Susanna Saw, Malaysia

 

Susanna Saw is a graduate of the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music, Australia. She was the choir teacher for The Australian Boys Choir Institute 1996-1998, and obtained her Australian Kodaly Certificate in Music Education in 2001. Since her return to Malaysia, she has founded The Young Kuala Lumpur Singers and The Kuala Lumpur Children's Choir. Currently a lecturer and choir director at the Faculty of Music at the University of Malaya and Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA). She conducts the MIA Ladies Chorus, which has won many Gold Medals from various international competitions. These achievements include becoming Champion of the Female Chamber Category at the 6th World Choir Games in Shaoxing, China 2010, and at the 2nd Vietnam International Choir Competition, 2012. Susanna is founder of the Malaysian Choral Eisteddfod (formerly known as Young Singers Choral Festival) in 2003, an annual young musicians' event in Malaysia dedicated to the increase of choral knowledge through various invited choir tutors from overseas.

 

In 2007, Susanna established the Young Choral Academy in Kuala Lumpur, a venue for choral lovers to learn more about choral music and a platform for young Malaysian composers and arrangers to compose more choral works. She helped to bring in the Kodaly Training Course to Malaysia to improve the local standards of classroom music teaching. Since 2007, Susanna has been invited by the Interkultur Foundation, Germany, to be a member of the Jury for the Asian Choir Games and World Choir Games (Indonesia 2007 & 2013, Austria 2008, Korea 2009, China 2010, Vietnam 2011, United States 2012, Japan 2012 and Latvia 2014). She has been appointed Choir Olympic Council Member of the Foundation, and has presented workshops on Malaysian Music in Vietnam 2008 and 2010, Austria 2009, Croatia 2010, and Australia 2011 and 2014. Susanna is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Choral Summit, International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM) and the International Kodaly Society.