In an extravagant bid to cultivate appreciation for homegrown music, a Sing50 fund has been launched with an initial pool of $348,000 donated by various individuals and organizations.
However, instead of using the money to educate and promote the works of past and present local musicians, 50 expensive Steinway & Sons pianos will be bought for use in the Sing50 concert on Aug 7, AsiaOne reports.
The Lang Lang pianos, costing $26,000 each, will be given to 50 selected primary and secondary schools for music education afterwards.
Many netizens however have pointed out that top-of-the-line hardware does nothing to promote local music, and the money could have been invested in existing musicians and performing arts venues instead.
The Sing50 concert — organized by the The Straits Times and The Business Times — is set to be a two-hour-long mega concert at the National Stadium that promises to celebrate the milestones of music in Singapore for the past 50 years, but so far there is little indication that it’ll be nothing more than another concert that panders only to the corporate crowd. Their idea of being hip and contemporary is calling out for 50 to 100 rappers (seriously) — and we know what happens when hip hop and big corporate entities collide.
Photo: Mirko Waltermann via Flickr
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