Forum: Maestro Choo Hoey gave Singapore a symphonic song for generations to come
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
We mourn the recent death of maestro Choo Hoey
The SSO’s creation in 1979 was no accident. History shows that orchestras mark a city’s cultural coming of age.
In America’s industrial boom, orchestras in Cleveland and Detroit signalled world-class status.
China, Japan and South Korea made similar moves. Even as they each had rich folk traditions of their own, they understood that orchestras projected their nations on a universal benchmark recognisable to the West.
Then Defence Minister Goh Keng Swee’s decision to found the SSO was both cultural and strategic. In maestro Choo, he found the perfect partner.
Dr Goh laid the scaffolding; Choo gave it a soul.
Choo’s vision extended beyond concerts. He invested deeply in nurturing Singaporean talent. Musicians like Chan Peck Suan and Lee Tian Tee, both trumpet players supported by SSO scholarships, went on to become inspiring educators.
Ms Chan, my band instructor at River Valley High School, taught me everything I needed for my professional journey and Professor Lee now teaches at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music.
Their impact illustrates the ripple effect of Choo’s legacy: one generation inspiring the next.
I made my debut recently at the BBC Proms in London with the Halle orchestra. It was a poignant moment. As a boy, Choo first encountered the Proms through crackling radio broadcasts – likely hearing the Halle itself, whose sound stirred his pursuit of music.
Decades later, the SSO performed at that same festival in 2014 under his successor Lan Shui.
To stand now on the Royal Albert Hall podium leading the very orchestra that once inspired Choo feels like a journey come full circle.
The SSO gave me the audacious hope that I might one day set foot on the far-off, improbable path of Western classical music, a road that seemed impossible from my HDB flat in Jurong.
Today, the orchestra remains an inspiration to countless young Singaporeans.
Every performance holds the power to ignite a lifelong love of music in our audience. The SSO has long outgrown its baby steps, and now stands tall as a symbol of national pride, admired across our region and beyond.
With that privilege comes responsibility, to carry forward the hopes of our pioneers and nurture the dreams of those who will come after. The task now is not survival, but legacy.
Future generations must inherit not only an orchestra of artistry, but also one of warmth, generosity and dignity.
Legacy is built not only in what is performed, but in how it is lived: through professionalism, presence and humanity.
As role models, teachers and custodians of our cultural pride, the SSO’s musicians embody the story of Singapore with every note they play.
What maestro Choo Hoey gave us was more than an orchestra. He gave Singapore its symphonic song – one of belonging, aspiration and continuity, a symphonic song unending, carried through generations to come.
Kahchun Wong
Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Halle orchestra,
Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra
