner year for Goh. In addition to being a DJ on classical music station MediaCorp Radio Symphony 92.4 (he helms the daily jazz show Jazz With Kiat), he also released his debut album — the Chinese pop effort, Pluto.

“I was studying voice in Moscow and Berlin, and singing in all these languages — Russian, Italian and German — but as much as I love singing a Bach aria or a Schubert lied (German art song), I really missed singing in my mother tongue Mandarin,” Goh told TODAY.

“Growing up, I listened to all genres, not only pop or classical. I love the blues, jazz and rock. And I thought it would be fascinating to fuse some of these genres. Thus, I started writing the melodies and out came Pluto.”

The album went on to garner nominations for Goh at this year’s Singapore Hit Awards (for Most Popular New Artiste and Best Lyrics).

So how has classical training helped in tackling such varied genres, from a Mandarin collection to yuletide tunes?

Goh, who counts both jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and local artiste Tanya Chua as influences, said: “The classical voice training is actually a double-edged sword. There is all the ‘power’ that one develops with classical voice training, but one has to be as sensitive and nuanced as possible when singing a German art song or a pop ballad.

“It would be really awful to belt out Pavarotti-style for a quiet ballad. So it is really about applying the required techniques for each song as it is not a one-kind-of-voice-fits-all-songs kind of situation. And that is actually one of the biggest lessons I have learnt.” Genevieve Loh

 

Oh, The Season is available on iTunes Singapore. You can preview the tracks at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yerf9DTpu8

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