Percussion concert kicks off SG50 celebration programme

Percussion concert kicks off SG50 celebration programme

SINGAPORE -The first SG50 Celebration Fund project to kick off 2015 was a percussion concert held at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Sunday with more than 2,000 people in attendance.

Initiated by Dr Robert Casteels and Mr Ngoh Kheng Seng, the concert is a percussion orchestra that features Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian percussion instruments.

The concert aimed to highlight the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic identity of Singapore through music.

About $3 million has been disbursed from the SG50 Celebration Fund that was launched in Jan 2014 to support projects initiated to celebrate Singapore's 50th birthday.

To date, more than 100 project proposals are supported by the fund where more than 500 ideas were received from groups of individuals, organisations and societies. 250 of which are being reviewed or refined.

Each project can get up to $50,000 from the SG50 Celebration Fund of at least $5 million.

The majority of the projects are community-based events in areas such as arts, music, food, heritage, culture and sports. There are also projects aimed at helping the less privileged and projects that set out to recognise Singaporeans' contributions to nation building.

Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister of Culture, Community and Youth and Chairman of the SG50 Programme Office, who attended the concert, said: "I am happy to see Singaporeans getting involved in our SG50 celebration. We've received many ground-up proposals - they range from celebration gatherings to projects that remind us of our rich multi-cultural heritage, as well as those that reach out to the less fortunate. In all these proposals, we can sense the excitement and enthusiasm among Singaporeans to celebrate our 50th birthday together as a nation. We look forward to seeing more good ideas in the coming months that will make our Golden Jubilee meaningful and memorable for everyone."

spanaech@sph.com.sg

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