Professor Dr. Tan Sooi Beng received the BCAA Lifetime Achievement Award for her transformative work. This ethnomusicologist and activist reshaped Malaysian arts, fostering inclusive education and revitalizing cultural heritage.
By DANIAL FUAD
The Malaysian performing arts community celebrates a monumental figure. Honorary Professor Dr. Tan Sooi Beng received the 20th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards (BCAA) Lifetime Achievement Award. This prestigious honour, bestowed by Kakiseni and BOH Plantations, stands as a pinnacle of recognition. It celebrates outstanding contributions to dance, music, theatre, and musical theatre since 2002.
Though the momentous evening of May 4, 2025, has passed, its reverberations continue to inspire across Malaysia’s performing arts scene. The 20th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards took place at Stage 1 Theatre, Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre (PJPAC). This event marked a significant milestone: 20 Years of Legacy: Igniting Inspiration for Tomorrow. This anniversary event honoured extraordinary contributions in theatre, dance, music, and musical theatre, showcasing “the very best of Malaysian performing arts!” In this spirit of celebration, the BCAA Lifetime Achievement Award went to Professor Dr. Tan Sooi Beng.
A Lifetime Dedicated to Inclusive Malaysian Arts
Professor Tan’s unwavering dedication to the arts has shaped generations of practitioners and academics. She is an internationally acclaimed ethnomusicologist, a passionate educator, a pioneering researcher, a committed community activist, and a tireless advocate. Her work consistently makes the arts “more inclusive, more Malaysian, and more meaningful.” She uniquely synthesizes knowledge and action, seamlessly connecting academia with community arts practice. Furthermore, she links historical understanding with contemporary relevance, navigating local traditions and global scholarly discourse.
Academic Foundations and Early Vision
Professor Tan’s influential career rests on exceptional academic training. She earned her BA in Music from Cornell University (Ithaca, New York.) Later, she received her MA in Music (Ethnomusicology) from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut.) Her PhD in Music came from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia.) She joined Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as a lecturer in 1980. She also played a key role in setting up Pusat Seni (Arts Centre) in 1983.
In 1994, Professor Tan developed a new BA (Music) programme. This programme encompassed both Western and Asian music. She recounted her motivation: “music education is too westernized and getting into it is very expensive, so I wanted to give back to the society especially the younger generations that was in the same situation as myself.” She added, “that’s how my work on reworking and decolonizing music education in Malaysia when I returned in the 90s.”
Redefining Music Education
Professor Tan actively reshaped music education in Malaysia. She explained, “when I started the new Bachelor of Music program in Universiti Sains Malaysia, I included Asian Music Studies as well as Malaysian Music.” This marked a first for higher institutions, including these components in their curriculum. They also “brought in traditional performers from Kelantan and Terengganu to teach gamelan and wayang kulit.” Professor Tan handled the theoretical parts, while the practitioners managed the practical aspects. She has mentored the next generation, successfully supervising eight PhD and 14 MA students from Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia and also served as Deputy Dean of the School of Arts in Postgraduate Studies and Research from 1999-2005. Furthermore, she was Chief Editor of Wacana Seni, Journal of Arts Discourse from 2002-2010.
Landmark Research and Publications
Professor Tan Sooi Beng’s scholarly output has profoundly shaped Malaysian performing arts understanding. Her 1993 book, Bangsawan: A Social and Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera, remains a landmark achievement. She shared her initial inspiration: “I always wanted to make arts inclusive and accessible to the masses which all began when I did my research on the Bangsawan theatre.” She discovered the form’s inclusive nature where Bangsawan performers, traveling the archipelago, “absorbed the cultures of all the different people in the Nusantara and included them in their performances; making their works enjoyable to multiple ethnic groups even though their work mainly uses the Malay language.” This research deeply influenced her where she mentioned “what the performers taught me during my research changed my whole attitude towards what makes a Malaysian cultures and identity.”
Applied Ethnomusicology: Arts for Social Change
Her commitment to community collaboration is clear in her work revitalizing the Potehi glove puppet theatre in Penang. Recognizing its endangered status, she felt a personal responsibility, “I make it my responsibility to keep this art alive by reaching out to various stakeholders.” This effort involved meticulous documentation, organizing localized performances, and crucial collaboration with remaining traditional performers and local youth. This culminated in the multimedia book and box set, Potehi Glove Puppet Theatre of Penang, an Evolving Heritage. She emphasized direct learning: “it is important to learn directly from the community so that you would get a better understanding of what you want to study so that you would adapt things more naturally in your new works.”
