From the Singapore River to International Stages: Rit Xu’s Multi-Genre Story
Rit Xu is an internationally acclaimed flautist, composer, and educator from Singapore, celebrated for his lyrical tone, improvisational brilliance, and artistic versatility across jazz, contemporary classical music and large-scale live performance. Recognised as one of Singapore’s most multifaceted musical voices, he combines refined classical technique with a bold post-bop sensibility, establishing himself as a leading advocate for the flute in jazz. He currently leads the Rit Xu Vortet and has performed extensively across Asia as both a solo artist and principal flautist for Jacky Cheung’s 60+ World Tour orchestra.
Can you give us 6 career highlights?
Leading my own band overseas for the first time in 2019 was a major turning point in my life and career. Back then the ensemble was still known as the Rit Xu Group, before eventually evolving into what is now the Rit Xu Vortet. We performed at the Vientiane International Jazz Festival in Laos and that experience truly opened many doors for me. It gave me confidence, expanded my musical network and created momentum that eventually led to many other projects and collaborations across the region.
Releasing my first album, This Too Shall Pass, in 2019 was another unforgettable milestone. Recording and producing an album for the first time felt both exhilarating and terrifying. Looking back now, I realise how fortunate I was to be surrounded by musicians, friends and supporters who genuinely believed in the music and wanted the project to succeed as much as I did. That sense of collective belief is something I still carry with me today.
In 2021, I performed a re-adaptation of Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. To this day I may very well be the only flautist to have performed this concerto with a traditional Chinese orchestra in a modern setting. It was an incredibly unique experience because it brought together two musical worlds that rarely intersect, yet revealed how beautifully they could collide and collaborate in deeply musical ways.
I was also deeply honoured to receive the Young Artist Award from Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC) in 2022. It is the nation’s highest award for arts practitioners aged 35 and below and for me it was a deeply meaningful recognition of my contributions to the arts scene thus far.
Winning First Prize at the London International Concerto Competition (2023) was another defining moment. I subsequently performed the third movement of Ibert’s concerto with the London City Philharmonic. In the spirit of improvisation and spontaneity, I decided to improvise the cadenza completely on the spot during the performance. It was a leap of faith but one that felt deeply true to who I am as an artist.
From 2023 to 2026, I toured extensively across Asia and China as the principal flautist for Jacky Cheung’s 60+ World Tour orchestra. Performing night after night across different cities and cultures was both physically demanding and artistically transformative. Those two and a half years on the road taught me a tremendous amount about endurance, professionalism, consistency and the invisible emotional labour that touring musicians carry behind the scenes.
How about 3 pivotal moments that were essential to creating the artist that you've become?
One of the greatest influences in my life was my late father. He loved music deeply and passionately whether it was pop, jazz, classical music or anything in between. Through him, I was exposed to artists such as Dave Grusin, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Russell Ferrante, George Benson, Earl Klugh and many others at a very young age. He was also an avid classical music listener. I still vividly remember sitting beside him in the late 1990s while he explored the MIDI software called The Pianist. We would listen to pieces like Balakirev’s Islamey and marvel at the harmonic colours together. Even as a child I was already trying to imagine how some of those harmonies might work in a jazz context. Looking back now, those moments felt like the quiet planting of musical seeds that would only fully bloom years later.
Another pivotal moment was how intentionally my father placed me in situations where I had to improvise from a very young age. He believed deeply in learning through discomfort. I remember once, when I was probably nine or ten years old, he brought me out to dinner at Clarke Quay with some musician friends visiting from overseas. After dinner, he suddenly asked me to take out my flute and play by the Singapore River. At first I played a few traditional melodies, but gradually I drifted into spontaneous improvisation. Naturally at that age I had little understanding of structure or form. I was simply reacting instinctively to sounds and emotions in the moment. Yet those experiences slowly dissolved my fear of improvisation. Over time, creating music spontaneously became as natural to me as speaking.
A third formative experience was simply the sheer amount of performance time I accumulated from a young age. My parents were connected to the local music scene and constantly tried to expose me to as many performing opportunities as possible. Since the age of ten, I have probably played in almost every imaginable type of venue across Singapore. Community centres, cruise ships, weddings, casinos, nightclubs, funerals, hotel lounges and even places I was technically too young to be performing in. The stage became inseparable from my identity. It was never just a platform for performance. It became a classroom, a laboratory and sometimes even a mirror.
Can you give us a short characteristic of Singaporean (flute) music culture-some interesting facts, including when compositions of the flute first appeared?
Singapore is a fascinating cultural intersection because we are essentially a melting pot of traditions and influences. The country is predominantly shaped by Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian cultures alongside many smaller minority communities. Naturally, flute-like instruments have existed across all these musical traditions for centuries. I was fortunate enough to grow up exploring some of these instruments myself, including the Chinese bamboo flute and the Indian bansuri. More recently, through my friend Riduan Zalani, I discovered a beautiful and rather rare instrument from the Malay archipelago known as the Saluang. It produces an incredibly earthy and intimate sound, almost like a human voice carried through bamboo.
