{"id":13000,"date":"2026-02-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=13000"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:56:25","slug":"all-the-worlds-a-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2026\/02\/09\/all-the-worlds-a-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"All the World’s a Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Dior Violin<\/a>: that\u2019s the online persona of Mr Mukhammadyor Tulaganov (Music \u201918). As you scroll through his social media feeds \u2014 with close to a half million followers across platforms \u2014 it\u2019s easy to forget that it all began with a six-year-old who fell in love with a violin after seeing it in a movie.<\/p>

Today, the 30-year-old\u2019s feeds pay homage to that early love, with clips of him playing anime themes, film scores, TikTok trends and pop ballads. By doing so, he is reaching new, younger audiences who might never set foot in a concert hall or be mesmerised by the beauty of classical music. This is, in many ways, his mission: to bring classical music into the everyday scroll of Gen Z and beyond. And he does this while holding a full-time role as Head of Violin at Asia Music School.<\/p>

Long before the algorithms found him, however, Mr Tulaganov was a boy in Uzbekistan who simply refused to stop asking for a violin. \u201cNobody in my family was musical,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw this movie, and there was a violin, I loved it\u2026 and I just kept asking.\u201d He eventually found a teacher who pushed him hard \u2014competitions every year from the age of seven, endless hours of practice \u2014 but in a country where music was seen as merely a hobby, his future still felt uncertain. Everything changed when he won a competition that paid for his music college tuition. \u201cAfter that, my mum said, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll support you all the way. Just go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mr Tulaganov as a student at YST<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A WHOLE NEW WORLD<\/strong><\/p>

The \u201cgo\u201d turned out to be Singapore. At 16, he heard about the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST) from a senior. A beautiful campus, full scholarships, free instruments \u2014 it sounded unreal, so he practised \u201cday and night\u201d for the audition. When he arrived in Singapore in 2015, he knew exactly three English phrases: \u2018hello\u2019, \u2018goodbye\u2019 and \u2018I love you\u2019. YST\u2019s intensive language classes were \u201cbrutal,\u201d he recalled, \u201cbut they worked.\u201d<\/p>

Life at YST was rigorous \u2014 morning practice before 9am classes, chamber music, lessons, rehearsals, then more practice until 11pm. Yet it also expanded his world. Surrounded by classmates from China, Russia, Malaysia, Germany and beyond, he began to see music not as a narrow path, but as an international language that could carry him further than he had imagined.<\/p>

After a brief stint with an orchestra in Vietnam, Mr Tulaganov returned to Singapore and started teaching. But another part of his life was quietly taking shape online, sparked by advice from the late Dr Marc Rochester, a YST Senior Lecturer: \u201cYou have to risk something you believe in.\u201d Posting the first videos was nerve-racking. \u201cYou think, what if my friends judge me? What if there are no views?\u201d he shared. But he persisted \u2014 sometimes uploading two or three times a day \u2014 and slowly discovered what resonated with audiences: violin covers of trending film and game music.<\/p>

He is clear-eyed about why his channels grew: luck, certainly, but also consistency, timing and a willingness to meet audiences where they already are. \u201cWhen orchestras stage Harry Potter or Final Fantasy, the shows sell out,\u201d he notes. \u201cA Shostakovich symphony is a harder sell. Pop culture isn\u2019t lowering the bar \u2014 it\u2019s a way in.\u201d<\/p>

His goal is simple: make the violin feel accessible, familiar, and even joyful to people who might otherwise never encounter classical music.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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CLASSIC VS AI
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Mr Tulaganov knows the music world is changing fast. From robot violinists to AI tools that can compose full scores in seconds, the landscape he trained for has been completely transformed. Instead of resisting, he chooses to lean in. \u201cI\u2019m excited and terrified at the same time\u2026 we\u2019re the generation that gets to witness this. I don\u2019t want to be left behind,\u201d he said. To him, AI isn\u2019t the enemy \u2014 it\u2019s the next frontier. And just as music once opened the door to a new world for him, he believes technology may open the next one.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mr Tulaganov is now Head of Violin at Asia Music School<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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COMING FULL CIRCLE<\/strong><\/p>

Today, Mr Tulaganov balances a demanding teaching schedule with regular performances and a thriving digital presence. He plays on several instruments \u2014 including a 19th-century Italian violin \u2014 but admits that most of his online audience first discovered him through a S$100 violin he bought for outdoor gigs. \u201cIt\u2019s not really the violin,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the work.\u201d<\/p>

Despite having travelled widely across the US, Europe and East Asia, he calls Singapore \u201cthe best country to live in\u201d and has applied for permanent residency here. He volunteers regularly, delivering food to seniors and helping at community events \u2014 small ways, he says, of giving back to the place that gave him a future. But as expected, his contributions also have a musical element. \u201cThey enjoy hearing the violin and get very excited when I play.\u201d <\/p>

In a way, the seniors aren\u2019t that different from his youngest students: both light up when the music starts and remind him why he picked up the violin in the first place \u2014 and why he\u2019ll probably never put it down.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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IN TEMPO WITH DIOR VIOLIN<\/strong><\/p>

Your favourite composer?
<\/strong>Mozart. \u201cHe was a genius on another level. If he had lived to 70 or 80, he\u2019d probably be the most incredible composer who ever lived.\u201d<\/p>

And your favourite film composers?
<\/strong>\u201cHans Zimmer and John Williams \u2014 both brilliant composers. People don\u2019t realise how much they\u2019ve shaped society \u2014 Harry Potter, Batman, Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u2026 these are all from them.\u201d<\/p>

A piece you think everyone should start with?
<\/strong>\u201cSomething simple and famous: Schubert\u2019s waltzes, Shostakovich\u2019s Waltz No. 2, Mozart\u2019s Symphony No. 40. Beethoven\u2019s 9th<\/sup>. Just start there \u2014 if you like it, go deeper.\u201d<\/p>

What do your students request the most?
<\/strong>\u201cK-pop, anime and Christmas music. Adults always ask for the hardest pieces. They say, \u2018Please torture me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Photos by Kelvin Chia<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Classical music opened a doorway for Mr Mukhammadyor Tulaganov (Music \u201818). Now, through social media, he is holding that door open for others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13000"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13289,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13000\/revisions\/13289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}