Take a bow

Dr Wilson Goh will never forget the 1986 National Music Competition.

Then 19, the budding violinist made it into the finals but did not win, 'partly due to lack of talent and partly due to using a poorer instrument'.

He had entered the competition playing an instrument his father gave him, and it had a slightly rattling finger board.

Now 41, he says: 'It was a small competition, but it made a difference in my life. I became a dentist.'

A successful one to boot, and one with a taste for fine and rare stringed instruments. No more rattling finger boards for him.

In fact, he and his wife Karen Yap, 38, a professional cellist who is the principal of Tanglewood Music School in Robertson Walk, have a collection of about 40 violins and cellos worth $6 million.

Because Dr Goh never forgot that 1986 competition, he lends some of these instruments to students and musicians - free of charge.

The amateur violinist and classical music lover says: 'I can empathise with many musicians who lost out on opportunities due to poor access to good instruments.

'If someone is emerging, I want him or her to have more access to instruments to take part in competitions, performances and exams. Instruments make that bit of a difference.'

The Gohs are one of three sources in Singapore that musicians can approach to borrow fine and rare instruments they cannot afford to buy on their own.

One of them is businessman Rin Kei Mei and his wife, whose Rin Collection comprises over 300 violins, violas and cellos.

The founder and director of EON Bank, who is in his 70s, declined to be interviewed.

His instruments are loaned out to students of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, and the Beijing Conservatory of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China.

The third is the National Arts Council (NAC), which loans out a US$430,000 (S$648,000) Guadagnini violin. It started the loan scheme in 2000 to give top Singapore-born violinists a chance to pursue an international career as soloists.

Because of the generosity of these lenders, musicians can play Italian violins made in the 17th and 18th centuries. Makers of these instruments include famous names such as Stradivari, Guarneri, Guadagnini and Bergonzi.

Coveted by musicians, these instruments produce a range of sounds and tone colours beyond any run of the mill instrument. But top- notch sounds cost top dollar: These beauties often cost more than $1 million apiece.

Regular violins might range in price from $2,000 to $60,000, but the musicians Life! interviewed say that like drinking vintage wine, there is nothing like playing on an old, finely crafted instrument.

Violinist Alan Choo, 16, who is studying at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, is using a 1850 Postiglione from the Rin Collection. It is worth about US$50,000.

He says: 'The Postiglione is able to produce bright, warm and beautiful tones which have helped me expand my sound much more and express my music better. With such a violin, you are often motivated to practise and play more.'

Violinist Ang Chek Meng from the T'ang Quartet puts it this way: 'The difference between a top- class instrument and a normal one is the range and depth of the sound it can make. It's the difference between a normal car and a Ferrari.'

In fact, many professional musicians here and overseas play on borrowed instruments.

Prominent Singaporean violinist Kam Ning, 33, for example, plays on a 1793 Storioni violin from the Rin Collection.

Others get their fiddles overseas. Violinist Tang Tee Khoon, 24, is playing a 1757 Bergonzi on loan from The Colburn Collection in the United States. The collection is named after Richard D. Colburn, a wealthy businessman and patron of the arts who owns over 70 instruments.

Violinist Grace Lee, 24, was using a 1714 Stradivari on loan from Eastman School of Music in New York from 2004 to 2006.

Dr Goh says his instruments are loaned out on a project basis for up to a month, so students can use them for concerts or to prepare for exams. Applicants are referred by friends and contacts.

He and his wife also lend their instruments to players in Camerata Singapore, a chamber string group they play in.

The arrangements are all informal, with no contracts signed. He simply says that he lends them out in good faith.

While musicians relish playing these high-end instruments, parting with them is tough for the collectors.

Dr Goh, for one, finds it 'a real struggle'.

He says: 'Every time I lend one out, I'm very worried.

'But our objective at the end of the day is to put the instruments on stage and not in the storeroom. If you keep them in a safe, sometimes they fall asleep. It takes good musicians to wake them up.'

He and his wife have been collecting violins, violas and cellos since 2000, buying them from all over the world.

The most valuable instrument in their collection is a David Tecchler cello, made in 1735 and worth US$800,000. It is not loaned out as she plays it.

Other gems in their collection are a 1780 Guadagnini cello worth US$500,000 and a 1759 Gagliano violin worth US$300,000.

What happens if there is an accident?

Karen says: 'Of course, there will be heartbreak. But it all lies in trust and faith in the character of the musician. I'm very careful about who I loan my instruments to, I need to know them personally.'

Eventually, Dr Goh, who also sits on the committee that decides who gets the NAC violin, hopes to make longer-term loans to emerging musicians, and possibly work with the arts council to administer these loans.

He says: 'If there are five applicants for the Guadagnini violin and only one gets it, what's going to happen to the other four?

'If all of them are of very good calibre, I will lend them instruments from my collection.'

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'If you keep them in a safe, sometimes they fall asleep. It takes good musicians to wake them up'

Dr Wilson Goh, seen above with wife Karen, on why they lend their instruments to musicians