As for the history of Boehm flute compositions in Singapore, that is actually a very interesting question and one I admittedly have not researched deeply enough. I am certain there were Singaporean composers writing for the flute as early as the late twentieth century, though I would not claim to be the most authoritative voice on that history. Personally, I am good friends with the 84-year-old Singapore-born composer and pianist Simplicious Cheong, who later migrated to Australia in the 1960s. He wrote several flute sonatas during the 1970s, many of which can now be found online. It is always deeply inspiring to see how composers from Singapore have contributed quietly but meaningfully to the flute repertoire over the decades.
Can you describe the role and activities of the flute society in Singapore? What can you tell us about the international Singaporean events organized for flutists?
Singapore has several flute societies and organizations that are doing wonderful work in nurturing both amateur and professional flautists. One of the most established is Flute Festival Singapore, founded by one of my former teachers, Goh Tiong Eng. Beyond being an organisation, it is also an annual festival that brings together students, educators, and performers from Singapore and abroad for workshops, masterclasses, competitions, and performances. It has become an important pillar of the flute community here.
There is also The Band World, which presents the annual Autumn Flute Fair, one of the most anticipated flute events in Singapore each year. I remain deeply grateful to Brando Tan and his team at The Band World. They were instrumental in connecting me with Powell Flutes in 2018. Through that introduction, Powell discovered my work and I was later honoured to be included in their roster of Powell artists.
Another more recent initiative is the Kings Flute Choir, affectionately known as “KFC” among local musicians. Many of my colleagues, peers, and younger flautists are actively involved in it. What I admire most is how passionately they work to create performance opportunities for younger players, whether in solo settings or flute ensemble projects. It has become a very energetic and encouraging community for the next generation.
Could you tell us a few words about famous flutists from Singapore?
There are many excellent flautists in Singapore doing remarkable work both locally and internationally and it would honestly be impossible to name everyone.
Instead, I would like to share briefly about the teachers who shaped me personally. My first formal flute lessons were with Terry Ang, a respected performer and pedagogue who introduced me to the importance of flute tone production. He also had an incredible knowledge of the great flute masters from around the world, and we often discussed sound, phrasing and musical aesthetics in great detail.
I later studied with Goh Tiong Eng, whose teaching was deeply influenced by his close association with the legendary flautist William Bennett. I was very fortunate to experience that lineage of teaching and musical thought firsthand. During my conservatory years, I studied with Jin Ta, principal flautist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Beyond being a phenomenal musician, he was incredibly generous with both his time and knowledge. What I appreciated most was that our conversations often extended beyond classical flute playing into jazz, improvisation and broader artistic ideas.
Are there flutists cooperating with composers and ordering new pieces?
Definitely. Speaking from personal experience, I received a grant from the National Arts Council in 2022 and used it to commission a brand-new flute concerto by my close friend and respected colleague, pianist and composer Chok Kerong.
The work, titled Waves: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, premiered online in March 2022 and remains one of the defining artistic moments of my life. What I find especially compelling about the piece is how naturally it combines twentieth-century orchestral writing with the rhythmic complexity and harmonic language of contemporary jazz. Kerong managed to weave these worlds together into something that felt both sophisticated and emotionally direct.
What do you like best about performing?
What I love most about performing is the opportunity to truly listen.
To me, performing is just as much about listening as it is about expression. The best musical moments often happen when musicians genuinely respond to one another in real time, almost like an unfolding conversation. Sometimes it feels less like “playing music” and more like collectively discovering something together. Even solo improvisation is ultimately an act of listening. You are listening inwardly to your own instincts, emotions, memories and musical vocabulary. Everything begins with listening.
You are a composer as well?
Yes. In recent years I have been writing more original music specifically for my band, the Rit Xu Vortet. Much of it currently exists in lead-sheet form but moving forward I hope to expand further into writing for larger ensembles such as big band, as well as projects involving chamber groups and classical instrumentation. I am very interested in creating music that exists between categories rather than inside them.
CD releases?
I have released two albums so far, in 2019 and 2021 respectively. The first is titled This Too Shall Pass and the second is Scenes and Stories. I remain very proud of both projects because they each captured different phases of my artistic journey at the time. At the same time, I am also very excited about my upcoming album which will be released sometime early next year.
What does your schedule look like for the next 6 months?
I have a China tour coming up in June which I am extremely excited about. It will be my first independently organized multi-city overseas tour and I think it will become one of those experiences I will remember for a very long time.
