Catholic High Music Awards

Catholic High Music Awards (often abbreviated to CHMA, or CH Music Awards for short) is an annual school talent search competition held in Catholic High School (Singapore), which presents the school's musical talents a platform to showcase their abilities. This competition organised by the Catholic High School's iMedia Club, a Co-Curricular Activity (CCA), in collaboration with the school's music department. It is currently is one of the large-scale school concerts in Singapore.

Originally a small-scale event held during one of the weekly school assemblies, it has evolved over the years into a professional, large-scale talent concert, where lots of effort goes into the sound, lighting, decor, even the promotional materials. The whole planning and execution process are almost entirely planned by members of iMedia Club, with guidance from their teachers-in-charge. There are various categories students can perform in, namely, Solo Vocalists, Group Vocals, Rock Bands, Instrumental Bands, Duets and Creative Expressions.

Creative Expressions, a new category unveiled in 2006, is for students who want to showcase their performing talents in unique ways. This includes beat-boxing, rapping, original composition, hosting etc.

Duet, a new category that was introduced in CHMA 2008, is a category where a student can perform a song with a student from another school, regardless of gender or level of education.

After several rounds of auditions, usually two, the judges would select the best students to be the finalists, who will be performing on finale night itself.

Finalists will be able to get to experience a professional recording session and publicity poster shoot in the CHS iMedia studio. External bands are often invited to perform during the concert, which aims to entertain the audience as well as exposing students to local talents on the professional level.

CHMA is an event where students can not only fully showcase their potential, but most importantly, forge close bonds with their schoolmates through this annual musical fiesta.

As of 2008, tickets for CHMA are sold at SGD$10 each (USD$6.60). Ticket sales are used to fund the rental of the professional equipment for the Final Night.

CHMA 2010
Final Night For CHMA is on 15 May 2010, 7.30 PM at the Catholic High School Hall(Secondary), and was brought forward due to the use of the Hall during the usual CHMA months of June/July for the Youth Olympic Games.

Fianlists This Year

Solo Vocals:
 * 1) Jacob Chin
 * 2) Leon Lee
 * 3) Goay Dow
 * 4) Chong Kuan Hoe
 * 5) Li Jianwei

Solo Instruments Merit Award:
 * 1) Shaun Tan Wei Wen

Creative Expressions Merit Award:
 * 1) Aloysius Wong,Sean Wong, Ryan Lim, Mervin Tan

Rock Bands Merit Award:
 * 1) Eugene Tan, Esmond Tan, Marcus Cheong, Daryl Ong, Robby Goh

CHMA 2009
CHMA 2009 was unfortunately cancelled due to the H1N1 situation.

It was originally scheduled to take place on the 25th of July, 7.30pm at the Catholic High School, Singapore Secondary School Hall.

Below are selected finalists for the different categories :


 * Solo Vocals
 * 1) Timothy Mah
 * 2) Ng Zi Xuan
 * 3) Sebastian Lim
 * 4) Zhou Yucheng
 * 5) Ho Yeung Kai

Derek Koh & Andrew Lai
 * Group Vocals (Merit Winners)

Eugene Tan Yan Liang
 * Instrumental (Merit Winners)


 * Rock Bands
 * 1) Andrew Lai, Ng Kee Wen, Bryan Ng, Ian Tay, Ong Toon Yang
 * 2) Shawn Paul Lee, Michael Lim, Derek Koh, Brian Cheang, Bryan Goh


 * Creative Expressions
 * 1) Joshua Leong, Stephan Yong, Keefe Tan Kwang Joo, Johnervan
 * 2) Ong Toon Yang, Timothy Mah, Lewis Tan

CHMA 2008
Finalists and Performance Line-Up:


 * Solo Vocals
 * Qi Hang
 * En Lerk
 * Timothy Koh
 * Timothy Liew (Award Winner)
 * Timothy Liew (Award Winner)


 * Group Vocals
 * Wen Xuan and Daniel
 * Qiren and Kaijie
 * Si Jian, Wen Huan, Chaoqun (Award Winner)
 * Si Jian, Wen Huan, Chaoqun (Award Winner)

Hoe Jun Wei - Flute (Merit Winner, Overall Winner)
 * Instrumentals

Brown Note (Merit Award Winner)
 * Instrumental Bands


 * Rock Bands
 * Victor And The Vicious Vipers
 * Hosereel
 * FLOP!
 * Sine P (Award Winner)
 * Sine P (Award Winner)


