DR WILSON Goh will never forget the 1986 National Music Competition.

Then 19, the budding violinist made it into the finals but did not win, 'partly due to lack of talent and partly due to using a poorer instrument'.

He had entered the competition playing an instrument his father gave him, and it had a slightly rattling finger board.

Now 41, he says: 'It was a small competition, but it made a difference in my life. I became a dentist.'

A successful one to boot, and one with a taste for fine and rare stringed instruments. No more rattling finger boards for him.

In fact, he and his wife Karen Yap, 38, a professional cellist who is the principal of Tanglewood Music School in Robertson Walk, have a collection of about 40 violins and cellos worth $6 million.

Because Dr Goh never forgot that 1986 competition, he loans some of these instruments to students and musicians, free of charge.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times' Life!