Kam Kee Yong (Chinese: 甘琦勇; born 28 February 1938) is a violinist, conductor, visual artist and educator.
He came to Singapore in 1958 and began studying painting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts the following year on a scholarship obtained from a friend.
[3] He held a violin recital in Penang later that year to raise funds as he was seeking to study music overseas.
Prominent rubber tycoon and philanthropist Tan Boon Peng attended the recital and helped Kam in raising money.
His teachers at the academy included Frederick Grinke, Molly Mack, Watson Forbes and Alan Bush.
[1] The event also featured guitarist Alex Abisheganaden, cellist Anne Tan and pianist Ng Kok Cheow as guest artists, as well as solo performances from several younger musicians, including Lynnette Seah.
[4] The TOKK Ensemble commissioned him to revise Kuang Xiang Qu for solo violin with piano, harp and percussion in 1975.
[2] In a review of a 1976 performance of Kam's Huai Ku Chau Ben Tchit, Violet Oon of the New Nation wrote that his compositions are "like a breath of fresh air in the stale atmosphere of local music", and that he "tries to capture the essence of his Chinese heritage".
[2] In the same year, he composed Suan Lin Tze, a tone poem named after the Siong Lim Temple in Toa Payoh.
His daughter, violinist Kam Ning, performed Huai Gu in British Columbia and Ottawa in 1999.
[2] During an interview with The Business Times in the same year, he stated that his music and his art "complement each other" and that they "can't be separated".