Lily Goh

Lily Goh is a Deaf Singaporean artist, entrepreneur, and community leader.

Early life and education Goh's Deafness was discovered when she was two years old. She experiences profound deafness in both ears.

She was enrolled in the Canossian School of the Hearing Impaired for her primary education (1998–1993). She was a member of the school's percussion band, eventually becoming a band leader. She was also in the swimming club. She then went on to Saint Anthony's Canossian Secondary School (1994–1997), where she continued her musical journey by participating in the concert band. She also conducts regular Basic Sign Language Communication courses.

Deaf art and music Goh has years of experience as a performing artist. Her time spent in school bands gave her a strong foundation in percussion music. She navigates percussion by feeling the vibration of her instruments through her feet. Her instrument of choice is the marimba, and she is adept at other mallet instruments as well. She obtained a Grade 5 in Piano in 1999, a Grade 5 with Distinction in Music Theory in 2001, and a Grade 8 with Merit in Percussion in 2007.

During her time at the Singapore Association for the Deaf, Goh established the XTOMIC group, which raised awareness about deaf issues through its performances. The group also raised funds and awareness for other social causes and organisations, including old folks' homes and the Bone Marrow Donor Programme. She got through two rounds of the competition. This marked her debut on the public stage. She was featured on the programme The Unsung Heroes on Singaporean television channel Channel 5 in 2004 and The Youth Decode on Channel U in 2005, as well as in publications such as Her World and Lime. In 2014, she was invited to represent Singapore at the ASEAN Arts Festival of Disabled Artists in Myanmar, organised by the Myanmar Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and Myanmar Independent Living Initiative (MILI).

Goh co-wrote the song If You Were In My Shoes with singer Audris Ho. It emerged a semi-finalist in a British song-writing contest in 2015.

Goh has been a member of inclusive orchestra The Purple Symphony since 2015, wherein she plays the marimba. She has performed in the annual Purple Symphony yearly concert, numerous iterations of The Purple Parade, and in the 2017 Singapore National Day Parade.

The 2022 parade featured a story inspired by Goh and her experiences as a deaf artist during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Entrepreneurship Goh founded ExtraOrdinary Horizons in 2011, as a social enterprise under the auspices of StarHub's Entrepreneurs With Disabilities programme. Its main workstream and source of revenue is conducting courses to various corporations such as DBS Bank, Google, the Singapore Cancer Society, Singapore International Foundation, the YMCA, and various Singapore government agencies.

Advocacy Goh has been active in Deaf and disabled communities, focusing her efforts on raising awareness amongst the hearing population of Deaf culture, experiences, and sign language.

She was co-opted to the Board of the Disabled People's Association (DPA) in 2014 for a three-year term, she was re-elected in 2017 for another term. From 2014 to 2020, she was concurrently a member of the DPA's Advocacy Sub-Committee. In addition, since 2018, she has been an Inclusion Ambassador for the DPA. In this role, she supports DPA's training programmes, awareness booths, and talks.