I will also be returning to graduate school to deepen my understanding of arts pedagogy, particularly in the area of improvisation and aural cognition. One of my long- term goals is to make improvisation more accessible to students by strengthening foundational skills such as listening, awareness and real-time musical response.
Another exciting initiative is the relaunch of my boutique flute music school in Singapore. The school is primarily dedicated to training intermediate to advanced aspiring flautists who are eager to perform and work across a wide variety of musical settings while also advancing the study and practice of jazz improvisation on the flute. Students are encouraged to study with me in person whenever possible, although online lessons are also available. More details will be announced soon.
Alongside that, I am also working on a jazz flute method book inspired partly by the pedagogical ideas of Paul Taffanel and Philippe Gaubert. I am reimagining some of their exercises through the lens of jazz improvisation and modern musical practice.
What are your goals Personally? Professionally?
Personally, I hope to return to a healthier and more disciplined physical routine. I enjoy badminton and football recreationally and I would love to improve further in both. I am also increasingly interested in psychology, therapy and mental health studies. At some point I hope to pursue part-time courses in these areas because I genuinely want to understand people better and hopefully help others more meaningfully in the future.
Professionally, I remain deeply curious about the creative process itself, perhaps even more than the outcome. I would love to continue creating new albums every few years with different collaborators, sounds and ensemble concepts. I also hope to perform more twentieth-century flute concertos with symphony orchestras because that musical language feels deeply aligned with my artistic personality.
What inspires you the most in life?
Humanity and children.
What has been your professional greatest challenge?
One of my greatest professional challenges was trying to build musical communities while touring over the past three years. Whenever I had days off during tour periods, I would try to organize jazz gigs in whichever city I happened to be in at the time.
Music itself is often the easy part. People are much more complex. As a bandleader, I believe the real challenge is learning how to recognise the best qualities in each musician and creating an environment where those qualities can emerge naturally. Ego is often the greatest obstacle in collaborative music-making. What I try to do instead is create spaces where musicians feel genuinely excited to contribute, listen and trust one another.
What has been your personal greatest challenge?
The world feels increasingly complex and emotionally overwhelming these days. There is always another wave of difficult or distressing news waiting around the corner. Because of that, one of my greatest personal challenges has been learning how to better understand and regulate my own emotions without becoming consumed by external noise. I try to do this partly by educating myself about world issues but also by studying people more deeply. At the heart of it all, I think I am constantly trying to understand why human beings behave the way we do.
Who were your music mentors? and what did you learn from them?
Besides my late father, another mentor who had a profound impact on me was the late Iskandar Ismail, one of Singapore’s most respected musical figures. Iskandar taught me that being a good musician is not enough. You also have to become a good human being. Another mentor and now frequent collaborator is Prof. Jeremy Monteiro, from whom I learned immensely through observing his bandleading, musical generosity and artistic instincts as a pianist and cultural leader.
Can you give us 5 quirky, secret, fun, (don't think too much about this) hobbies or passions?
I love reading physical books, especially non-fiction. At this point my room genuinely resembles a small community library. I still have absolutely no reliable system for organising everything so if anyone reading this article has discovered the secret to managing overflowing bookshelves, please let me know.
I am hopelessly addicted to coffee and bubble tea, although lately coffee has been winning by a landslide. I need at least one iced Americano every single day. Financially this is probably not the wisest habit. Perhaps one day I will finally invest in a proper coffee machine and attempt adulthood properly.
I am also a die-hard supporter of the Singapore national football team. Watching them qualify for the Asian Cup again made me genuinely emotional. I think the current coaching setup has been doing fantastic work and I am incredibly proud of the team.
I love singing and often return to 1970s and 1980s R&B and ballads. Artists like Karen Carpenter, James Ingram, Whitney Houston, Donny Hathaway, Luis Miguel, Luther Vandross and Gregory Porter remain some of my favourites. My taste in popular music is admittedly rather old-school.
I am hugely passionate about cycling. Because Singapore’s weather is so hot, most long-distance cyclists ride late at night, myself included. One of my proudest rides so far was cycling from Pasir Panjang all the way to Changi Airport across the island. There is something strangely calming and meditative about cycling through a city after midnight.
What 3 things would you offer as advice for a young flutist?
Master your fundamentals and seek guidance from a knowledgeable teacher as early as possible. Good fundamentals are like building strong foundations for a house. They may not seem glamorous at first but they determine how far you can eventually go.
Get involved in chamber music early. Ensemble playing develops listening skills, adaptability and musical awareness in ways that solo practice alone cannot. Attend masterclasses, observe other musicians carefully and pay attention to how great artists approach the same music differently.
Finally, try to understand the broader artistic climate around you. The rapid development of AI and technology is already reshaping the creative landscape and it is important for young musicians to understand both its possibilities and its limitations. At the end of the day, however, your greatest asset will always remain your uniquely human voice, your artistic perspective and your relationship with your instrument.