After obtaining the First prize in the Second Division in the 11th World Music Contest (WMC) in 1993, the Singapore Wind Symphony (SWS) was invited to compete in the 14th WMC in 2001 and I was fortunate to be part of it. WMC is a major international festival exclusively for wind music every four years in the Dutch town of Kerkrade, the Netherlands organized by the World Music Contest Kerkrade Foundation since 1949. In May 2001, after I had completed my first year of common engineering course in the National University of Singapore, I was invited by the SWS to join them in competing in the 14th WMC held from 6th-16th July 2001. The SWS is known as the National Theatre Symphonic Band (NTSB) which was formed in 1977 under the National Theatre Trust. In 1992, with the support of the National Arts Council, the NTSB registered itself as the Singapore Wind Symphony.

I joined the Singapore Wind Symphony in June 2001 under conductor Mr. Adrian Hill for their weekly rehearsals of one of their three competition pieces, the set piece “Vom Ende der Zeit”. On July 6, we left Singapore and took a flight transit from Helsinki, Finland to Brussels, Belgium. After a lengthy bus journey from Brussels Airport we finally reached Kerkrade, the Netherlands and immediately moved into a small hotel in Gulpen. Before our actual date of competition on the July 13, we had extensive rehearsals at Wielderhoes in Wijlre. With the hard work and commitment, SWS played three pieces “Toccata Singapura” composed by Adrian Hill, “Vom Ende dei Zeit” (The End of Time)