Kristian Chong is an Australian concert pianist.

Early life and education

His early studies were at the

Elder Conservatorium of Music The Elder Conservatorium of Music, also known as "The Con", is located in the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and is named in honour of its benefactor, Sir Thomas Elder (1818–1897). Dating in its earliest form from 1883 ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, where he was accepted at the age of nine on piano with

Stefan Ammer Stefan Ammer (born 13 July 1942) is a German-Australian pianist, lecturer, teacher and professor of music. A former professor at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Germany, and currently at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Australia. Biograph ...

and Noreen Stokes, and violin with Beryl Kimber. He went on to study at the

Melbourne Conservatorium of Music The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music is the music school at the University of Melbourne and part of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne City Centre on the S ...

under

Stephen McIntyre Stephen McIntyre (born c. 1947) is a Canadian mining exploration company director, a former minerals prospector and semi-retired mining consultant whose work has included statistical analysis. He is the founder and editor of Climate Audit, a b ...

, and then the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with Piers Lane and

Christopher Elton Christopher Elton is a British piano teacher, former Head of the Keyboard department of the Royal Academy of Music in London and a professor emeritus of the University of London. Biography Christopher Elton was born in Edinburgh and studied at ...

. His early competition successes included the

Symphony Australia Symphony Services International, formerly known as Symphony Australia, is a centralised organisation formed in 1997 for six Australian symphony orchestras: Adelaide, Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, Tasmania and Western Australia. The orchestras wer ...

Young Performers Award (keyboard) and the Australian National Piano Award.

Career

Chong has performed extensively throughout Australia and the UK, and in China, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, USA, and Zimbabwe. As concerto soloist, he has appeared with the

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and

Tasmanian Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th ...

symphony orchestras, and orchestras in the UK, New Zealand and China under conductors such as

Werner Andreas Albert Werner Andreas Albert (10 January 1935 – 10 November 2019) was a German-born Australian conductor. Personal life Albert was born in Weinheim. He began his studies in musicology and history, and later studied conducting with Herbert von Karaja ...

Andrey Boreyko Andrey Boreyko (, ; born 22 July 1957) is a Polish people, Polish-Russian conductor. Biography Boreyko has Polish ancestry on his father's side and Russian ancestry on his mother's side. Boreyko was born in Saint Petersburg. At the Rimsky-Korsa ...

, Nicholas Braithwaite,

Jessica Cottis Jessica Cottis (born 13 December 1979) is an Australian-British conductor. Since 2011 she has been artistic director and chief conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. Early life Cottis was born at RAAF Base East Sale in Victoria, Austr ...

Roy Goodman Roy Goodman (born 26 January 1951) is an English conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music. He became internationally famous as the 12-year-old boy treble soloist in the March 1963 recording of Alleg ...

Sebastian Lang-Lessing Sebastian Lang-Lessing (born 1966) is a German conductor. Early life and career Lang-Lessing was born in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. His father was a pediatrics, pediatrician, and his mother was a physical therapy, physical t ...

Nicholas Milton Nicholas Christopher Milton (born 1967 in Sydney) is an Australian conductor and violinist. Career Milton studied violin with Gillian McIntyre, Robert Pikler and Harry Curby, graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He accepted a sch ...

, Benjamin Northey, Tuomas Ollila, Fabian Russell,

Markus Stenz Markus Stenz (born 28 February 1965, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a Germans, German conducting, conductor. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with Volker Wangenhein and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seij ...

Arvo Volmer Arvo Volmer (born November 4, 1962, in Tallinn) is an Estonian conducting, conductor. Volmer was principal conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2001. From 2004 to 2013 he was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the ...

and . Concerto highlights have included Rachmaninoff 3rd with the Sydney Symphony, the Rachmaninoff ''

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini The ''Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'', Op. 43, (, ''Rapsodiya na temu Paganini'') is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff for piano and orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto, all in a single movement. Rachmaninoff wrote ...

