Founder of Singapore Symphony Orchestra Choo Hoey dies at 90

SINGAPORE – The founding musical director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), conductor Choo Hoey, died on Aug 11, aged 90.

His son, Dr Yen Choo – an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine – said the maestro died at his summer house in Greece with his wife Alexandra Avieropoulou by his side.

Dr Choo told The Straits Times: “It was a peaceful death due to old age.” 

Recalling his father’s life, Dr Choo said: “I have wonderful memories of him – but, of course, he was very busy when we were children. I’ve always wondered why it was that he never steered us towards music. When I asked my mother, she said it was because he had spent so much time in his youth playing the violin that he felt he had squandered his childhood years and that he wanted us to live.” 

Former SSO co-leader and Cultural Medallion recipient Lynnette Seah told ST she was saddened by the news. “He was strict but also kind towards me especially, appointing me as acting leader for a year and a half. He placed SSO on the classical world map.”

Ms Tisa Ho-Ng, the SSO’s general manager from 1990 to 1999, said: “He was great to work with because he was sincere, forthright and open-minded in a way that made it possible to convince him to agree to something he might have opposed to begin with.”

She recalled that he disapproved of pop concerts, but nonetheless agreed when Ms Ho-Ng organised one with Singaporean singer-songwriter Dick Lee.

Choo was finicky about the details, demanding that musicians be impeccably turned out for concerts, so she kept a spare cummerbund in the office for male wardrobe emergencies.

She added: “He sometimes made demands that seemed hard to meet. He insisted on some way of cooling the stage when I was planning the first iteration of the Symphony Stage at the Botanic Gardens, but we got it done, and I understood that he wanted the musicians to be presented in the usual concert attire and not something more casual.”

ST’s veteran classical music reviewer Chang Tou Liang noted that Choo was responsible for the SSO’s wide repertoire. “He knew that not all programmes would be popular with audiences, but the orchestra needed them in order to grow.

“He was not afraid to be outspoken. His phrase was, ‘I do what I know is right, and the consequences be d***ed.’ His job was not to please people or be politically correct, but to be true to the music.

“He never cut corners and was as tough on himself as he was with other musical professionals. Needless to say, he was not well liked by musicians and some critics, although he also built up a legion of fans. After he retired, he conducted SSO sporadically and often wondered whether he had been forgotten.”

Cellist and co-founder of the T’ang Quartet Leslie Tan said: “It is sad that when they retired him, he was quickly forgotten bar the token concert with the SSO. But that’s the Singapore style – efficient, unsentimental, mercenary.”

He credited Choo and the SSO for paving the way for subsequent generations of musicians like him, saying: “He and the SSO gave a lot of my generation of musicians the wonderful opportunity to have a wonderful education overseas. He had foresight and had great ideas for the orchestra. If not for him, many of us – me, the SSO, the entire cultural landscape of Singapore – would be very different. I know I owe him a great debt of gratitude.”

Dr Chang added that Choo was “a great spotter of young talent”, introducing the then 15-year-old Lang Lang in 1997 and violinists Jin Li and He Ziyu to local audiences.  

In a Facebook post on the night of Aug 15, the SSO said it was “deeply saddened” by Choo’s death, crediting him as having made invaluable contributions to Singapore’s musical landscape.

Choo, who established the orchestra in 1979 alongside former deputy prime minister Goh Keng Swee – its founding patron – was its music director between 1979 and 1996.

Choo led the orchestra on four European tours, said SSO, adding that he “built up the orchestra from its modest beginnings, and developed an extensive repertoire ranging from the early baroque to contemporary masterpieces”.

Mr Goh Yew Lin, chairman of the Singapore Symphony Group and who has been involved with the group since 1990, wrote on his Facebook page: “(Choo) had a good eye for talent, strong musical convictions and a very broad repertoire, conducting countless local premieres of 20th-century masterworks; I remember especially his championing of Bartok, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Berg. 

“He was also a champion of Chinese composers and musicians. His legacy is not just the SSO, but an entire generation of music lovers whose experience of music was shaped by his zeal, curiosity and passion.” 

Choo was one of the first recipients of the Republic’s highest arts accolade, the Cultural Medallion, having it bestowed on him in 1979 when it was first instituted.

Born in Palembang in 1934, Choo moved to Singapore in 1946 during Indonesia’s struggle for independence from the Dutch.

He took lessons under violinist Goh Soon Tioe and, after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London, started his career conducting the Belgian National Orchestra in 1958. 

After marrying in 1969, Choo settled down in Athens and went on to conduct some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1968 to 1977, he was the principal conductor of the Greek National Opera.

In 1978, he gave up his conducting career in Greece to set up Singapore’s first professional orchestra.

With 41 members, the SSO made its debut under Choo’s baton at the Singapore Conference Hall on Jan 24, 1979, with a rendition of Majulah Singapura. In the early years, he not only directed the music, but also took on duties from recruiting musicians to negotiating salaries. 

“The first concert, I remember, there were a lot of things I couldn’t find answers for. I couldn’t find musicians, I didn’t know whether the orchestra would last,” said Choo in a 2019 interview with ST when he came out of retirement to conduct for the SSO’s 40th anniversary concert. 

Today, the orchestra performs more than 60 concerts a year and has been named one of the 23 best orchestras in the world by BBC Music Magazine.

Choo is survived by his wife and two sons.