Navigating Musical Identities: Nine Arts Festival
Founded by pianist and artistic director Foo Mei Yi, Nine Arts Festival explores how artistic collaboration can foster unity within Malaysia’s complex multicultural landscape, without presuming a singular national identity.
Rather than negotiating towards a common identity, Foo proposes navigation: anchoring a core group of artistic players while building outward through collaborations. Working with heritage artists such as the Sutra Dance Theatre, Ujang the caklempong player, Noghori Arts School and Fusion Wayang Kulit, she examines how distinct artistic languages can enter into rigorous creative relationships, each informing and challenging the other.
Like a marriage, co-creation demands dialogue, commitment and transformation. The resulting artwork becomes a shared brainchild: neither a fusion of identities nor the assertion of one over another, but a new artistic expression born of their encounter. Through Nine Arts Festival, Foo proposes an alternative understanding of musical identity, in which coherence emerges through the creative process itself. Distinct identities remain intact, yet the work they create together grows into a life of its own.
Mei Yi Foo
Winner of the 2013 BBC Music Magazine Best Newcomer Award, Mei Yi Foo is an internationally acclaimed pianist celebrated for her eclectic repertoire and fearless artistry. She has performed on five continents with leading orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, and Fort Worth Symphony, and appeared at major festivals including the Lucerne Festival, Ultraschall Berlin, Born Creative Tokyo, Punkt Festival in Norway, and London’s Southbank Centre Music of Today. Her recordings on Sony, Naxos, and Odradek have earned critical praise from The Times, The Independent, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and Klassik Magazine.
Born in Malaysia and now based in the UK, Mei Yi is a professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and previously served as Artist-in-Residence at Maynooth University in Ireland. She was awarded the Setiawan Tuanku Muhriz medal for her contributions to the arts. In 2025, she founded the Nine Arts Festival in Negeri Sembilan, where she serves as Artistic Director.