Ryan Lim

Erhu

Ryan began his musical journey 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.

Ryan is also highly active in the local Chinese orchestra music scene. He was the Concertmaster of Chung Cheng High School (Yishun) Chinese orchestra and is a member of Toa Payoh West Community Club Chinese Orchestra. He was accepted into the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra (SNYCO) in 2015 as a gaohu player and subsequently became the Concertmaster in 2016 till date. In 2019 and 2021, Ryan was awarded the Mapletree-TENG Academy Scholarship, in recognition of his musical potential and excellence. And most recently, he has 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.

In June 2021, he was part of a project entitled LAB = Dance x Music by *SCAPE. The project had Ryan working with dancers to create original music and performance work via experimentation and collaborative efforts. Ryan has also participated in several national music competitions; he attained first place for the erhu youth category for the National Chinese Music Competition in 2016, alongside Toa Payoh West Community Club Chinese Orchestra he obtained first prize in the ensemble category, in 2018 and 2020 he was shortlisted as a finalist in the erhu open category for the National 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.

Till date, Ryan still guest plays for many Chinese orchestras and is regularly involved in various community projects like the TENG Gives Back programme. He aspires to be a performer, and someone who brings joy with music - sharing it with everyone he meets.