54 waterloo street

this is not a quiz.

this cluster of three charming pre-war shophouses - only the corner one (no:54) and part of the second one are shown - is occupied by the young musician's society (yms) ltd, the umbrella body of singapore youth choir and the singapore youth chinese orchestra.

i have a lasting memory of this place because i used to parked myself outside it in the late 1990s on every wednesday night while waiting for my elder daughter to finish her practice or rehearsal with the singapore youth choir. the day following, usually, both of us had to report to schools, she for her studies and i for my work. my daughter joined when she was in secondary three; she was one of the youngest members of the choir. the choir conductor then was ms jennifer tham. i think she is still conducting the choir.

there were a few occasions when i had to wait till close to midnight, and one occasion when i had to go and pick her at 2.00 a.m. because they had a recording session. some of the recording sessions were held at victoria concert hall. those sessions also went into the early hours of the morning.

yms arts centre has an auditorium and three music studios. my younger daughter also had an opportunity to perform with a group at the same auditorium. she was then learning the violin and her violin teacher, dr choo, booked the place, together with her mother, for a joint performance by her violin students and her mother's voice training (singing) students. my elder girl also sang at the same concert because she was taking vocal lessons from mrs lilian choo.

the last time i was in the vicinity of this place, i met mr david lim, the man who started the singapore youth orchestra. he was having indian rojak at sajis.