Conductor Wong Kah Chun, 31, goes the extra mile to prepare for concerts, including observing orchestras incognito.
Wong won the first prize at the prestigious Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Germany last year, said: “I like to do research on the orchestras I am working with. If I have time, I fly to the city and listen to their concerts first.” After his win, he gained international attention and is now on a tour of 24 concerts in 20 cities.
Last month, he flew to France, where he will conduct the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse on Nov 17 and 18. From next September, he will be chief conductor of Germany’s Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the first Asian in this role.
Wong, who won the Young Artist Award last month, is a self-professed “kiasu” Singaporean. He wakes up at 5am to prepare for a rehearsal that might begin at 10am, studies the orchestra’s work culture, and uses language app Babbel to better connect with musicians in their native language.
He was speaking to The Straits Times over the phone the morning after an “exhilarating” debut with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. It can be daunting to conduct in a cultural capital such as Berlin.
Conducting the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, which he did in August, is hard for another reason. “A lot of them are my teachers,” said Wong, who went to the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.
Last year, he co-founded Project Infinitude, a ground-up arts project for children, and had a successful pilot programme with the Enabling Village. He is now working with childcare agency Child at Street 11.”Cultural philanthropy is wonderful. Especially in a society that is quite capitalistic, it would be nice to set an example,” he said.
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Source: The Straits Times, 6 November 2017