Margaret Leng Tan () is a classical music artist known for her work as a professional toy pianist, performing in major cities around the world on her 51 cm-high toy pianos. She is also known to be a classical music performer using unconventional instruments like toy drums, soy sauce dishes, and cat-food cans.
Early life and education
Tan was born in Singapore on 12 December 1945, the daughter of former Straits Times Press chairman Tan Chye Cheng, and started taking music lessons at the age of six. In 1961 the young Tan took first place in the Singapore-Malaysia annual piano competition, and won a scholarship to study at The Juilliard School at age 16 in the following year. In 1971 she became the first woman to earn a Doctorate in Musical Arts at Juilliard, and became the diva of the prepared piano, inserting nuts and bolts into the instrument and playing it inside out to rave reviews.
Musical career
In 1981 Tan met John Cage, and since then they continued to work together for the last 11 years of his life. In 1984 she was awarded a US National Endowment for the Arts grant. Between 1990 and 1991 she gave retrospective concerts of Cage's music in collaboration with artist Jasper Johns.
Tan was also featured playing Cage's 4'33" on her toy piano in the Singapore documentary Singapore GaGa by Singaporean film-maker Tan Pin Pin. She is also never far from her toy pianos, and with a fair share of tickling stories on her travels with them. In 2001, when she was invited to perform in an abbey in Provence, France the technical staff advised her to store her toy piano away to prevent bat droppings from landing on her precious piano. In the end her piano was placed under the grand piano; this arrangement of a little piano underneath a big one reminded Tan of Matroska dolls. In another occasion, she remembered a funny sight when she carried her piano on board the plane, and had it strapped to a seat next to her.
Tan is the featured performer for "Inside the Piano" on the Treasures of The New York Public Library Video Series.
Awards
In 2014, Tan was inducted in the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame.
In 2015, Tan was awarded the Cultural Medallion of Singapore by Tony Tan, President of Singapore.
Personal life
Tan resides in Brooklyn, New York