David Lim Kim San is a key architect of music education and administration in Singapore. He founded the Singapore Youth Choir, and initiated many music programmes in Singapore schools that have had a lasting and profound impact on the Singapore music scene. For his valuable service to Singapore music, Lim received many awards including the Public Administration Medal (Bronze), the Cultural Long Service Award, and the COMPASS Meritorious Award. In 1979, he became the first ever recipient of the Cultural Medallion for music.

Born into a Methodist Peranakan family in 1933, David Lim Kim San grew up with parents and sisters who loved singing. During World War II, the family took shelter from the bombs in the basement of the Cathay building for a week, and his parents—especially his mother—would keep their spirits up by singing hymns. This was a very significant experience for Lim, as he saw how his family found solace in music amidst the terror of war, and this triggered his passion for music.

When Lim entered Telok Kurau Primary School, he followed his passion and took music as a first subject. Moving on to Victoria Secondary School, he was mentored in music by Benjamin Khoo and Paul Abisheganaden, who guided and grew Lim’s interest and talent. Lim would go on to pursue a career in teaching, and attended the Teachers’ Training College, graduating with a specialisation in music.

Lim joined the Singapore Music Society, and often took the role of impresario for courses and in-house concerts. He was also a member of the Chamber Ensemble and Singapore Music Teachers’ Association and was involved in the musical productions of the Young Musicians’ Society.

Later, working at the Ministry of Education (MOE) he co-founded the Combined Schools Choir—renamed the Singapore Youth Choir in 1964—with Benjamin Khoo and served as conductor of the choir from 1968 for the next two decades. Under his leadership, he built up a respectable choir in spite of the displeasure of his students’ parents regarding the long hours the students spent on something their parents deemed as unnecessary. The choir received international recognition when they competed in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales in 1974, placing first in the youth section and second in the open section. This was vindication of the Lim’s and the students’ efforts, and is the most memorable event of Lim’s varied career in music. Later on, Lim would also be regarded for founding and training many junior college choirs throughout Singapore.

During this period, in 1969, he also became the head of the MOE Music Department, and pioneered the primary school instrumental teaching programme and initiated the school band movement to great effect. Dr Goh Keng Swee—then finance minister of Singapore—called on Lim to spearhead an initiative to form school bands in Singapore schools. Lim gathered 28 teachers from various secondary schools to attend an 18-month course, effectively forming a teachers’ band where they learnt the ins and outs of being and running a band. The initiative was hugely successful, resulting in these teachers returning to their schools as band teachers and instructors, and in the formation of 10 secondary school bands.

Besides these commitments, Lim was also influential in the development of the Singapore Youth Orchestra, and also served as general manager of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He was also involved in the management of the Associate Board of the Royal School of Music examinations, Association of Southeast Asian Nations Band Symphonic Workshop, and the Lyric Theatre.

In 1979, in recognition of his many significant contributions to music in Singapore, Lim received the very first Cultural Medallion for music in the year of the award’s institution. He would go on to receive several other awards, including the Public Administration Medal (Bronze), the Cultural Long Service Award, and the COMPASS Meritorious Award.

Now retired from the Ministry of Education, Lim continues to be driven by his all-encompassing passion for music, leading the Glowing Years Ministry—a choral group for seniors that he founded—and serving as the honorary executive director of the Young Musician’s Society.