 * Creative Expressions
 * Ernest Tan - Beatboxing (Award Winner)
 * Recnad (Opening Dance Item)
 * Recnad (Opening Dance Item)


 * Guest Bands
 * Fatwee! - BURN/Smoke On The Water
 * Juz-B (A cappella Item)
 * Juz-B (A cappella Item)

CHMA 2008 was held on Saturday, July 19, 2008, and featured rock bands, a dance item, beatboxing and singing. The show venue setup - the Catholic High School Hall - had professional lightings, photography, video equipments and sound system, which formed the atmosphere for CHMA 2008. CHMA 2008 had been held with great overall success, with many in the audience citing that they will return for the next CHMA to be hosted by iMedia in 2009.

CHMA in the past
The initial idea of Catholic High Music Awards was a Talent-time Concert organised by the Student's Council Board, which, due to the major role that iMedia has played in this concert, the project was acquired from the Council in 2003. Since then, it has evolved to become the iMedia club's annual major project, in which preparations usually starts around February.

In 2003, the club realised during one of the Talent-time rehearsals that the school hall at night, combined with appropriate lightings, will be able to generate a superb rock concert experience. In addition, Mr Wang Jiunn, the CCA Teacher-in-Charge and concert producer then, felt that the concert should be attended by those who are genuinely interested, and that students should not be forced to attend it.

Previously, the concert was held during a Wednesday assembly, in which attendance was mandatory for every Catholic High student. Furthermore, as the club evaluated that the current school sound and lighting systems are inadequate to produce an impressive performance for the audience, it was decided to steer the project into a new direction.

Hence, the show was completely revamped which followed a name change to what is currently known as "Catholic High Music Awards", which was the brainchild of its founder Mr Wang Jiunn, who was a teacher of Catholic High school. The rationale for "Music Awards" is for its more classic and timeless appeal, in contrast to the current and much overused "idol" named shows and competitions.

CHMA has since been a platform for students of Catholic High to explore and showcase their musical talents. Several finalists have since gained attention and enjoyed moderate success in other noticeable talent competitions, such as Tan Zhi Yi (Solo Vocal finalist in 2004 and winner in 2005) in One Million Star 超級星光大道, and Paul Twohill (Vocalist of Rock Band, Ecnerret, winner in 2004 and finalist in 2005) in Singapore Idol Season 2.

In its six-year run, CHMA has been held in the Catholic High school hall every year and hires professional lighting and audio equipment for its finale concert. For its debut public concert, tickets were sold at SGD$4 each, with all proceeds going towards the funding for the production of the finale concert. To date, tickets for the annual finale concert is often, if not close to, sold out, with the highest sale of over 800 tickets in 2005 and 2006.

A logo was also designed for the event in 2004, and it has remained the official logo of CHMA till present. Designed by Mr Wang, the logo consists of three components that make up the 4 letters, "C", "H", "M", "A", when joined together. Although variations of the logo has been designed for each year, the basic structure remains the same. This logo has been universally recognised by students of Catholic High School.

The first open-to-public CH Music Awards in 2004 was a resounding success, with over 600 people turning up for the show. Mark Tan, part of the Catholic High School alumni, was invited to come back to host, where he proved to be so popular with his wacky jokes and lively personality that he was asked to host for subsequent years of CHMA. Feedback generated was very positive and Catholic High Music Awards has been one of the top school events to look forward to since then.

General Background
1st Teacher-in-Charge: Mr Wang Jiunn
 * 1999–2006

Teacher-in-Charge: Mr Chris Teng
 * 2007–present

History
iMedia, founded in 2003 by Mr Wang Jiunn, was previously known as the AVA Club. The club started digital video editing using iMacs in 2000. In 2003, a decision was made to change the name and logo to iMedia, as the CCA is doing more than just Audio-Visual Aid duties and it was expanding its video production activities. The club has since broaden its activities to audio post-production with the construction of the iMedia Recording Studio (completed in March 2005), which is equipped with industry-level recording equipment. Currently, the iMedia Club utilises two Apple Power Mac G5s and Final Cut Studio in iMedia Recording Studio for video editing, as well as audio recording and post-production.

Also, the club is also mainly in-charge in Audio-Video duties around the school as well as video and audio media production for the school.