TEN students from Expression Music Academy participated in the 4th Hong Kong International Music Festival from August 20 to 25 this year.
The students joined over 3,000 emerging music talents, selected from 50,000 from all over the world, showcasing their musical prowess during a five-day music festival held at Chinese YMCA Wu Kwai Sha Youth Village and Tsuen Wan Town Hall, in Hong Kong.
The participants hailed from different parts of the globe, including Brunei Darussalam, The United States, China, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan.
Numerous competitions were held for various musical instruments, group types and age divisions, including Strings, Winds, Percussion, Piano, Harp, Guitar, Pop Voice, Accordion, Chinese, Group String, and Care Group (for persons with disabilities).
Expression Music, representing Brunei Darussalam for the first time, won 11 prestigious international awards. Eden Chiam, won the overall Champion in the Youth Pop Voice Division. Shian Li Chiam, being the youngest participant in the Adult Piano Category, clinched the first runner-up prize among the 42 competitors.
The youngest sibling, Evan Chiam, was also successful in winning 2nd runner-up and 5th place in the Youth Violin and Youth Pop Voice respectively.
Luis Lim won the 4th highest place in the Junior Pop Voice division. Jia Yi Onn won Gold medal for Youth Pop Vocal division. Glory Roslily won Gold medal for Youth Violin division, while Vivienne Poh and Jian Rong Chee won Silver awards in their Junior Violin and Junior Drum Kit division respectively.
Another pair of talented siblings Weldon Hii and Dalton Hii won Silver awards in Children Drum Kit and Beginner Pop Voice respectively.
Expression Music Academy also participated in the 24th KK Music and Dance Festival last September where 63 students swept 269 medals for Brunei against 1,600 musicians from Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia.
Many of these students were exposed to music education from as young as three years in the academy’s EMGenius and Fun programmes.
“We are very pleased with the overall results from the 24th KK Music Festival. It’s so important to build super strong Musical Foundations while they were still at their toddlers age.
We are very pleased to announce that many started while they were 2.5 or three years old with our EMGenius and Fun Programmes. These programmes have built them to stand out in their potential and capability when they later persue their lessons in solo instruments or more instruments,” said Lily Chiam, Founder and Director of Expression Music Academy.
She also shared her goal behind the school participating in various international competitions is to “create a global stage of self discovery and development for the students; it teaches the student to focus and to refine their musical execution to another level”.
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