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Sulwyn Lok
Music Director-Composer
ようこそ! Welcome to my palette from around the world.
Hello! Here, I bring together my work as a film and orchestra composer with my roots as a traditional Chinese instrumentalist and conductor. The menu has intense epic cues, good jazz vibes, soaring melodies, and an experimental side with folk instruments.
After the audio reel, I invite you to check out the videos of some of my most fun projects.
You will get to see different Asian instruments coming together in new ways, as well as trailers of some of the films I worked on.
Thank you for listening to my music!
SET SAIL (inspiring Asian flutes 笛子 and Venu with orchestra)
1:01
SPRING LOVE (bossa with 琵琶 Pipa | Winner of Universal's UCompose competition)
0:44
ALL IN ME (power ballad with strings)
0:26
CABLE CAR (jazz Flute)
0:49
ANA IS HERE (dark drama)
0:30
ESCAPING FATE (orchestral emotional final boss)
1:23
ONE CHAPTER MORE (Accordion good vibes jazz)
1:12
SECRETS OF THE HEAVENS (fantasy orchestral theme)
1:12
SKY OF BLOSSOMS (Chinese strings 琵琶、古筝、扬琴 and orchestra)
0:35
MORNING OF THE WORLD (Cello, 二胡 Erhu, 琵琶 Pipa, Gamelan with electronic tensions)
1:14
BEER! (funky 唢呐 Suona boss battle)
0:51
未 TO BE (Chinese flute 笛子 duet)
1:04
SUNSET (nostalgic 阮 Ruan and Harp)
5:00
SYMPHONY OF LIFE (uplifting 唢呐 Suonas and orchestra)
1:45
BODHI (Best Original Music, National Youth Film Awards | zen Chinese flute 大笛)
0:45
NO DELUSIONS: WUKONG (epic orchestral Asian)
0:52
IN TIME TO BE (experimental with traditional instruments)
0:34
THE CHILD OF TIME (town edition)
1:32
THE CHILD OF TIME (memories edition)
1:18
WAY OUT RIGHT NOW (chill electronic)
1:03
SWEET IMPRESSIONS (emotional EDM)
1:19
Biography
Sulwyn Lok is a composer and music director whose work has been described as “magical” and filled with “plenty of beautiful sounds to savour” (The Straits Times). Based between New York and Singapore, he moves between orchestras, Chinese instruments, voice, and electronics, often drawing from different musical traditions in the same space.
His work has appeared at Cannes, Busan, and the New York Asian Film Festival, and includes composing the opening performance for Hermès’ On the Wings of Hermès, a live, site-specific work for chamber orchestra that unfolded through movement around the audience. His recent scores include We Can Save the World!!!, an adventure comedy using Chinese traditional instruments and voice for both tension and comic flair; Ana Is Here, a Serbian documentary exploring LGBTQ+ identity under Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, broadcast on Serbia’s national television network; and Spring Love, which won Universal Music’s UCompose competition and was featured in multiple episodes of Tencent’s Breakfast in China.
He was also music director and lead arranger for Journey to Singapura, reimagining classic xinyao songs by Liang Wern Fook in a contemporary musical theatre style for a new generation of audiences, with two sold-out runs in Singapore and a subsequent tour to Hong Kong.
In the concert world, Sulwyn has received commissions from the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the arts councils of both New York and Singapore. He was nominated for the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards in the musical theatre category.
Recent large-scale and commissioned works include Here, Hear, commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), exploring Asian New Yorker identity.
Among them is Harmonies Across the Seas, a concert-length production presented as the closing gala of the Singapore Chinese Music Festival at the Esplanade Concert Hall, created in collaboration with the Asian Civilisations Museum, where Sulwyn served as music director and composer. The work brought together a cross-cultural ensemble of virtuoso soloists with the Singapore Ruan Ensemble, alongside narrator and live visuals.
His multimedia work Morning of the World, commissioned by the National Arts Council during COVID-19, brought together musicians from Singapore, Bali, and Bandung in a cross-cultural collaboration blending Chinese and Indonesian traditions with electronic sound and responsive visuals.
Other works include Waves, Towards the Lands We Call Home, commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra; and his concerto cycle Into the Moonlit Yonder, written for Chinese wind and percussion (吹打乐), which traces themes of longing, sanctuary, and transformation.
Apart from composing, Sulwyn uses music to bring people together. Supported by the Singapore International Foundation, he conducted artistry sessions with Afghan refugees in Indonesia through Project Artitude. He works regularly with The Purple Symphony, Singapore’s largest inclusive orchestra of musicians with and without disabilities, writing parts that empower musicians of different abilities to make music together. He also conducted and taught at the Music Society of Myanmar Festival and Competition, working with participants across cultures and backgrounds.
