Charles Lazaroo

Charles Godfrey Lazaroo (21 August 1923 – 29 March 1983) was a Singaporean musician and schoolteacher who became the music director of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation shortly before his death. He was a founding member and the director of the National Dance Company, the chairman of the Young Musicians' Society and the composer of several pieces for the Singapore Youth Choir. Esplanade Offstage states that his name was "synonymous with the composing, arranging and playing of music in Singapore for the majority of his 60 years."

Early life and education Lazaroo was born in Singapore on 21 August 1923. His family lived in Newton. After graduating from Raffles Primary in 1936, Lazaroo began attending St. Joseph's Institution the following year. He completed his studies there in 1941. From 1946 to 1949, he studied at the Raffles College, from which he graduated with a Diploma of Arts. He had chosen teaching as a profession as his father had wanted him to become a civil servant. In the 1950s, he became an arranger and composer for Radio Malaya. He also left Raffles Institution in this period. Lazaroo achieved his Licentiate from the Royal Schools of Music in 1953. In 1959, Lazaroo became the bandleader and arranger for Radio Singapore's talent competition Talentime. In the same year, he was employed at the Beatty Secondary School as a teacher. During this period, he was a member of Tiga Sekawan, an instrumental trio which "played popular Malayan and Indonesian tunes in a Western style." The Without a Song programme, which began airing on Radio Singapore on 10 May, featured Lazaroo playing the piano and Julai Tan playing the violin. Sometime in the 1960s, he was appointed an Inspector of Schools. In the same year, he became a teacher at the Siglap Secondary School. In the same year, he taught at the Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School before being transferred over to Swiss Cottage Secondary School as Vice-Principal. He returned to Yusof Ishak Secondary School in 1968 as its Principal. This also gave him the responsibility of designing the syllabus for school music lessons. By October, he had become the chairman of the Young Musicians' Society. He was also made a member of the National Theatre Trust and a Director for the Extra-Curricular Services Centre (Music) of the Ministry of Education in the same year. His arrangements of four songs from Jesus Christ Superstar were performed by the Singapore Youth Choir at the Singapore Conference Hall on 21 and 22 September 1972. In the same year, he became a founding member and director of the National Dance Company, which toured internationally. In November, he and Goh Soon Tioe were sent on a two week-long music exchange programme with West Germany. During the trip, which was sponsored by the government of Bonn, the two visited music academies in seven major cities in the country. This was reportedly the first time Singaporean musicians had been invited on a study tour of Germany. By July 1975, Lazaroo had become a senior music advisor with the Ministry of Education and was the chairman of the Singapore Youth Musicians' Association. In the same year, was appointed the chairman of the Music for Everyone Advisory Committee, a position he continued to hold until 1979. He also composed the Lionisle and Suiram Suite, with the former being a children's operetta which was performed by the Children's Choir. For the 1979 Festival of Choirs, held in May, Lazaroo composed the Medley of Malay Songs, with critic "L.P.A." of The Straits Times opining that while "simple tuneful music does not need much to make it appearling", Lazaroo "manages to squeeze out that extra little in ardour." In June, the Singapore Youth Choir performed a piece of his titled Pop Mass, which was described as a "modern setting of the traditional five sections of a sung mass in the English tradition." He was also appointed to the Advisory Committee on Instrumental Music in that year. His composition, Mass, was also performed at the Festival of Choirs held that month. "V. Vace" of the New Nation wrote that the piece "emerged more like an intellectural musical exercise than a song to be enjoyed."

Lazaroo officially retired from civil service in 1980. In August, he received the Public Service Star (Silver) for his "contributions to music education and music in Singapore." In the same year, he composed Temasek in Dance an hour-long dance drama that was first performed at the People's Association's anniversary concert. He composed the song Good, Better, Best for the National Productivity Board in 1982. He also arranged The Samseng and the Chettiar's Daughter, a local adaptation of The Beggar's Opera, for that year's edition of the Festival of Arts. In January 1983, he was "hauled out of his retirement" and made the music director of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. However, he died at the end of his third month with the corporation. A tribute concert was held by the Singapore Youth Choir in honour of Lazaroo in 1985. However, Lazaroo died of a heart attack on 29 March 1983 shortly after rehearsing with the SBC Orchestra for an upcoming trip to Kuala Lumpur as part of a musical exchange programme. His remains were cremated at the Mount Vernon Columbarium Complex.