Meet Ryan, a dedicated Erhu teacher, Ryan who has inspired countless students to discover their passion for music and achieve excellence in their craft. Ryan has a passion for teaching and is always engaging and interactive in spreading the joy of learning by being musically motivated. Ryan is an exceptional music teacher who inspires students to reach their full potential and fosters a love for music that lasts a lifetime.
Having experience in preparing students for local and overseas instrumental examinations, Ryan has also helped students with their Music Elective Program (MEP) in schools for their National examinations. He is extremely passionate in teaching and is always engaging and interactive in spreading the joy of learning by being musically motivated. His vast musical experience was first cultivated by learning the piano when he was 6. Shortly after, he joined the Chinese orchestra in his primary school and picked up the erhu. At age 13, Ryan came under the tutelage of erhu maestro Zhang Yu Ming. Under his guidance, Ryan has since participated in and has attained excellent results from the China Central Conservatory of Music Instrumental Examinations co-organised by the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), and the CI-TENG Chinese Music Instrumental Grading Examinations. He was also the concertmaster of his school’s orchestra and the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra (SNYCO).
Ryan has also participated in several national music competitions; he attained first place for the erhu youth category for the Singapore Chinese Music Competition in 2016, alongside Toa Payoh West Community Club Chinese Orchestra he obtained first prize in the ensemble category, in 2022 he attained first place in the erhu senior category for the Singapore Chinese Music Competition, he also clinched the silver award in the Advanced Artists Category of the Dunhuang Cup-NAFA Singapore International Erhu Competition in 2019. In 2019 and 2021, Ryan was awarded the Mapletree-TENG Academy Scholarship, in recognition of his musical potential and excellence. In 2021, he joined The TENG Ensemble as an Erhu player.
With the opportunities provided by the SNYCO and Zhang Yu Ming, Ryan has performed in China music conservatories in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangzhou. Representing the Mapletree-TENG Academy Scholarship, he has also appeared in Hello Singapore, a news and current affairs programme produced by Mediacorp Channel 8 – presenting an excerpt of 一枝花, a Shandong province folk song. Another opportunity arose for him via Mapletree Arts in the City where they recorded a music video of him performing 兰花花叙事曲 which was later uploaded on their YouTube channel.
Having performed on many various platforms and winning competitions, it attests to the confidence Ryan has in teaching students to capture listeners’ attention when presenting a piece. He has groomed students into achieving excellent results in their instrumental examinations, and also has many experience as a senior member and principal player of many orchestras, guiding and teaching less experienced members of all ages — elderly and young children — during sectionals and orchestral rehearsals. Ryan believes that the motivation in learning comes from joy, which can only be found if a student is musically motivated in learning, and the teacher’s job is to ignite the burning passion and make it burn brighter.