He is the Creative Director of Loka Lore Music, a boutique studio creating cross-cultural scores for games and guiding the use of Asian instruments in media, and co-founded IKI, which focuses on music for commercials and films.
Sulwyn is also Associate Editor of the Anthology of Singaporean Ruan Compositions and works closely with leading ensembles in Singapore. He holds a Master’s in Screen Scoring from New York University under the Singapore Digital Scholarship and was valedictorian at YST Conservatory of Music.
Want to know more?
Education
- Master of Music Theory and Composition: Screen Scoring, New York University (2021 - 2022) (fully sponsored by the Singapore Digital Scholarship under the IMDA)
- Bachelor of Music: Recording Arts and Sciences, National University of Singapore YST Conservatory of Music (2015 - 2019) - Valedictorian and First Class Honours (fully sponsored by the NUS Kent Ridge Merit Scholarship)
Awards and Festival Premieres
- Winner, Universal UCompose Production Music Competition 2021
- Best Music, British Web Awards 2024 (for Quarter Life Crisis, with Alexandra Funes)
- Best Original Music Award, National Youth Film Awards 2019 (for Bodhi《菩提》)
- Cannes Film Festival, Adam (composer), 2019
- Busan International Film Festival, Chasing Paper (composer), 2018
- LA WEBFEST, Quarter Life Crisis, 2024
- 1st Prize, National Chinese Music Competition (Ensemble Open Category) 2014
- 1st Prize, Composition Competition by the Carleton College Chinese Music Ensemble, 2020
- Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards (Musical Theatre category) nominee, 2022
Notable Art Projects
Here, Hear (New York State Council on the Arts grant award) — a multi-movement site-specific work exploring the Asian New Yorker identity and the silent residents of NYC in the form of Asian artworks and artefacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Morning of the World (funded by the National Arts Council, Singapore) — a multimedia production bringing together Indonesian gamelan, Chinese instruments, and track, to ponder about our world resetting.
Waves, Towards the Lands We Call Home (Singapore Chinese Orchestra commission) — a world symphonic poem for humanity and a prayer for peace, influenced by the journeys of early Chinese immigrants.
Into the Moonlit Yonder (Reverberance commission) — a journey across yearning, loss, finding oneself, inner conflicts, and seeking sanctuary, expressed as a concerto cycle for Chinese wind and percussion instruments.
Selection of Recent Works
2024
- Composer and Music Director of feature film, "We Can Save the World!!!"
- Composer and Music Director of 新加坡华族舞蹈剧场 Singapore Chinese Dance Theatre's 10th Anniversary Production
- Commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra for Legacy II《承 II》and for the Young Children's Concert 2024: Karung Guni Boy
- Composer of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre and Ding Yi Music Company's instrumental theatre 器乐剧 "Hua Mu Lan"《花木兰》(director: Danny Yeo / writer: Neo Hai Bin)
- Composer of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's radio musical 音乐广播剧 "A Singaporean's Chinese New Year" 《新加坡华人新年》at Rhapsodies of Spring 2025
- Composer of commercials and events for:
- Hermès
- United Overseas Bank
- Changi Airport Group
- Singapore Cable Car
2023
- Awarded the prestigious commissioning grant by the New York State Council on the Arts to conceptualise and compose a multi-movement site-specific suite inspired by Asian art works and artefacts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (premiere planned for 2025/2026)
- Commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra to open the National Day Concert 2023
- Associate Editor of "Anthology of Singaporean Ruan Compositions"《新加坡阮咸原创作品曲集》(unveiled by DPM Heng Swee Keat)
- Composer of Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre and Reverberance's instrumental production "Into the Moonlit Yonder"《望月寻春风》
- Composer of Reverberance's instrumental production "Legends: Heaven and Earth"《传说之：开天辟地》at the Esplanade
- Composer for series pilot, Quarter Life Crisis
2022
- Composer of The Finger Players and Ding Yi Music Company's theatre production "The Zodiac Race" 《十二生肖》at the Esplanade
- Composer of Reverberance's instrumental production "Legends: The Beginning"《传说之：人之初》at the Esplanade
- Composer of "The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" 《竹林七贤》commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Positions and Residencies
- Society of Composers and Lyricists, New York Chapter
- Singapore Chinese Music Federation Youth Chapter (artistic affairs)
- Resident composer, Singapore Ruan Ensemble 新加坡阮咸印象室内乐团
- Resident composer, Reverberance 回响吹打团
