Musician on a mission

IF IT has to take a pretty lady in a sweet sundress to convince us that music is what makes the world go round, then so be it.

And Yeoh Jun Lin, a mother of three, is undoubtedly a music buff with a message to convey.

What makes this chirpy 48-year-old an authority on the subject, you ask?

Yeoh Jun Lin: ‘Without music, I’d imagine there would be a very heavy and loud silence indeed.’

For one, Jun Lin's name is synonymous with the annual Rainforest World Music Festival, which started in 1998 under the Sarawak Tourism Board. Jun Lin was programme director for the festival from 2001 to 2002, and in 2003, she was in charge as festival director.

Notches in her belt also include her role as artistic director for the Genting International Jazz Festival, the World Music Festival 2008 in Penang and Genting International World Beat.

Jun Lin also listens to as many as 70 musical bands in a week. Mind that they are all from different parts of the world too!

Her job is to sift out the good from the bad and the mediocre. One experience that she never tires of telling is of her meeting a band from the Solomon Islands whose members had never seen a car!

“They were just wonderful people. They even ‘married’ me to the island by giving me a necklace of seashells.

“Now, I can go to Solomon Islands and show the people my shell necklace and they will take me in as one of their own,” said the artistic director gleefully.

So, where musical taste is concerned, there is no doubt that Jun Lin does make the cut.

“I need to remember this always. It’s my job to look for great music. I need to never forget the far-reaching consequences that come with it if I put on bad music!” she said emphatically.

As an example of the effect of bad music, she gives two lessons-in-life stories.

One is of her friend who had to endure listening to his neighbour’s son who had just taken up the violin and was screeching very out-of-tune 5-note exercises every day.

Needless to say, the effect of this bad aural experience would make Jun Lin’s friend develop a strong dislike for the violin.

The second story involves another friend who was exposed to bad Arabic music when she was little. As she grew into adulthood, she would wince every time a reference was made to Arabic music.

It was not until Jun Lin introduced her to some good stuff did she her perception change. Today, Arabic music is now top of her want list and the fear and resentment of people who play the music has, thankfully, become a thing of the past.

Jun Lin, who is also a concert pianist and music teacher, is the first to agree that good music has the ability to transcend barriers and unify all, regardless of class, creed and race.

“Music has to start from a human being – an idea, a concept, a composition, a performance, an improvisation, a sound, a beat and for it to actually flow out and make that connection, the person involved has to have a generous spirit, an open persona, an almost guileless intent to do nothing but produce a palpable wonderful effect.

“I believe that when all these gel together – it appeals to the soul and therefore, it doesn’t matter at all who the giver or the receiver is,” explained Jun Lin.

And Jun Lin, a graduate from the Royal College of Music, London, stresses that good music must not be confined by genre or personal taste.

“What good music must have is pulse. It must have cohesion, be in tune and have a motif – however melodic or fragmented.

“It must have balance and texture. The one that performs it must have great skill to enact it as in having the sensitivity and knowledge of how to use dynamics and timing to reach out and touch just the right spot,” said Jun Lin.

And just like a gourmet should be adventurous when it comes to food, music is also an exploration of the senses.

“Many people choose to stay in comfort zones, preferring to stick to what are currently playing on the top charts. With music one should try everything. Like it or hate it, but try it. Then we are a little bit more enlightened. Then we might discover a new dimension not previously known. “

Sharing her experience, Jun Lin reveals that she is currently on a musical adventure with Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air which was released in 1967.

Riley is an American composer who is associated with minimalist music which features repetition of short musical phrases, drones, constant harmony and a steady hypnotic pulse.

“I haven’t quite put my finger on why I find it so sensational yet, but I do!” she enthused.

And in answer to some quarters who regard the study of music as frivolous and unsubstantial, Jun Lin retorts that while she was training to be a classical pianist, she had to practise eight to 12 hours a day.

In her present job, she can easily clock up to 16 hours a day at work.

“It’s not the vocation that decides what is frivolous and what isn’t. It’s the person, the drive behind it and what that person is going to do with it,” she reasoned.

And besides, Jun Lin who still teaches music to a select group of students opines that the presence of good musicians is something that society should be thankful for.

“Without music, I’d imagine there would be a very heavy and loud silence indeed. There is also the probability that the human race would become soul-less and stressed as well,” said Jun Lin who prays that such a catastrophe will never happen.

For more answers to musical conundrums, Jun Lin can be contacted at junlin.yeoh@gmail.com.