Our two founders, Benjamin and Edmund, met during their National Service Days in the Naval Diving Unit. Even during their training days, the guitar was a huge source of entertainment as well as a vital tool in bonding the group of divers.
As Benjamin and Edmund parted ways after serving the nation for 2 years, they both went back to University to continue their tertiary education. When they first met in 2009 during their first reservist, they took out their guitar once again and sang to their hearts content. They casually spoke about life and their future and joked about setting up a business together. What started off as a joke really got Benjamin into deep thoughts as he has always wanted to be a entrepreneur. Thus, he proposed to Edmund to start a tuition agency together. However, Edmund said that the market is saturated and it would be difficult to start a new agency to compete with the strong competitors. So he counter-proposed setting up a guitar agency since both of them have always loved the guitar. In July 2009, SGuitar Music Agency was born.
After running the agency for about a year, both Edmund and Benjamin decided to expand the business further and thus, SG Piano Music Agency was created in January 2010. In May of that same year, Edmund and Benjamin met up for their first AGM and they talked about the future of their businesses. Coming from a family that has always struggled financially, Benjamin talked about how he missed out on learning piano and guitar when he was younger as learning music always seemed too expensive for lower income families. He wanted adults like him who missed out on learning music, to have a chance to pick up an instrument. Knowing that working adults would have difficulty finding time to learn music, Benjamin and Edmund thought of a bold new concept- To bring music to companies. So in July 2010, TravelClef was set up as a parent company to SGuitar Music Agency and SG Piano Music Agency and was mainly in charge of managing corporate music lessons as well as teambuilding courses.
The name TravelClef was derived from the musical note, Trebleclef, and hence means “The Travelling Music School”, with a mission to Bring Music and Joy to Everyone.
In December 2011, both Benjamin and Edmund was invited to the Meet The Entrepreneurs group which is a group consisting of a group of successful entrepreneurs who have a heart for the less privileged. Since then, TravelClef has been a regular participant of charity concerts and the founders often teach at charity organizations such as Club Rainbow, teaching the chronically ill-children ukulele and guitar for free.
Both our founders have also been featured in the media several times for their entrepreneurial spirit as well as their active participation in charity.
In January 2014, the Emerging Enterprise nominees started a new venture SG Violin Music Agency, after the proven successes in private music teaching.
History & Biography
TravelClef, The Travelling Music School, was founded by 2 young and passionate musicians who had the same vision- To Bring Music and Joy To Everyone.