After leading the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in the final concert of the 2018 Klassik Open Air series in Nuremberg, Germany last month, and marking his debut at the event that represents Europe's largest open-air classical music concert drawing over 160,000 music lovers, Singaporean Kahchun Wong begins his first season as Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra.
Wong is set to also perform with the New York Philharmonic debut leading that orchestra's annual Lunar New Year concert in February 2019.
At the Klassik Open Air, Wong who was educated in Germany and the US chose a lively and varied program that focuses on love stories from around the world which reflects his own multi-cultural heritage. The program included Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, and He/Chen's Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto with soloist Bomsori Kim.
The program also featured an interactive performance of Wong's Sunny Island, which blends a recording of the Malay folksong "Dayung Sampan" sung by Singaporean children (ages 4 through 6) from his Project Infinitude initiative with a recording of rain falling on various parts of Singapore.
This unique performance of Sunny Island combines Kahchun Wong's roles as the incoming Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and co-founder of Project Infinitude, an inclusive educational initiative that empowers children of all backgrounds and abilities through music. Project Infinitude was co-founded by Kahchun Wong and Marina Mahler, President of the Mahler Foundation, in March 2016.
Come Saturday 15 September, Singaporeans will have a chance to share in Wong's exceptional achievements on the music stage.
Born in Singapore, Wong first burst on the classical music scene when he became the first Asian to win the prestigious Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Germany in 2016. He is the first Singaporean to be named chief conductor of a European orchestra.
He along with five key members of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, will be joined by students at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory to perform in a free concert entitled "Beethoven Im Garten: Celebrating German-Singaporean Connections And Friendship" to be held at the Singapore Botanic Gardens' Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage at 6pm.
'Beethoven im Garten' organized by the German Embassy in Singapore, brings together the two cultural institutions that have defined Wong's artistic journey in a celebration of German Singaporean friendship. Musicians from the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, where he has been appointed to the prestigious position of Chief Conductor, will play alongside students from his alma mater, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, performing Beethoven's 7th Symphony.
