"Beginnings"...

Lest people think that SYO (or even SNYO) was the first youth orchestra to exist in Singapore, they should read my book "Goh Soon Tioe -- One Great symphony", in which a very brief history of youth orchestras in Singapore is found. As early as 1934, an orchestra for students existed. Names like E.A.Brown, Glan Williams (1940's),Paul Abishegaden(1950's), Benjamin Khoo(1960's), Goh Say Meng(1970's) were noted as previous conductors of youth orchestras with names such as "Children's Orchestra", "Junior Symphony Orchestra", "Singapore Schools Orchestra".

In 1970, Goh Soon Tioe was appointed conductor of the Singapore Youth Symphony Orchestra. This Orchestra existed for 5 years before falling by the wayside. Paul Abisheganaden revived the orchestra in 1989 under the management of the Centre for Musical Activities at NUS. In 1980, the Singapore Youth Orchestra came under the wing of the Extra Curricular Activities Centre of the Ministry of Education .

Assured that the full support of the Ministry was behind the orchestra, I accepted the appointment as Music Director and Resident Conductor in 1980. My association with the youth orchestra movement had previously been as sectional coach in 1971 during my father's tenure as conductor. After he relinquished the post in 1975, I was offer the job, but declined it, having seen his frustrations with the organisation at that time.

Several factors led me to accept the directorship of an orchestra, which since the 1930's had frequently emerged and foundered. The important factor was the formation of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1979. This created a pool of resident professional wind players who could provide long-term instruction to youth orchestra members.

Hitherto, students wanting to learn the violin could easily find a teacher, although the quality of the instruction was uneven. Those who wanted to learn a wind instrument, however, had to look for teachers among the band members of the British forces stationed in Singapore up to 1972. These instructors could not provide long-term instruction, and often left after providing the student with very rudimentary knowledge of playing the instrument.

The second factor was the fact that the Ministry of Education was willing to give financial support to the Orchestra. The bulk of the money would be spent on providing free tuition for members of all sections in the orchestra. This, in turn was to be the incentive for young people to join and remain in the orchestra.

In addition, students joining the orchestra would be given maximum "ECA points". These points could be accumulated only if the student remained in the orchestra till the end of four years of secondary school. Otherwise, no points would be given. Orchestra members would also be exempt from all other Extra-curricular Activities (ECA) with the exception of one sport. At that time, ECA points could well be the deciding factor whether a student got into Junior College if his/her academic results did not quite reach the required standards.

Thirty years ago...

SYO (Singapore Youth Orchestra) is thirty years old this year. It might soon fade into obscurity because it has changed it's name to SNYO (Singapore National Youth Orchestra). So this is an account of my years as Music Director and Resident Conductor of the Singapore Youth Orchestra from 1980 to 1990.

Those were pioneering years, and I remember with pleasure all the very unique characters who played in the orchestra in those 10 years. I believe there is only ONE member who was there nearly the whole time I conducted, and that is Voon Hai Wei (trombonist). She is now married to Cheong Ming Foong (tuba player), whom she met in the orchestra.

No, the Orchestra was not formed to create more families. The original idea was for it to serve as a training ground for potential members of the SSO (Singapore Symphony Orchestra) which had been established the year before (1979). It was to provide "rigorous" training for budding musicians.

In the first few years, a flood of SYO members did attain scholarships from the Singapore Government and returned to play in the professional orchestra.

Today, some SYO members from this period have served in the SSO for over 20 years. More importantly, many more XYO (ex-SYO) members work as coaches of school bands and orchestras in Singapore, give music lessons in music schools or privately. Some have even opened their own music schools in Singapore and abroad!

All this has enriched the lives of present-day Singaporeans in countless unnoticed but powerful ways. XYO members will attest to the fact that their years in SYO has left an indelible mark on their lives, not only in terms of what they learnt about music, but also the lifelong friends that they made and the lifeskills that they learnt.

Instrumental to the founding of SYO were Dr Goh Keng Swee (Minister of Education), Dr Tay Eng Soon(Minister of State for Education) and Dr Bernard Tan(Dean of the Faculty of Science, NUS) .