Dreams do actually come true

Hi, my name is Wen Rong and I hated classical music so much in the past. However, it is kind of strange to say that classical music actually gave me hope, direction in life and it matters a lot to me right now. Without classical music, I don’t think I will get to where I am now and experiencing such a fruitful and enjoyable life.

So here is a brief story of my life.

When I was about 4 years old, my parents enrolled me into a "classical music" appreciation class at Yamaha where I was taught to play the keyboard. I found the class to be extremely boring and would often stood up and run around the classroom. All I wanted to listen to at that time was pop groups such as Backstreet boys and Westlife. Those were my true idols and I had zero interest in classical music. So one day, my parents met the music teacher and they were told to stop bringing me to class as I was disrupting the class. The teacher also told them that I would never become a musician in the future, as I have no talent at all. I was so happy at that time as I didn’t have to attend such a boring class ever again.

But life is always very interesting and unexpected. You really never know what is going to happen. So 3 years after that incident, a new episode of Star Wars was released and I went to watch. I could still remember the lights went out and suddenly boom, the opening theme of Star Wars. I was so captivated by it especially the sound of the trumpet that I told myself I wanted to learn the trumpet.

It so happened that my elementary school mandarin teacher was in charged of the school’s brass band. So I decided to join the brass band partly because of the opening theme of Star Wars and also because I heard that there were many pretty girls in the band. Since I was the smallest build in size, I was given the cornet (somewhat like a trumpet but smaller in size). So everything just fell into place nicely.

Around that period, I was forced by my brother who was very interested in classical music to watch a performance by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. They were performing Benjamin Britten “The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra” and I was extremely impressed by the performance that I told myself that one-day I wanted to be like them. That was my dream. That was my dream orchestra. It was this dream that kept me working hard and pushing myself even though I knew that I have no talent at all. It took me about 19 years to achieve that dream. What is interesting is that the very first performance that I performed with the Singapore Symphony was a movie concert and guess what, we played Star Wars. While performing, I told myself that I had no regrets. Since achieving that childhood dream, my future plan is to train the future generations of brass players in Singapore so as to improve the overall playing standards and hopefully to inspire them to work harder towards their dreams as you never know that dreams do actually come true.

With my mentor, boss and someone who actually believes in me (after my first performance with SSO- movie concert- Star Wars.) Thank you Jon:) I owe you alot!