Our Founder

Stephen Tong is a man of many gifts. Fatherless at the age of 3, he was born with extraordinary sensitivity to all forms of music, painting, architecture, and sculpture. Since childhood, he quietly observed, meditated, and learnt these arts thoroughly. With endless interests and unceasing struggles, he challenges his limit to master his aspira- tions. His talent for music composition started at a young age of 16, Tong has shown his talent in composing music, and at only 17 years old, he began to conduct works of oratorios and sacred music.

Even in his younger years, Tong would always watch and listen to re- cordings of classical music, ranging from symphonies, operas, and oratorios. This love and passion led to the introduction of classical music for the people of Indonesia, In 1985, Tong led a 7-city concert rally for the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Bach and Handel, well attended by 27,000 people. He then founded Jakarta Or- atorio Society in 1986, which regularly performs concerts in Jakarta. Occasionally Tong would lead the choir in their tour to Singapore, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

In December 2008, Tong took Jakarta by storm when 9,000 people attended the 2 performances of Handel's complete Messiah choruses. Over 200 performers of Jakarta Oratorio Society and orchestra per- formed under his baton. This marked the largest audience in the his- tory of classical music performance in Indonesia.

Less than 1 year later, Indonesia was blessed with its first ever clas- sical concert hall of international standard - Aula Simfonia Jakarta. It is another exhibit of Tong’s architectural achievement, with Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra as the newly formed and appointed orches- tra-in-residence and Jakarta Oratorio Society as the choir-in-resi- dence, Tong inaugurated all these in October 2009 with a series of concerts to celebrate. Alongside with Jahja Ling, world-renowned In- donesian born conductor, Tong conducted the works of Bach, Beetho- ven, Handel, and Haydn. For its first decade, Aula Simfonia Jakarta has hosted over 200 performances of classical concerts.

Tong has frequently conduct symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (all 9 symphonies), Brahms, and Dvorak; concertos for piano, cello, violin; overtures, incidental music, and sacred oratorios such as Haydn Creation, Mendelssohn Lobgesang, Mendelssohn Elijah, and Handel Messiah. Tong is the Artistic Director of Aula Simfonia Jakarta, Jakarta Simfo- nia Orchestra, and Jakarta Oratorio Society.