BUILDING HIS OWN DREAM

The amiable man realised he had musical aspirations of his own when he picked up his first musical instrument — a cornet — when he signed up for the school band as an Extracurricular Activity (now known as Co-Curricular Activities) in primary school. The 33-year-old, who is managed by Columbia Artists Management, is grateful for how he grew up learning music within Singapore’s education system. He stresses that learning and practising music is not a luxury reserved for a privileged minority, and describes himself as coming from “a working-class, Mandarin-speaking family in Jurong”.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have grown up in Singapore which has such a thoughtful educational system. Through it, I received music lessons from Primary 1 through to junior college just by being in the school bands, without incurring additional costs. And I could always borrow a top-class professional instrument from my school inventory,” he reminisces.

Kahchun, who now travels regularly across the US, the UK and Europe, is also thankful for his parents’ support. His A-level results had earned him a place to read Physics at the University of Cambridge but instead, he opted for a scholarship to study at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore. “I told my parents that I had been diligent all my life and that I had got my As, so please give me the freedom to pursue music as a life, not just as a hobby,” he says. “They respected my decision. Everything that I am a part of now, it was attainable only because of their unfailing support.” His supportive parents now attend all his concerts in Singapore, and have also gone to some in Japan that he has flown them to.

While Kahchun did not face resistance from his family, he has met challenges along the way. He remembers that his ambition was “vastly unsupported” by those around him in school — even from a young age. In primary school, a teacher had asked the students what they wanted to become when they grew up. When Kahchun answered “musician”, the teacher and classmates laughed at him. “From this experience, I thought that I had to prove them wrong and that I was not joking about my ambition,” he recalls. Fortunately, he found mentors and friends who believed in his dreams over the years. He added: “I always had the good luck of encountering new opportunities.” In junior college, he auditioned for the Singapore National Youth Orchestra a few times but was never selected. However, he then ended up standing in for a schoolmate who could not make it for practice and the teachers there enjoyed his performance and invited him to stay on.

STRIKING A CHORD IN YOUNG PEOPLE

But success is more than just being in the right place at the right time. Kahchun’s advice to young musicians wanting to follow in his footsteps is to work much harder than others. This is particularly true to him as conducting is a profession that generally doesn’t favour someone who’s both young and Asian. “When I work with a new orchestra for the first time, it’s like going on a first date. There’s a glass ceiling.” A young Asian musician performing Western classical music with musicians twice his age has to simply work harder. “I always go into every rehearsal with the mindset that I want to learn from these experienced musicians, about music from their own culture.”

Kahchun, whose musical tastes range from US progressive metal band Dream Theater to iconic rockersQueen, says that his success boils down to how much passion and determination he is willing to put in. He also feels he has to work harder than his European peers. “If they put in one hour of preparation, I put in 10. We can discuss passion, which is surely important, but without failure and perseverance, we won’t be in it for the long run.”

A consummate professional who plays to audiences ranging from 1,000 to 65,000 people — the latter at last year’s Klassik Open Air in Germany, Europe’s largest outdoor classical music concert — he admits that being a professional musician isn’t easy. In his case, it involves waking up a little after 4am almost every day. He then prepares scores for rehearsals, answers “tonnes of emails”, makes work calls to Singapore (where it’s daytime) and studies music. “On paper, it appears that orchestras work relatively little. But we have to rehearse for three to four hours a day, over one to three days. I also need hundreds of hours to research the music itself.” His motivational force? “Music is as important to me as air, water and sleep. I need it to live.”