As a cultural group under the administration of the Singapore Chua Chu Kang Community Club, the Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra (KHCO) was formed in 1974. It currently has over 80 members, and is a well-known amateur orchestra in Singapore. It has been actively nurturing young talents over the years and contributing to Chinese music in Singapore.
Since its establishment, KHCO has won many accolades, including the Singapore National Youth Service Award, the National Youth Letter of Commendation, and first prize and Best Performance Award in the National Music Competition four times.
The Orchestra holds regular concerts every year. It has performed with many renowned maestros and virtuosi like Zhou Chenglong, Song Guanghai, Wai Sing-fat, Chew Hee Chiat and Zhang Nianbing. Recent performances include: the 30th anniversary concert of the Hong Kong Music Lover Chinese Orchestra in 2009, followed by the 20th anniversary ‘Twenty Years Initiator’ international concert of the Professional Cultural Center Orchestra of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the following year, and the 60th anniversary concert of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra in 2012.
In 2013, the KHCO was invited by the Government of Kagoshima Prefecture of Japan to perform in its Cultural Music Festival.
Sim Boon Yew PBM Music Director
Sim Boon Yew is a well-known Chinese orchestral music practitioner. An active figure in community cultural events over the years, he was presented the Public Service Award by the President of Singapore in 2001. He is currently a zhonghu musician with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO), and for a time has doubled as Resident Music Arranger.
Sim holds an Associate Diploma of the London College of Music in Conducting (ALCM) accredited by Thames Valley University. He studied Chinese music conducting and theory of Chinese orchestral music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Professor Xia Feiyun and Professor Hu Dengtiao in the 1980’s, and continued to receive coaching in conducting from Li Huade after returning to Singapore.
Sim has been the Conductor of Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra (KHCO) since 1981. He is also its Music Director and at the same time, conductor of several orchestras of higher education institutes. He has led the KHCO on tour to China, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and Hong Kong to attend various music festivals and cultural events and won rave response from the local Chinese music circles. Under the baton of Sim, the KHCO’s plucking ensemble has won the First Prize – Chinese Ensemble Section and Best Performance Award in the National Music Competition of Singapore four times in four consecutive editions since 1987.
Conducting aside, Sim is also a composer and arranger, having written many pieces of Chinese music, especially those with a Southeast Asian touch. He has composed and arranged more than two hundred pieces, notably Suriram, Melodies Singapura, Melodic Potpourri, Song for Little Angels, Magnificent Sheares’ Bridge, Qing Ming Memorial Rite and many adaptations of Western tunes.
Chin Yen Choong Conductor
Chin Yen Choong joined the Dingyi Music Company in 2007 and is currently its Concertmaster and gaohu musician. He is also the Associate Conductor of Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra, and conductor and instructor of several Chinese orchestras in schools.
Chin started learning the erhu from Xu Wenjing in 1999. With his gift, he quickly acquired a high level of skills in playing the instrument.
He joined the Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra in 2000, and since then has been featured as an erhu and banhu soloist in many local as well as overseas performances. In 2002, Chin took part in the National Music Competition of Singapore and was awarded 2nd runner-up in the Erhu Open Category. He also led the Dingyi Music Company to win the Ensemble category in another edition of the same competition in 2008.
Chin studied Chinese Music at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts on an Arts and Cultural Scholarship awarded by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan and a bursary grant from the National Arts Council (Singapore). He graduated cum laude as the first batch of Chinese music instrumentalists to be awarded a B.A. degree in this specialism. He studied orchestral conducting under Eric Watson, Robert Casteels and the Hong Kong conductor, Wai Sing-fat. He has been conducting in many public performances ever since, including a joint orchestra made up of musicians from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Australia in a concert presented by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra in 2012.
