Chee-Wei Tay won the Wings of Excellence award at the 18th Composers and Authors Society of Singapore awards for achieving outstanding music performance internationally.
The Singapore-born film score composer said the awards were the equivalent to the ARIAS.
Mr Tay said he was surprised and honoured by the award, saying it was the first time a non-pop composer had received the Wings of Excellence award.
Mr Tay moved to Australia two years ago to help further his career. He had been composing professionally for about 15 years with a dream of scoring the music for a Hollywood movie.
“When I was young and first watched movies, I was really inspired by the songs,” Mr Tay said. “I find that in some cases words can only do so much. I was trying to find a different way of expression without words.”
“The irony is that my parents opposed my music interest because I wasn’t studying enough. My mother sold my piano.”