Arts

Arts, CCA Events, Features, Humans of RI, Student Features

Caravan: Raffles Jazz Swings into the Spotlight
Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Christian Adriel Tan (26S07B) 

All photographs provided by RIAC

When we think of jazz, the image that often drifts to mind is gentle and subdued—the kind of mellow music that hums softly beneath dinner conversations in candlelit restaurants. Brushed cymbals, warm saxophone lines, piano notes that wander without urgency — the quiet, unobtrusive soundtrack of hotel lobbies and late-night lounges. But Caravan!—Raffles Jazz’s ARTSeason 2025 showcase—turned that image on its head. Here, jazz stepped into the spotlight not as ambience, but as art: music that twisted, teased, and transformed with every phrase.

Continue reading “Caravan: Raffles Jazz Swings into the Spotlight” →
Arts, CCA Events, Features, Humans of RI, Student Features

A salesman is got to dream: Death of a Salesman by Raffles Players
Reading Time: 7 minutes

By Koh Shin Robbie (26A01A)

All photographs provided by RIAC

“He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine… A salesman is got to dream, boy.”

Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

This line came from Charley, played by Lu Xueqi (26S06I) in Raffles Players’ annual college production— Death of a Salesman. This quote encapsulated not just the hopes and aspirations of characters in the play by Arthur Miller, but also the team behind the show and their supporters. Students who took Literature in RI Y4 may recall this play as the set text we pored through relentlessly for our Final Examinations, and indeed amongst the audience were many excited Death of a Salesman students (even current Y4s!), eager to watch the play in action.

Continue reading “A salesman is got to dream: Death of a Salesman by Raffles Players” →
Arts, CCA Events, School Life

Raffles Street Dance Showcase 2025: Animi Motus
Reading Time: 3 minutes

By Sonia Chang (26A01A) and Tara Sim (26A01C)

Photos courtesy of RIAC.

In Raffles Street Dance’s “Animi Motus”—Latin for “motion of the soul”—the dancers took us on a journey through the landscape of the human psyche. From the elation of euphoria to the crushing weight of melancholy, RSD’s showcase wasn’t just a performance. It was a lived experience—reminding us of how every raw emotion is exactly what makes us human and whole, leaving you feeling like you had lived every heartbeat with each dancer. 

Continue reading “Raffles Street Dance Showcase 2025: Animi Motus” →
Arts, CCA Events, School Life

Love, Death and Reindeer: Raffles Chorale SYF 2025
Reading Time: 5 minutes

By Keng Yi, Nicole (25S03S)

As a chorus of voices rise and fill the Concert Hall of the School of the Arts (SOTA), the world seems to dim to the warm limelight of the stage. 

But for the performers on it, these next fifteen minutes will be “almost inconsequential”—compared to the hours of preparation that came before it, the climax itself feels, well, anticlimactic. 

Being onstage is very forgettable… you’re so laser-focused into delivering everything that it almost doesn’t feel real—like you enter a trance and wake up as the last note resounds. 

The 15 minutes onstage is forgettable; the journey is not, and all the pain, joy, and belonging is the real SYF to me.

Isaac Chan (25A01B), Chairperson of Raffles Chorale
Continue reading “Love, Death and Reindeer: Raffles Chorale SYF 2025” →
Arts, CCA Events, School Life

Rock Out 25’: Quinnceanera
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Irene Eva Thomas (26A01B), Tomi Peh (26S06P) and Looi Ee Xin (26S03M)

Images courtesy of Rewan Teh (25S02C, Raffles Image Art Collective) & Tomi Peh (26S06P)

What does it mean to “Rock Out”? 

To Rafflesians, Rock Out might just be another concert to go to, another concert they don’t want to miss out on. However, to Split Decisions, the outgoing band of Raffles Rock, this meant their last time on stage. Their last opportunity to rock their hearts out, to pour everything into their time under the spotlight and to truly live in the music they had spent the past year learning.

On the 5th of May, a snaking line full of bustling chatter formed outside the entrance of the Esplanade Annexe Studio, where Raffles Rock would soon be performing their annual concert, Rock Out.

Continue reading “Rock Out 25’: Quinnceanera” →