About Me

Upon graduating with a Joint Honours in Economics & Politics from the University of Wales Swansea in 1997, Azrai worked in the fields of advertising (as an account executive) and public relations (as a practioner) for a cumulative period of five years before joining the Malaysian newspaper industry for a decade. Since 2013, he went freelance and started up his own company JernJern Enterprise (JJE), which offers copywriting/editing services, translation, training, basic graphic design (creation of graphics, photography, and layout), and media consultancy.

A voracious reader, Azrai has done all forms of copy-
writing including annual reports, corporate identity manuals, advertising copy, newsletters, technical manuals, reports, press releases, and web content. A specialist in reviews of music (for jazz, classical music, pop and other genres), theatre and art, he has written articles that run the gamut from straightforward news reporting to special features, including writing extensively on matters related to politics, social issues, computing/information technology, and property development.

Having been a student of the piano for three decades and counting, Azrai plays music non-professionally for his own amusement, and continues to teach music for both children and adults to this day. He has interviewed a whole range of music personalities, including Lionel Richie; Harry Connick Jr; jazz musicians Branford and Wynton Marsalis; Ladysmith Black Mambazo; sopranos Dame Kiri te Kanawa, and Cyndia Sieden; tenors Jose Carreras, and Russell Watson; pianists Vásáry Tamás, Peter Donohoe, Boris Berezovsky, Ahmad Jamal, Barry Douglas, Leif Ove Andsnes, Stephen Hough, Paik Kun Woo, the Pekinel Sisters, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Ivo Pogorelich, Dennis Lee, Simon Mulligan, and Simon Trpčeski; violist Yuri Bashmet; violinists Sarah Chang, Leonidas Kavakos, Vadim Repin, and Alena Baeva; cellists Wang Jian, Valerie Aimard, Alexander Buzlov, and Robert Cohen; clarinettist Valentin Uryupin; and conductors Riccardo Muti, the late Gennady Rozhdentvensky, and the late Lorin Maazel.

On the local scene, Azrai has worked with composers Chong Kee Yong, Adeline Ong, Johan Othman, and Ahmad Muriz Che Rose; conductor Mustafa Fuzer Nawi, pianists Loo Bang Hean, and Tay Cher Siang; soprano Cecelia Yap; saxophonist Julian Chan; the Malaysian Piano Trio; Double Take; and gamelan ensemble Rhythm In Bronze.

Personally as a writer, Azrai wrote a blog entitled Whimsical Wednesday for 2009 to 2011, and has had his short story Death Dealer included in the local psychological horror compilation Dark City 2. His live personal account of the BERSIH 2.0 rally was included for publication in the MalaysiaKini book Kisah Sebenar 9 July 2011 (9 July 2011: What Really Happened).

Azrai continues to write both fiction novels and instructional manuals, and is undertaking a series of children’s books entitled JernJern the Rainbow Penguin & Friends, for which he is both the author of the stories as well as the illustrator.

In 2013, Azrai was involved with the Star Wars/wayang kulit fusion project Peperangan Bintang, for which he translated the script and arranged the music of John Williams for wayang kulit/gamelan orchestra. Since 2014, he has compiled more existing tales and folklore, as well as writing new stories, to be used for performance of wayang kulit.

Azrai has been using desktop publishing layout programs for more than two decades, and has extensive experience using Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign at a professional level. He also has extensive knowledge and experience with both the Microsoft Office Suite and the equivalent Google Productivity Suite.

An origami enthusiast for over three decades, Azrai has created specific Human Resource Team-Building programmes utilising origami as the main element, as well as various other origami-related projects. In addition, he has given training courses on the Basics of Business Communication and Marketing Basics for Entrepreneurs, and is constantly working on becoming an authority on origami in Malaysia, through participation and hosting in origami-related events, including classes (both informal and for therapy), gifts, and training.

Azrai is a native speaker of both Bahasa Malaysia and English, with equivalent written skills to match He is also a contributor for Google Translate for English, Bahasa Malaysia, and Bahasa Indonesia, for which he has been acknowledged as being one of the Top 5% Contributors for the Google Translate Community since December 2017.

Current Status

Self Employed

Language

Working Experience

Education

Other

Major in Economics & Politics

Bachelor's Degree

Economics

9 Sep, 1994 - 6 Jun, 1997

Skill Sets

Tools & Software

Additional Information