La voix humaine (The Human Voice)

Production & Artistic Team

Executive Producers – Danny Chen & Ho Soon Yoon 
Stage Director – Danny Chen
Stage Manager – Logan Chai
Lighting Designer – Tan Eng Heng
Sound Designers – JJ Tan, Soundworks

Cast

Elle – YiLing Chaing
Piano – Dr. Juan Montoya

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BIO

DR. JUAN MONTOYA, PIANO

Colombian conductor, Juan Montoya is the resident conductor of the KLCO – Kuala Lumpur City Opera, a post he has held since 2014, and the Director of Orchestral Studies at the UiTM University.

His most recent opera engagements have included productions of L’Elisir d’Amore (2014), La Bohème (2016), La Fille du Regiment (2017), The Marriage of Figaro (2017), Hansel and Gretel (2018), Madama Butterfly (2018), La Traviata (2019), and The Magic Flute (2019) with the KLCO - Kuala Lumpur City Opera (Malaysia) and the productions of Madama Butterfly in 2017 with the Rousse Opera in Bulgaria and in 2018 with the Hungarian Opera at Cluj-Napoca.
His symphonic concert engagements have included performances with the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Bentley Repertoire Orchestra, and UiTM Symphony Orchestra (Malaysia), EAFIT Symphony Orchestra (Colombia), Surabaya Symphony Orchestra (Indonesia), Michoacán Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), the National Symphony Orchestra of Paraguay, Cairo Symphony Orchestra (Egypt), and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (USA).

He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral and opera conducting from the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music, a double master’s degree in piano performance and orchestral conducting from the University of Toledo, Ohio in 2009, and a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the EAFIT University, in Medellín, Colombia in 2006.

Montoya’s awards include: Order of Merit “Don Juan del Corral – Silver Category (2019),” one of the highest civilian distinctions, given by the government of Colombia and the City Council of Medellín for his outstanding international performance career. In April of 2019, Montoya got nominated and won the “Best Music Director” award at the 16th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards in Malaysia, the most important art awards of this country. Juan also won first prize (Golden Baton) at the “International Orchestral Conducting Competition” with the National Symphony Orchestra of Paraguay in 2016, third place at the prestigious “Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition” in Rousse, Bulgaria in 2017 and a special mention from the jury at the “Second Black Sea Opera Conducting Competition,” in Constanța, Romania in 2016.

Juan is currently residing in Kuala Lumpur.

YILING CHAING, ELLE

YiLing holds her bachelor's degree from Birmingham Conservatoire (UK) in vocal and operatic performance and completed her master's degree at the Kodály Institute of Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Hungary) as a Kodály expert in music education.

YiLing’s international operatic performance career and Kodály expertise brought her to many cities for concerts as well as presenter at international workshops. She has been invited to major cities of the United Kingdom, Hungary, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Myanmar, Thailand & Malaysia.

YiLing is the youngest Malaysian soloist at the age of 25 engaged by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at the Petronas Philharmonic and Opera Siam. She was also invited by Princess Galyani Foundation to sing a concert in Bangkok with the royal presence of H.R.H Princess Soamsawali of Thailand.

In the years 2016 to 2019, she represented Malaysia as the Cultural & Goodwill ambassador to Myanmar for cultural exchange development program and had performed for the 60th anniversary of the founding treaty of the European Union, Embassy of America, Embassy of Malaysia, Embassy of Czech, and Embassy of Russia. She also sang for Daw Khin Kyi Foundation (late mother of Aung San Su Kyi) International Cultural and Charity Group (ICCG) events. In 2019, she performed and conducted Myanmar National Choir for State Counsellor of Myanmar Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday celebration with her presence.
Her operatic roles include the title role of Bizet’s “Carmen”, Cherubino in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro”, Hansel in Humperdinck’s “Hansel & Gretel”, 3rd lady in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”, Flora Bervoix in Verdi’s “La Traviata”, Kate Pinkerton in Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly”, Lay Sister in Puccini’s “Suor Angelica”, Surya in Somtow Sucharitkul’s “Das Jati”, Kate Julian in Britten’s ‘Owen Wingrave”. She received excellent reviews from several press of her unique rich and warm middle register, described as “wine under the moon like silvery sky”.

YiLing is currently an adjunct music lecturer at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sunway University and UCSI University In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. YiLing is a vocal director of Myanmar Music Festival who is also a founder of Myanmar Music Festival national choir, which brings about singers from 9 states of Myanmar to promote social harmony and music appreciation skills among the youths. YiLing was recently appointed as one of the judges for the reputable International Vocal Open Competition.

DANNY CHEN, STAGE DIRECTOR

Founder and Executive Producer of KL City Opera, Danny has more than 2 decades of experience in the oil and gas industry specializing in Retail and Marketing Management. He is also an author of local foodbook, “Train2Eat Kuala Lumpur” and hosted the Malaysian Airline’s YouTube Travelogue videos #MH48Hours in 2013/2014. This is his directing debut with the company.