Margaret Leng Tan: OCD, Toy Pianos, and Her Avant-Garde Music Journey

At 80 years old, Margaret Leng Tan is a meticulous timekeeper – not just of days and years, but of the silent spaces between the notes she plays on her toy pianos. The Singapore-born, New York-based musician has left her mark on the history of 20th century avant-garde music. A classically trained pianist, she became the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree in music from New York’s Juilliard School, in 1971, a decade after winning a scholarship there. Later, she became a key interpreter of the music of her mentor John Cage, especially works requiring unconventional keyboards, such as prepared pianos and her instruments of choice: toy pianos. “I use all these objects as part of my show. But these are no longer objects – they become musical instruments,” she says during a recent interview with the Post, gesturing towards her collection of toy pianos, including a second-hand one she has toured with since buying it on eBay for US$45. She adds that she even uses cat food tins, china dishes and bicycle bells, the latter of which she calls an instrument with a “very beautiful sound”.