Ding Sng is a multi-style violinist, composer and producer from Singapore.

Bio

Ding Sng is a multi-style violinist, composer and producer from Singapore. His music fuses his contemporary jazz and classical education with his cultural heritage: the folk melodies and polyphonic textures of Southeast Asian folk music. He is a firm believer in the future and the importance of traditional music in a contemporary setting.
As a soloist, bandleader and sideman, he has performed in diverse instrumentations at venues such as the Berklee Performance Center, Harvard CAMLAb Caves, Shalin Liu Performance Center, the University of Vermont and Boston University Agganis Arena, with esteemed artists such as NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron and jazz vocalist Lalah Hathaway, as well as toured with fiddle giants Darol Anger and Mike Marshall, in the United States.
As a composer, arranger and producer, he has received commissions for string orchestra, multi-media and fusion ensembles (“Black Coffee with a Hint of Sugar”  featuring Berklee faculty Jason Anick / "Displacement and Disappearance” for Berklee Malaysian Students’ Association / “Distant Green Valley” (Silkroad Ensemble) for the Berklee Global Strings Ensemble) which have premiered at the Berklee Performance Center in 2023 and Harvard CAMLab Cave in 2024.
He is a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he was a Berklee World Tour Scholarship recipient and majored in Contemporary Writing & Production and Violin Performance (Jazz, Classical and World styles). He is fortunate to have studied under the tutelage of jazz violinists Jason Anick and Sara Caswell, violinist/violist Julianne Lee, esteemed cellist and conductor Eugene Friesen, composer and educator Richard Carrick and composer and producer Danny McIntyre.
March 7th, 2025 marks the release of his debut full-length album 「tell me a story」which fuses contemporary classical, jazz and rock with world music influences.

PERFORMANCE REEL

Tell Me a Story is a celebration of melody and improvisation ‐ and the first single I ever released. Here is a live performance of ours with Isaac Oksman (piano), Johnny Levine (bass) and Bota Chen (drums) at Berklee Recital Hall 1A in Boston, December 2024.
In an eclectic ensemble formed at Silkroad's GMW and led by percussion faculty Jamie Haded, we performed Palestinian composer Simon Shaheen's Olive Harvest in a fusion of Arabic, Middle Eastern, Chinese and Western styles in August 2025.
Sentimental Animal (2024) was written for my Senior Recital, "Ding + Friends" in December 2024. I wanted to write a tune to celebrate the entire band ‐ Clara Chisholm, Tao Zhengye and Queralt Giralt in the string section and Johnny Levine, Isaac Oksman and Bota Chen in the rhythm section ‐ and it ended up being... a jazz string septet??
Clara Stein (vocals/guitar) and I performed an acoustic duet of the Stevie Wonder classic, Isn't She Lovely, in Singapore for my brother's wedding, July 2024.
Commemorating our weekly ritual of improvising together during our time at Berklee College of Music, we performed an improvisation together for the last time (for now) at Berklee Recital Hall 1A in Boston, 2024.

my story

Ding Sng at 5 years old.

Hi there! My name is Ding and it’s great to meet you.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and my childhood was filled with games, from building legos to video games, to sports, to drawing comics and making games with my twin brother. I had never intended to become a musician.

I first started learning the violin when I was about 7 or 8, from my cousin Yi Xi who was 12 years my senior. Being in a highly competitive environment and the first musician in my family, I was taught to feel behind. However, in hindsight, I had such a rich musical education in the form of my surroundings: the Teochew Opera and Getai shows that I would watch with my grandparents, being exposed to Javanese Gamelan, Western classical music and Chinese Orchestra in school, and the video game soundtracks from JRPGs my brothers and I loved that fused classical, jazz and even world music influences.

It was my desire to perform beloved video game soundtracks from Final Fantasy IX with my brother that led me to arranging music for the violin.

I experienced my first burnout with the violin when I was 15, and felt through with classical music. It was only after I “quit” that I started improvising and composing music in a free way. I don’t think that I would have started exploring composition if I hadn’t quit the violin at the time.

Even then, I never had the intention of pursuing music. It was a call from a teacher, Dr Gooi, that convinced me that my own art is worth pursuing and of my own potential. I ended up sticking with A-Level music and choosing a composition path because of his advice.

Even so, it took going through the military, working several part-time jobs, finishing a degree in music and sharing countless musical experiences from people all over the world to make me realize that being a musician and composer is what I really want to do.

Thank you for reading my story and allowing me to share a bit of my world with you. After all this time, I guess what I’m trying to say is that music isn’t about perfection – but honesty.

LESSONS

I offer lessons in person and over zoom in:
  • Violin Technique
  • Classical, Jazz and World Music Styles
  • Improvisation
  • Music Composition and Arranging
  • Western Classical and Jazz Harmony
If interested in a trial lesson, please feel free to reach out to me at   dingdoesmusic@gmail.com

CONTACT

If interested in lessons, scores, my compositional process or just to say hi, please reach out to me at dingdoesmusic@gmail.com or fill in the form below!
For bookings, recordings, commissioning a new work or other collaborative opportunities, please email: dingdoesmusic@gmail.com or fill in the form below:

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