'' in Beijing and Canberra, and

Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Recent concerto highlights include Rachmaninoff 3rd, Chopin 2nd, Beethoven's ''Emperor'', Ravel's Left Hand concerto in Melbourne and New Zealand, and Saint-Saêns 2nd with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Chong has performed often with musicians such as the Tinalley String Quartet and the

Australian String Quartet The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) is a chamber music group founded in 1985 and based at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. It delivers an artistic program of performances, workshops, commissions, digital content and education projects ...

, violinists Sophie Rowell, Natsuko Yoshimoto, cellist Li-Wei Qin, flautist Megan Sterling and baritone

Teddy Tahu Rhodes Teddy Tahu Rhodes (born 30 August 1966) is a New Zealand-born operatic baritone based in Australia. He has performed at opera houses in New Zealand, Australia, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, New York City and throughou ...

, with whom he has recorded for

ABC Classics ABC Music is Australia's largest independent record label. It operates under the ABC Commercial division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It covers a wide range of music genres, including classical, children’s and adult conte ...

. Other collaborations include violinists Ilya Konovalov, (concertmaster

Israel Philharmonic The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ''ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit ha-Yisra'elit'') is a major Israeli symphony orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Its principal concert ...

), Adam Chalabi,

Alexandre Da Costa Alexandre Da Costa is a Canadian concert violinist and conductor from Montreal, Quebec. He is the artistic director of the ''Orchestre philharmonique du Québec''. Education Da Costa has a bachelor's degree in performance (piano) from the Facu ...

, Dale Barltrop,

Jack Liebeck Jack Liebeck (born 4 August 1980) is a British–German violinist. In 2010, he won a Classical Brit in the young British classical performer category. He was soloist on the score for the 2011 film ''Jane Eyre'', directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga an ...

and Vadim Gluzman, violists Christopher Moore and Caroline Henbest, and clarinetists Philip Arkinstall and Michael Collins, among many others. Recent festival performances include the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the Huntington Estate Music Festival for

Musica Viva Australia Musica Viva, also known as Musica Viva Australia, is a national organisation in Australia dedicated to chamber music. History Music Viva was founded in Sydney in 1945 by Romanian-born Vienna-educated violinist Richard Goldner, who had fled Naz ...

, the

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

, Adelaide International Cello Festival, the Xing Hai Festival in Guangzhou, the

Port Fairy Spring Music Festival Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Southern ...

, where Chong performed the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes, the Mimir Chamber Music Festival and the Bangalow Festival. He also completed a cycle of the complete Beethoven piano and

violin sonatas A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed for ...

with Natsuko Yoshimoto and Sophie Rowell at the

Melbourne Recital Centre Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is a venue and organisation for live music in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The organisation programs and presents more than 500 concerts and events a year across diverse range of musical genres including class ...

. Chong has recorded the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes for piano for

ABC Classic FM ABC Classic, formerly ABC-FM (also ABC Fine Music), and then ABC Classic FM, is an Australian classical music radio station available in Australia and internationally. Its website features classical music news, features and listening guides. I ...

in May 2011, and has several pending recordings including the Brahms Op. 120 Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano with Philip Arkinstall and with flautist Megan Sterling, works by Miriam Hyde,

Anne Boyd Anne Elizabeth Boyd AM (born 10 April 1946) is an Australian composer and emeritus professor of music at the University of Sydney. Early life Boyd was born in Sydney to James Boyd and Annie Freda Deason Boyd (née Osborn). Her father died when ...

Carl Vine Carl Edward Vine, (born 8 October 1954) is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music. From 1975 he has worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a variety of theatre and dance companies, and ensembles. Vine's catalogue inclu ...

, Frank Martin,

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodie, songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among th ...

and

Philippe Gaubert Philippe Gaubert (5 July 1879 – 8 July 1941) was a French musician who was a distinguished performer on the flute. He was a respected conducting, conductor and a composer, primarily for the flute.Edward Blakeman. 'Gaubert, Philippe' in ''Grov ...

. He is based in

, and teaches piano and chamber music at the

Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne The Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (formerly known as the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music) is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. It is located near the Melbourn ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chong, Kristian Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian male classical pianists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Academic staff of the University of Melbourne 21st-century Australian classical pianists 21st-century Australian male musicians 21st-century Australian musicians