Wong Kah Chun, also known as Kahchun Wong, is a Singaporean conductor. Wong became the first Asian to win the prestigious international Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition for young conductors held in Bamberg, Germany on 12 May 2016. One of Singapore's most prolific conductors, he will lead as the chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany for four years from September 2018.
Personal life
Born in 1986 to father Victor Wong, a Singapore Armed Forces warrant officer and mother Yeo Huay Lan, a childcare teacher, Wong has two younger brothers working in engineering and tourism. His family lives in a five-room HDB flat in Jurong West Street 42. At age seven in Primary 1 at the Jurong Primary School, he was asked by his maths teacher, who was also in charge of the brass band, to join the school brass band where he played the cornet. At River Valley High School, he joined a concert band playing the trumpet. At Raffles Junior College, he was with the symphonic band and took music as an GCE A-level subject. Coming from a modest Mandarin-speaking background where more Mandarin than English was spoken, Western classical music was not a part of his family life. He first came into contact with a Western symphony orchestra with strings after he stood in for a Junior College friend who was unable to go for rehearsals at the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. Later, he had free one-to-one lessons with musicians from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra where he realised he could have a career in a professional orchestra. He was with the SAF military band during his national service when he suffered a nerve injury to his lips from over-playing the trumpet. As he was unable to play for a few months, he started composing. To play his music composition, he formed his own team of musicians from his NS mates, conducted himself, and got into conducting. He also started considering becoming a professional conductor. After Raffles Junior College, he could be offered a place do physics in Cambridge with his A-level results. It was at this point when he was offered a full scholarship from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore that he decided to study music composition as he had "always wanted to be a professional musician." After graduation in 2011, he worked as a conducting assistant with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra where under the mentorship of music director Tsung Yeh, he got a good grasp of both Western and Chinese music. In 2011, he commenced his study in opera and orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin, Germany, after receiving the distinguished Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship. He got his master's in 2014.
Career
Debuted in March 2015 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Wong has since led orchestras in more than 20 cities in four continents, including the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, he became the first Asian to win the prestigious international Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition for young conductors held in Bamberg, Germany. In June 2016, he debuted in China, conducting for China Philharmonic Orchestra, Beiijing, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. He was nominated and a finalist for the 2017 Singapore Youth Award – Singapore's highest honour for young people who exemplify the values of resilience, courage, leadership, and willingness to serve, given out by the National Youth Council. In August 2018, Wong was one of 10 Singaporeans who got special mention in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally speech, where he highlighted Singaporeans who followed their passion and broke new ground. From September 2018, he will lead as the chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany for four years. He will conduct the New York Philharmonic's annual Lunar New Year concert in February 2019. Since the 2016 Gustav Mahler win, many doors has opened for him where he is booked until 2020. In December 2019, the Federal President of Germany conferred the Order of Merit for his dedicated service and outstanding achievements in Singaporean-German cultural relations and the advancement of German music culture abroad. He is the first artist from Singapore and youngest recipient from Singapore.
Other work
In 2010, he and a few young musicians formed the Asian Contemporary Ensemble to champion Singaporean and Asian composers. In 2016, he co-founded Project Infinitude to bring music to children with Ms Marina Mahler, the granddaughter of Gustav Mahler, as part of a global music education initiative with the Mahler Foundation she founded.