Professor Tan also co-developed the innovative Music of Sound (MOS) approach. This pedagogy “moves beyond traditional instrument-based music education.” It fosters creative expression using everyday objects, body percussion, and voice. This hands-on, collaborative approach, developed with diverse schoolchildren, fosters interethnic cohesion. She shared, “through this program, they discovered that making music is about the people and it can be fun. I am quite happy that many has expressed that this program really affected their life and shape who they are today.”
Her research consistently explores Malaysia’s diverse cultural expressions. Her research has shown that Malaysians naturally mix cultures such as food, language, music, dance and the arts in their daily lives. This work influences her activism to “inculcate a sense of place and a Malaysian identity among young people.” She firmly believes “tradition makes the soul of the nation so I find it important to preserve it so that we can find out who we are first, before we can modernize it to extend their life.”
Compositions: Blending Tradition and Modernity
As a composer and musician, Professor Tan re-envisions multiethnic Malaysian cultural aesthetics. She juxtaposes Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Western musical elements with topical Malaysian themes. Compositions like Pulse, Suara Rimba, Beach Street, and Penjual Sayur exemplify this eclectic topical style. She also brought a new Malaysian identity to gamelan music with compositions like Perubahan and Saling Berpelukan.
The Pinnacle of Recognition: BOH Cameronian Lifetime Achievement Award
The BCAA is Malaysia’s most prestigious platform for honouring excellence in performing arts. The Lifetime Achievement Award is exclusive; it is not presented every year. It honours individuals whose contributions are truly transformative, showing sustained dedication and profound impact. Past recipients include cultural icons such as Krishen Jit, Datuk Ramli Ibrahim, and Datuk Faridah Merican.
Professor Tan Sooi Beng’s career perfectly aligns with this award’s values. Her decades of work demonstrate sustained excellence through rigorous scholarship and international leadership. She has also shown profound impact in shaping ethnomusicology in Malaysia and mentoring numerous scholars. Her unwavering dedication, cultural preservation efforts, and pioneering spirit further underscore her deservingness. Professor Tan views this recognition as an important step for her legacy. She hopes “that by me receiving this Lifetime Achievement Awards, it would spur their spirits to achieve something bigger” among her former students. She acknowledged that this work “is a very long journey full of struggle so I hope that it does not ends with me and having the future generations carrying on the baton.”
Celebrating Excellence: Other 20th BCAA Winners
The 20th BCAA was a night of glitz, glamour, and artistic brilliance. It celebrated not only Professor Tan but also the outstanding nominees and winners of 2024. Theatre productions like The Bee and Randai “MacBeth” led the nominations. Randai “MacBeth” notably secured seven category awards. In Dance, Geetha Shankaran-Lam received Best Featured / Lead Performer in Samskara – Past Reflections, Present Expressions at 56. The Music category honoured Dr. Bernard Tan for Best Musical Direction and Dr. Poom Prommachart for Best Solo Performance Instrumental. Teater Muzikal Sakti Merong Mahawangsa notably took home four awards in Musical Theatre.
Additionally, three prestigious “Best Of 2024” awards were presented:
- Randai “MacBeth” by Pusat Seni Pentas Tradisional (PuTRA), ASWARA
- Spice, Magic and Mystique by The Young KL Singers, presented by TAS Seni Teater Rakyat and klpac
- Teater Persiapan Seorang Aktor by Studio Sedar Ruang
These productions collectively reflected the exceptional quality, creativity, and dedication driving Malaysian performing arts today. Kakiseni President Low Ngai Yuen remarked that “the BOH Cameronian Arts Awards is a platform to uplift, discover and connect.” She added, “with every name announced, we honour not just excellence, but what the Malaysian arts scene is today, and the possibility of what it can become.”
An Enduring Legacy and Future Inspiration
Professor Dr. Tan Sooi Beng’s influence resonates across scholarship, education, cultural practice, and public discourse in Malaysia and beyond. Her legacy lives in foundational texts, in the generations of students she has mentored, and in the revitalized arts she has championed. Her work has undeniably made the arts ‘more inclusive, more Malaysian, and more meaningful.’ Professor Dr. Tan Sooi Beng stands as an icon – a builder of bridges between past and present, academia and community, local practice and global understanding. Her life’s work serves as a powerful inspiration, illuminating a path for future generations of artists, scholars, educators, and cultural advocates. These individuals are committed to nurturing and sustaining Malaysia’s vibrant performing arts and heritage. The 20th BCAA, celebrating 20 Years of Legacy: Igniting Inspiration for Tomorrow, perfectly encapsulated the enduring spirit of Professor Tan’s journey and the vibrant future of Malaysian arts.
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