As its title suggests, West Winds is a  band located in the  Western region of Singapore. The band was started in early 1993, the result of cooperation by the The People’s Association and Bukit Batok Community Club. The inaugural performance of the band was on 14 January 1993, when the guest of honor was Dr. Ong Chit Chung, MP from the Bukit Batok Constituency.  

The band’s mission is to cater to amateur musicians who would like to carry on pursuing their interest in band music after graduating from their educational institutions. The band’s objectives are twofold: (1) to promote cultural awareness by bring band music to wherever the group performs and (2) provide a place where music lovers gather and many good acquaintances are made. Most of its seventy-two performers are young adults.

The conductor of the West Winds is CPT Philip Tng, Senior Director of Music of the Singapore Armed Forces Bands. A 1993 graduate of the Royal Military School of Music, he succeeded Dr. Lee Tian Tee as conductor of West Winds in 1996. The band rehearses regularly on Saturday evenings with occasional Sunday rehearsals when there are impending performances. These are often booked a year in advance. While operation expenses are covered by the Bukit Batok Community Club, the organization also receives foundation moneys from the People’s Association and the Lee Foundation. 

The band plays a wide variety of repertoire, sometimes including chamber music and compositions by the band’s own members. Activities have included a Composer Series featuring works of Eric Whitacre, West Winds Chamber Concerts, West Wind Children’s Day Concerts, Opening Day Ceremonies, and Countdown Parties (including one for the Millenium).

The West Winds’ Concert Series began in 1995 as a single year-end concert, whose aim was to showcase the band’s development over the year and to serve as a culmination of the band’s activities for that year. The concert series, held before a capacity house at Victoria Concert Hall, has recently expanded to two concerts, one held during late summer and one during late winter. There have been twelve such concerts to date.

The West Winds also has a Community Series that started in 2001. Its aim is to serve and contribute to the community that has supported West Winds. The objective of this free series is to teach and to assist school bands in the vicinity of Bukit Batok. Two days of instrumental workshops, one session of combined rehearsal, and an outdoor performance is organized during every school break. Thus far, eight bands have benefited from this series.

In 1998, as part of the band’s Fifth Anniversary Celebration, West Winds had an overseas partnership with the Baden Wurtenburg Youth Wind Orchestra. Among other overseas collaborative efforts have been a concert with the Llandolf Boys Choir of Cardiff, Wales in 2001, a 1997 tour to Adelaide Australia, and a 2003 workshop with William V. Johnson at Cal Poly Tech in San Luis Obispo, CA,

Honors have included a gold commendation medal at the Singapore International Youth Music Festival. Dignitaries for whom the band has performed include the German Ambassador to Singapore, the Prime Minister of Singapore, the mayor of the City of Adelaide, and Dr. and Mrs. Lee Seng Ghee of the Lee Foundation.