Wong Kah Chun's first concert with the Halle will be at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in June. Photo by Tom Stephens.
In Tuesday’s (6/20) Straits Times (Singapore), Ong Sor Fern writes, “Singaporean conductor Wong Kah Chun has been appointed the principal conductor and artistic adviser of the Hallé, a 165-year-old symphony orchestra based in Manchester, United Kingdom. His official appointment from September 2024 will be for a five-year term, but the 36-year-old is already on the job. He will conduct the Hallé at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on Saturday and lead the orchestra on its tour of Spain in January…. Sir Mark Elder, who has been with the orchestra since 1999 and is credited with reviving the orchestra’s musical standards, will become Conductor Emeritus. David Butcher, the Hallé’s chief executive, said … ‘From the very first moment in rehearsal, it was clear there was a special alchemy between Kah Chun and the players’ … Wong has been appointed to various high-profile orchestras since winning the first prize at the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in 2016. In 2018, he became the first Asian chief conductor of Germany’s Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. His work with the orchestra earned him the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was also appointed chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2022.”
