KUALA LUMPUR – If you intend to raise first-rate musicians, a Petaling Jaya household can certainly tell you how it is done.
Enter the Kam family. Among its five members, pianist-cum-violinist Genervie and her younger sibling, drummer-percussionist Arthur, stand out in this family of multi-generational musical powerhouses.
To recap, Genervie who is now 40, was catapulted early in her career when she was included on Cantopop megastar Jacky Cheung's 2002 'Music Odyssey World Tour', globe-trotting 50 cities when she had just turned 21.
Genervie included Singaporean singer-songwriter Stefanie Sun, Croatian pianist Maksim, and Indonesia's Harvey Malaiholo, among the list of international artists whom she had toured with.
Locally, she had sessioned for the likes of Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, Ning Baizura, Jacklyn Victor and Vince.
On the other hand, 29-year-old Arthur clinched the “18 and under category” of Modern Drummer magazine’s Undiscovered Drummer title in 2008, and had an entry in Malaysia Book of Records as the “Youngest Person to Complete a Professional Drum Course”.
Joining his sister on Jacky Cheung's shows, Arthur's credentials included concerts with Korean American rapper Jay Park, Japanese jazz singer Keiko Lee and Filipino jazz legend Boy Katindig.
In Malaysia, Arthur had worked alongside Zainal Abidin, M. Nasir, Ning Baizura, Faizal Tahir, and sessioned for big award shows like Anugerah Juara Lagu (AJL), and Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM).
Their eldest sibling, 44-year-old Nigel Kam Chong Heng, was a sound engineer who had previous stints in Astro and popular radio stations MY FM and Xfresh. With his skills, Nigel often provided technical assistance behind the scenes for the two younger musicians.
The siblings concurred their achievements would not have been possible without strong parental support.
The family chalked down their successes to a chance incident.
Never too old to learn
Long before the three were born, their father, Henry Kam Cheng Teik, was hospitalised after being involved in a motorcycle accident in 1967.
Owing to the injuries, the 17-year-old Henry was left hospitalised for four months, where he missed school in Penang, and had time on his hands.
"I wanted to do something while recovering so I took up music," he told The Vibes when met recently, adding that he chose the guitar.
Henry said he had enlisted the help of a formal teacher who taught him how to play the Spanish styles of music, which he loved.
"From a hobby, it became a career, and I came to Kuala Lumpur to pursue it."
Henry said the motorcycle rider he had rode with in the accident would later become his brother-in-law.
And unlike his children, who all learned instruments at a young age, the guitar teacher with whom Henry picked up music later in life, noted one was "never too old to learn an instrument".
Doting mother and piano teacher
The family’s matriarch, Penny Chin Chun Hua, 68, has some 48 years of piano teaching under her belt.
Her students, numbering in the hundreds, have all grown up to become successful individuals – among them AirAsia Group's President (AirAsia Digital) Aireen Omar, Primeworks Studio CEO Ahmad Izham Omar, and pianist Jenny Chin.
Penny said when she first began teaching piano, there was not much choice but to learn and teach classical music.
“It was not popular, many said there was no prospect in teaching piano,” she said.
“In those days, piano teachers were all poor. If you cannot study, you would teach piano.”
But now, she says music has become very much part of education, and employers and universities are recognising formal music learning as a form of certification and indication of one’s discipline.
“A music certificate is valuable because it is about discipline. A lot of people learn music but not many reach grade eight because it is tough,” she said.
Despite being a piano teacher herself, Penny had also gotten help from others in training all her three children.
Disciplined childhoods
All agreed that among the three siblings, Genervie had the most regimented upbringing. At a young age, she joined an elite Yamaha group for kids who had pitch perfect hearing.
“It was healthier to have another professional teacher,” the International College of Music (ICOM) graduate in Music Arrangement said.
Playing and practicing outside the house also helped her focus on learning as she was in an unfamiliar environment.
By the time she was 14 years old, Genervie had already earned internationally-recognised certificates in piano and violin from exams she had taken one week apart, and in competitions as far-flung as the Czech Republic.
"I had to sacrifice my childhood quite a bit – I didn't have social time and couldn't go out. I guess that's the price you have to pay,” she said.
Though famed for her exceptional skills on the violin, Genervie says she did not enjoy learning the instrument at first. This is because she is left-handed but was forced to play like a right-handed person.
“It was more of my father's passion,” she said, adding that her secondary instrument would land her big shows later in life.
Genervie said her practice regimen for both piano and violin saw her weekly timetable packed as a child and teenager. At one time, she had up to six music teachers scheduled in a week.
Her skills, she said, came from rigorous training and nurturing, but when it came to raw talent, she pointed to Arthur.
Got to have faith
As a child, Arthur was a protege to Steve Thornton, the renowned percussionist who has shared the stage with Tracy Chapman, Mariah Carey, and even Michael Jackson.
Under Thornton’s tutelage, Arthur would later be awarded a scholarship to attend the Sri Cempaka International School in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, for secondary school.
At times, he noted that he would be missing classes for months on end as he joined Cempaka Schools founder Datuk Freida Pilus, who would take him on outside visits to promote the school.
In 2005, Arthur entered Modern Drummer Magazine’s Undiscovered Drummer contest where he submitted a two-minute solo performance. He did not make the cut. Three years later, he returned to compete again after closely studying his competitors but noted he did not expect to win.
“I just wanted to see where I stood in the world,” the Berklee College of Music graduate said.
His family, however, had mentally prepared him for an unfavourable scenario, fearing he would be devastated by a loss.
“My family meant well when discouraging me from competing, but having faith helped me win.”
Working chemistry
While Genervie and Arthur were in the spotlight, elder brother Nigel was toiling away backstage, ensuring either sibling had all their technical needs in order.
“At times, Arthur’s drum and percussion equipment was many times his size, so I was doing all the heavy lifting with the help of friends, sometimes loading them in up to two cars,” said Nigel, who is also a grade eight piano certificate holder.
Nigel said for some shows, he would have to ensure the stage plot and setup for Arthur was right because he was hearing impaired in his right ear.
“When Arthur was a child, not many technicians would seriously take up his request to rearrange the stage, but after explaining his condition, they would often relent,” Nigel said.
For Genervie, Nigel said they communicated with certain gestures while she is performing on stage such as a wink of an eye as a sign to raise her volume.
Nigel, who has now ventured into other businesses, said the family had always enjoyed good chemistry and worked well together.
These days, he helps to manage personal and family ventures, including deliveries for Genervie’s homecooked assam laksa dish, as well as administering her fellow artiste husband Hazama Azmi’s music production and artiste management company, Hazama Works Sdn Bhd. – The Vibes, October 24, 2020.
