Student Spotlight: Adrian Wong

“To sit in chamber and orchestra rehearsals where they’re playing my music and trying to sort of coach them or tease this idea out of them that matches with mine, I think that’s one of the things I enjoy the most about writing new music and working with musicians who are playing new music.”

Award-winning composer and Curtis masters student Adrian Wong began playing piano at age four, choral singing at fourteen, and composing at sixteen. The Hong Kong native entered Curtis in 2021 and studies with Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Steven Mackey, and is the Milton L. Rock Composition Fellow. Winner of the 2021 American Prize in Composition in the shorter choral works category (student division), he won first prize in the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild’s New Generation 2019 composition competition, and has been published by G. Schirmer | Hal Leonard under the Eugene Rogers Choral Series.

Mr. Wong studied privately with Dr. Jennifer Higdon, who served on the faculty at Curtis for many years. She suggested he apply to the school, and was the main reason he pursued his compositional studies here. A proponent of contemporary music and works about current issues, he likes to dispel the misconception that all new classical music sounds like Schoenberg and Stravinsky, noting that the field is broad, and there are modern composers who are incorporating EDM, pop, rock, and other genres in their compositions. Once a member of a rock band, he grew up playing soccer and continues to play pickup at Penn Park in Philadelphia twice a week between his studies at Curtis.

Photos of Mr. Wong courtesy of the artist’s official website.