Chief Conductor Designate Kahchun Wong Returns To Nuremberg Symphony This Month

Kahchun Wong returns to the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, where he is the Chief Conductor Designate, to conduct two concerts featuring Mahler's Symphony No. 5 on March 17 and 18, 2018. Wong will become the new Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 2018/2019 season.

Kahchun Wong first came to international attention in 2016 when he won the Mahler Competition conducting the Bamberg Symphony. In October of that year, Wong made his debut with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra conducting an acclaimed performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. Just a few months later in January 2017, Wong was named the next Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, beginning in the 2018/2019 season.

On March 17 and 18, Wong once again leads the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in a challenging program that offers an exciting preview of his upcoming tenure with the orchestra. An advocate for the music of Southeast Asian and contemporary composers, Wong begins with the program with Phenomenon by the Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen followed by Schubert's Symphony No. 7 "Unfinished." The program ends with Mahler's Symphony No. 5, which is becoming a staple of Wong's expansive repertoire.

The concerts come on the heels of Wong and the orchestra's successful 10-day tour of China in December 2017. In the Summer 2018, Wong will conduct the orchestra in Klassik Open Air, Europe's largest outdoor classical music festival, in Nuremberg, before beginning his first season as the orchestra's Chief Conductor that fall.

A highlight of Wong's 2018/19 season was recently made public when the New York Philharmonic announced that Wong will lead the Philharmonic's annual Lunar New Year celebration concert in February 2019.

Kahchun Wong Returns to the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, March 17, 2018, 8:00pm

Sunday, March 18, 2018, 4:30pm

Meistersingerhalle, Nuremberg

Narong Prangcharoen Phenomenon

Franz Schubert Symphony No. 7 in B minor D 759 Unfinished

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor

For more information about the Nuremburg Symphony Orchestra, click here.

Visit Kahchun Wong's website, click here

About Kahchun Wong

Hailed by Musical America for the "depth and sincerity of his musicality" Singaporean conductor Kahchun Wong has quickly earned an international reputation as one of the most exciting conductors of his generation. Wong came to international attention as the 1st prize winner of the 5th Mahler Competition in 2016 conducting the Bamberg Symphony. He was immediately appointed a Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2016/2017 season by Gustavo Dudamel, a winner of the Mahler Competition himself. In October 2016, Wong made a remarkable last-minute debut with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and was appointed the orchestra's next Chief Conductor beginning in the 2018/2019 season.

In October 2017, Wong returned to the Bamberg Symphony to make his critically acclaimed subscription debut conducting Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of Walter Zimmermann's Äthermühle. Wong's 2017/2018 season boasts an impressive schedule of further debuts with leading European orchestras including the Czech Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orchestre Capitole du Toulouse, Staatskapelle Weimar, Staatsphilharmonie Rhineland-Pfalz, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxeumbourg, Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste, and Orquesta de València. In Summer 2018, Wong will lead Klassik Open Air, Europe's largest outdoor classical music festival, in Nuremberg.

Wong's career has also thrived closer to home as he makes debuts throughout this season with the Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, and Shenzhen Symphony, and returns to the China Philharmonic, Kunming Symphony, and his home orchestra, the Singapore Symphony. For his debut with the National Symphony of Taiwan in November 2017, Wong conducted Mahler's Symphony No. 1 and Des Knaben Wunderhorn with baritone Thomas Hampson. He also took the Nuremberg Symphony on an extensive tour of China in December 2017. On December 24, 2017 Wong led the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in its prestigious annual Christmas concert with Artist-in-Residence Louis Lortie.

A protégé of the late Kurt Masur, Wong had the privilege of sharing the podium with him on multiple occasions in his final years. He has also assisted Gustavo Dudamel and Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as Valery Gergiev and Yannick Nézet-Séguin with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In January 2018, he joined Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra on their North American tour.

Wong studied with Bernard Haitink at the Lucerne Easter Festival, Robert Spano at the Aspen Music Festival and Gustav Meier at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, where he was a recipient of the Bruno Walter Conducting Scholarship.

His passion for and belief in music education's power to inspire and uplift led Wong to co-found Project Infinitude: a grassroots initiative embracing children from diverse backgrounds through musical theatre. He feels strongly about giving back to the community that raised him. Therefore, the pilot program started in Singapore at the Enabling Village, a space where people with different abilities can feel accepted for whom they are. He and his co-founder Marina Mahler, granddaughter of the composer Gustav Mahler, aim to expand the project in a sustainable and thoughtful way.

Wong began his musical studies on the cornet at the age of 7. After serving as a military musician in the Singapore Armed Forces for two years, he studied composition at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore and conducting at the Hanns-Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin.

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