‘Being stuck in Penang is a blessing’

Home sweet home: Ooi plating a dish at her family home in Green Lane, Penang.

GEORGE TOWN: For the first time in 16 years, the country’s first female orchestra conductor will get to celebrate Chinese New Year at her hometown here.

Living with her family since February last year, this is also the longest period Datuk Seri Ooi Chean See has spent in Penang since she left to study music in Germany 40 years ago.

The Bonn-based conductor has been stranded here since the movement control order was first enforced on March 18 last year.

But she sees her predicament as a blessing in disguise.

“I have been able to spend such a long stretch of time with my parents, which is something I had not done in four decades.

“The experience of being holed up in Penang during the pandemic has been a positive one. I learnt to cook local dishes and make desserts, ” she said.

“I have been watching movies and live-streaming performances. I even managed to bake a German apple cake and black forest cake!

“And I learned new things about the corporate world and the role of directors through webinars, ” she said in an interview.

Ooi, 58, returned here in what was intended to be a short trip in February last year. She was scheduled to return to Germany in March and begin rehearsals for a concert.

“At that point, the number of cases was not high in Europe. But it started to rise at the start of March and I decided to cancel my concert and stay put here.

“Shortly after that, came the MCO. Had I not returned to Penang then, I would have been stuck alone in Germany.

“Here, I have my parents and sister, which is nice, ” said Ooi, who usually returns to Penang twice a year.

The founding resident conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in 1998, a position she held until 2006, said Penang was a good place to be in at this time “as everything is accessible and nearby”.

“I can order groceries online and food can be delivered to the house. We try to support local businesses by ordering from them.

“We hardly go out as my parents are in their 80s. We do not want to put them at risk, ” she said.

Ooi, who was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for the Arts at the World Chinese Economic Forum in 2013, said she misses concerts and performances but wanted to make the best of the situation.

“Everyone is encountering some sort of problem because of the pandemic. But I feel safe and lucky here, ” she said.

When the MCO was lifted at one stage last year, Ooi took the chance and visited the beach, Penang Botanic Gardens and Penang Hill, which she had not stepped foot on in 20 years.

“It is nice revisiting places and enjoying Penang. It brings back childhood memories as I have not spent so much time with my family in one stretch, ” she added.