The founding member of Singapore’s T’ang Quartet has died of cancer, aged 60
Lionel Tan, a founding member of Singapore’s T’ang Quartet, died on 31 May 2026 of a lung infection after suffering from oesophageal cancer. He was 60.
Tan studied viola with Jiri Heger, the former principal violist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). He won the viola/cello section of Singapore’s National Music Competition and was later awarded a Public Service Commission scholarship to study at London’s Royal College of Music, where he won the Lionel Tertis prize for outstanding performance.
Returning to Singapore, he was a member of the SSO for eleven years. In 1992, he formed the T’ang Quartet with his cellist brother, Leslie Tan, and violinists Ang Chek Meng and Ng Yu-Ying. The four members left their posts with SSO in 1997 to focus on chamber music professionally, and became the resident string quartet of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University that year.
The quartet went on to win third prize and the special jury prize at the Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in 1999. Other accolades for the ensemble included the Bartok Prize at the Prague-Vienna-Budapest SommerAkademie in 2000, as well as the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Cultural Award.
The quartet was also a recipient of the Singapore Youth Award in Arts and Culture in 2002 for its achievements in classical music and the Artistic Excellence Award (classical) presented by the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore in 2008.
It released three albums, and its 2005 performance at Wigmore Hall led to the ensemble’s inclusion in the BBC’s World Recital Series in 2006.
Between 2001 and 2005, the ensemble was the resident quartet at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute in Massachusetts. In 2003, the quartet members were appointed to the faculty at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore.
The Tan brothers remained in the quartet until shortly before the ensemble’s 30th anniversary in 2022, and were replaced by Han Oh in 2020 and Wang Zihao in 2021.
Tan’s older brother, cellist Leslie Tan, posted a tribute to his sibling on social media: ’We shared a few lifetimes together performing, teaching and sharing. He left a legacy that I am so proud to be part of.’
The T’ang Quartet also paid tribute to its founding member: ’Countless hours in practice rooms. Long journeys on planes, trains and cars. Beautiful concert venues all across the world. Fun appearances on TV, radio, magazines. A journey forged together through passion, hard work and perseverance. Priceless shared memories.
’Thank you Lionel Tan for being part of the T’ang Quartet. You have fought a good fight, rest well.’
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