SOTA

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In early 2024, SOTA caught up with several of our alumni, some of whom are from the school’s pioneer batch of graduates. Now embarking on their own career ventures, our graduates look back on and relive some of their experiences in SOTA, reflecting on how the journey has helped shape them into who they are today, and their advice to students who are pursuing an arts education.

Meet Amni Musfirah — a singer, songwriter, and producer who founded her own music production studio, producing songs and music for commercials and short films.

Hi Amni! Tell us about yourself!

Hi! My name is Amni Musfirah, and I graduated from SOTA in 2012 specialising in Music. After SOTA, I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA to pursue my undergraduate degree in music, where I majored in Contemporary Writing and Production. I’ve always wanted to be in the music industry and my time in Berklee taught me how to navigate the commercial music world as a composer and producer.
Currently, I am a singer, songwriter and a producer! During the Covid-19 pandemic, I launched a music production house business called Blue Empire Entertainment. I decided to start my own business because I would like to build a strong community of musicians with exceptional skills and musicality. It’s a women-led team and we offer services such as Music Production, Arrangements and Recording for commercials, companies and artists. There are not many of us in our industry but we do our best for every project and each one will always have a piece of our soul in them.

Do you still keep in contact and collaborate with anyone from the SOTA community?

Yes of course! For my debut album CROWN, I worked with Nicholas Damien Goh (Visual Arts, 2015) who directed my short film for the album and also was the photographer for my album covers. I’m also working with Krish Natarajan (Theatre, 2013) for a musical charity show for NUHS Mind Science Centre where he is the stage director and I am the music director. For my shows at Esplanade, I’ve worked very closely with Jessica Lam (Dance, 2012) who is one of the programme curators at Esplanade.

Share with us one of your favourite memories of your time in SOTA.

During my first year at SOTA, my friend Charis Tan, was the one who really pushed me to perform. She’s an amazing pianist! After our first performance together during the Teachers’ Day Celebration back in 2008, we auditioned for ChildAid 2008 (an annual charity concert in aid of The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund and The Business Times Budding Artists Fund) and got in! I am thankful to have a friend like her who believed in me because at that time I felt kind of small in a pool of friends who were exceptionally talented. That performance with her really opened so many doors for me as an artist and I will forever be grateful for her. After SOTA, we also auditioned for Berklee and we both got in as well. Though she pursued a different major and we had different groups of friends, I am very happy that our friendship has led us to achieve great things for ourselves.

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If there’s something you could tell your younger self, what would it be?

Don’t put the pressure on yourself that you have to be an artist at the end of six years in SOTA. People usually think that if you’re a music student, you become a music teacher or a performer, but there’s more to just being a musician. You can be a songwriter, a producer, or even own a studio or record label. You can be anything, and you end up having an appreciation for the arts. Even at times when you don’t know if something is going to work out, the idea is to just jump into the water and swim.

Watch Amni’s story here.