T'ang Quartet co-founder and violist Lionel Tan dies at 60 after cancer battle
The Singaporean violist and founding member of the internationally acclaimed T'ang Quartet and former Singapore Symphony Orchestra musician, has died at the age of 60.
Lionel Tan was a founding member of the T'ang String Quartet, a Singapore-based chamber group that formed in 1992. (Photo: Facebook/Leslie Tan)
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Singapore violist Lionel Tan, a founding member of the acclaimed T'ang Quartet and former member of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, has died at the age of 60.
The news was announced by the quartet in a Facebook post on Monday (Jun 1).
In the post, the ensemble shared a photograph of its four founding members and wrote: “Thank you Lionel Tan for being part of the T’ang Quartet. You have fought a good fight, rest well.”
His brother Leslie Tan, a cellist and fellow founding member of the T'ang quartet, said that Lionel Tan had been battling Stage 4 oesophageal cancer since the beginning of 2025.
"While the prognosis was dire, he fought on for longer than he was expected to. On the auspicious Vesak Day (May 31), he succumbed to a lung infection that he was fighting for about a month," Leslie Tan told CNA Lifestyle.
"Lionel made a choice to go with clarity and dignity, to be able to say his farewells, and to spare all of us – his partner and his family – the pain of his fight."
He is survived by his partner of 16 years, Marcia Tan, his brothers Leslie and Leroy, and his parents.
"He put up a good fight for a year and half and I’m blessed to be part of that journey with him," Marcia Tan told CNA Lifestyle.
In 1984, Lionel Tan had been studying the viola as a trainee under the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's (SSO) principal violist Jiri Heger. In 1986, a year after winning the viola and cello section of the National Music Competition, he received a Public Service Commission-Singapore Symphony Orchestra scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London. He graduated in performance and pedagogy, and was awarded the Lionel Tertis Prize for outstanding viola performance. After returning to Singapore, he joined the SSO professionally.
He was one of four musicians who founded the Singapore-based T'ang Quartet, alongside his brother Leslie Tan and violinists Ang Chek Meng and Ng Yu-Ying.
Before formally establishing the ensemble, the four musicians first met through the Singapore Youth Orchestra in the 1980s.
In 1992, following Ang's return from overseas studies, the four musicians formally established the T'ang Quartet.
The ensemble's name references China's Tang Dynasty, often regarded as a golden age of the arts, and is derived from the musicians' surnames: Tan, Ang and Ng.
In 1997, all four founding members left the SSO to focus on the quartet full-time.
Over the following decades, the T'ang Quartet became one of Singapore's most prominent chamber music ensembles, performing at venues including London's Wigmore Hall, Boston's Seiji Ozawa Hall and Berlin's Philharmonie.
Beyond performance, the quartet was also active in music education. Members taught at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute between 2001 and 2005 and regularly mentored young musicians at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in the National University of Singapore.
The ensemble released its debut album, The Art Of War, in 2005 and went on to produce several other recordings, including a live concert album and a project produced in collaboration with Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
The Tan brothers later left the quartet, with musicians Han Oh and Wang Zihao joining the ensemble in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
"My brother then went on to work with younger musicians, directing and mentoring them in an initiative called Tangent Moves – something that mixes both experimental and classical forms of music," Leslie Tan told CNA Lifestyle.
"In some ways, it was a continuation of the work he had done with the T’ang Quartet, but in many other ways it was breaking free from the shackles of classical music."
"Lionel always wanted classical music to be bold. He started the initiative as he wanted to educate musicians and audiences," Marcia Tan added.
Marcia Tan also shared that after her partner's death, it was more important to celebrate his life: "He beat me to it, to hang with my mum in heaven. And I’m pretty sure my mum is welcoming him with a bottle of wine, if not, more.
There will not be a funeral wake as that’s not Lionel’s style. I will, however, be organising a beer party to celebrate his life and all will be invited."
On Facebook, Leslie Tan shared photographs of the brothers growing up together and reflected on their relationship as siblings, music performers and educators.
He highlighted how much of an inspiration his brother was to him, and that the two "spent the next few decades fighting, sharing, loving".
He added: "We shared a few lifetimes together performing, teaching and sharing. He left a legacy that I am so proud to be part of."
Editor's note: This article has been edited to clarify Lionel Tan's training and subsequent professional career with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
