Rebecca Tong - NOSPR

Rebecca Tong is Resident Conductor of Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra and Artistic Director and Music Director of Ensemble Kontemporer, Jakarta, her home city. She completed her two-year tenure as Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, and previously studied at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Rebecca was the First Prize Winner of the inaugural La Maestra 2020 competition, held in Paris, where she was also awarded the ARTE Prize and the French Concert Halls & Orchestras Prize.
Highlights of the 2021/2022 season have included debuts with Orchestre national de Lyon, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra (with pianist Khatia Buniatishvili), Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, Ulster Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, in addition, to return appearances with Orchestre de Paris and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Recent major highlights include debuts with Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and BBC Philharmonic. Rebecca has worked as an assistant to established conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas (London Symphony Orchestra), and François-Xavier-Roth (Gürzenich-Orchester Köln) and recently participated in masterclasses and mentorships with Pablo Heras-Casado (Paris Mozart Orchestra), Case Scaglione (Orchestre national d'Île-de-France) and Marin Alsop (Orchestre de chambre de Paris).
In 2019, Rebecca Tong was the recipient of the Taki Award for the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship 2019 (which grants the opportunity to work closely with Marin Alsop). She was a Conducting Fellow at the 2018 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (mentored by Cristian Măcelaru), and in 2017, Rebecca Tong was awarded the David Effron Conducting Fellowship for the Chautauqua Institution.
She is actively involved in the artistic programming of both Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra and Ensemble Kontemporer; she aims to educate and familiarise Indonesian audiences about both classical and contemporary orchestral works, whilst expanding her repertoire. In addition to serving these ensembles, Rebecca Tong founded the Jakarta Christian Youth Orchestra in 2011, and between 2009 and 2012 served as Music Faculty of the International Reformed Evangelical Seminary. An Indonesian of Chinese descent, she grew up in a musical family, and her musical experiences and involvement stem from a very young age. She is continually fascinated by connecting communities through music.