Anyone who has built anything in Singapore knows that besides the luck all start-ups need there are three requirements to be fulfilled – strategy, perseverance and a good sponsor. Maestro Choo Hoey, who has died at the age of 90, understood this and bent his discipline, his great knowledge and love of music and his winsome charm to establish the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) from its beginning in 1979.
Maestro arrived to live in Singapore on the same date that I did and we quickly became friends. I offered him financial and social help with building the orchestra. In those early days most of the musicians were European. Maestro changed that and by the time he retired the vast majority were Asian. He also set about introducing composers of a more complex kind than had been familiar to the Singapore audience.
For me, his opening up the beauty and depth of Mahler, Prokofiev and Shostakovich were gifts no other teacher had offered. He recognised the need for the ‘Familiar Favourites’, as he called them, but always wanted to stretch his audience’s appreciation to more difficult and demanding compositions. His enthusiastic supporter, Dr Goh Keng Swee, made the rapid growth of the SSO possible. Dr Goh, with Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s support, determined that the amazing economic and social growth of Singapore should not leave the arts behind.
The strategy and tactics of the development of the SSO is a model for anyone contemplating a start-up. Maestro Choo Hoey played the first major role in that. Others who have followed have been fortunate in having such firm foundations.
Maestro also had a great sense of humour. We shared many laughs together over the sometimes rocky path up the music mountain. Almost exactly thirty-three years ago, on my 60th birthday, he handed me his baton – on loan – to conduct a short, popular piece of music to celebrate my then forthcoming marriage to Eliza Quek.
Conducting the SSO was the most frightening thing I have ever done. At rehearsal I said to the players: “Ladies & gentlemen of the orchestra, I will do my best to follow you”. The leader, Pavel Prantl, promptly stood up and replied “Sir, we will do our best to follow you!”
Maestro Choo Hoey managed to lead and to follow in good proportions. As we send our heartfelt sympathy to Alexandra and his sons I must add that while I hope he rests in peace I also pray that he will always retain the baton that made him such a gift to Singapore.
Bless you, Maestro. We will never forget you.
Good music
John Bittleston
19 August 2025
