With the release of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s 2026/27 season last month, audiences have been given a glimpse of the year ahead, from the varied repertoire to the exciting roster of guest artists and our upcoming seven-city China tour. Behind this curation is a collaborative effort led by our Head of Artistic Planning, Christopher Cheong working closely with Music Director Hannu Lintu, bringing together artistic vision and the practical work of building a concert season.
While Christopher (better known as Chris) is now immersed in the world of orchestral programming, his professional path has not been linear. Before moving into the arts, he spent a decade in legal practice. That experience continues to shape the way he approaches his work today, reflecting a path built over time, shaped by diverse experiences, rather than along a single, narrow, track.
The Lawyer’s Toolkit
From 2015 to 2025, Chris’s work centred on corporate law, alongside experience in employment and intellectual property. It was a field that demanded attention to detail, structured thinking, and the ability to navigate complex and ever-changing scenarios – skills that have proven transferable to the world of orchestra management.
I was drawn to the dynamism of the legal field – the way it constantly evolves and touches every aspect of life.
He valued the intellectual rigour and the challenge of finding practical solutions to complex problems in a high-pressure environment. While this training has proven valuable in his current field of artistic planning, he notes, “What I don’t miss are the hours!”
A Musical Constant
Throughout his years in law, music remained a constant – an essential outlet from the pressures of the office. Chris’s musical journey began much earlier: piano at three, followed by the violin at four. His eventual move to the viola came almost by chance in secondary school, when violinists were offered the opportunity to learn and loan the instrument. With some encouragement from his parents, he gave it a try, joined the viola section and never found his way back to the violin.
Alongside his love for the viola was a tenacious passion for the full body of musical repertoire. He recalls a childhood moment at 14, hearing a piece on the radio that he loved, only for the host to move on without naming the composer or title. Out of sheer frustration, he began memorising composers and works so as to not have to rely on the host, not realising how useful this knowledge would become later. His interest grew over the years, and he would visit the library@esplanade after school with some like-minded friends to read orchestral scores and listen to recordings.
Later, in secondary school and junior college, he and his peers were encouraged to mount their own concerts. They took on every aspect of production: raising funds, planning rehearsal schedules, hiring professional musicians, designing and printing publicity materials, and managing production logistics. Within 12 months, the school orchestra’s student committee organised and performed their first few symphonies – Beethoven’s and Mendelssohn’s Fifth, and Dvořák’s Ninth.
That experience showed us that we could create our own opportunities and shape our own musical paths.
From Initiative to Institution
This journey borne from initiative eventually led to the founding of the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM), where Chris served as co-founder and Artistic Committee Chairman. As he and his friends were about to graduate, they wanted not just to continue playing together, but to take ownership of the music they performed and the direction they pursued. What began in that spirit gradually grew into something far larger.
“When we first started out, we just wanted to create a platform to play some of the great symphonic works. We had no idea it would grow to the scale it has today, with collaborations with artists such as Martha Argerich and Lang Lang, and performances ranging from Mahler’s symphonies to Wagner’s Ring cycle. Seeing these ambitious projects come to life, all powered by a team of dedicated volunteers, was deeply fulfilling.”
These years were formative. Chris found himself working across diverse aspects of orchestra management, from engaging musicians and researching scores to handling production logistics, marketing, ticketing and sponsorships.
His approach to programming also began to take shape. “I’ve always been fascinated by how pieces fit together to form a coherent programme – whether through contrast, complementarity, or a specific artistic and developmental purpose,” he says. These were informed by “concert marathons” he embarked when on holiday, sometimes watching a concert a day while travelling across different countries.
At OMM, this evolved into a sophisticated understanding of how different pieces can reward musicians for their efforts in preparation and rehearsal, and how programmes can be designed across multiple concerts to prepare both musicians and the organisation for increasingly ambitious challenges.
Joining the Singapore Symphony Group
The transition to the SSO felt like a natural progression of his artistic work. “It felt like a very logical scaling up of what I had already been doing as a hobby,” he explains. “Just with far greater volume and intensity. The workplace culture is incredibly healthy and most days, it doesn’t feel like ‘work’.”
Today, Chris’s role sits at the intersection of artistic vision and practical execution. Day-to-day, he moves between rehearsals, collaboration with colleagues across departments, and responding to the many moving parts involved behind the scenes in the course of producing concerts and many discussions about future seasons. At the same time, substantial long-term planning work takes place – sometimes several years in advance – to ensure alignment and anticipate challenges so that every artistic decision can be supported by the necessary operational groundwork. As Chris puts it, “when everything goes smoothly, it usually means a great deal of invisible work has taken place.”
Shaping an SSO Season
Artistic planning brings together creative vision and careful structure, and the planning process for the coming 2026/27 season was an apt demonstration. Music Director Hannu Lintu and Chris began by working together to define the artistic goals for the season and how they might take shape in practice, before expanding into considerations such as venue availability, as well as schedules for tours, recordings and other major initiatives. Further layers of planning are involved too with large-scale works (such as the upcoming performance of Verdi’s Requiem) and coordination with guest artists.
Having taken over from Hans Sørensen in 2025, Chris steps into the role with both continuity and a deep familiarity with Singapore’s musical landscape. A key priority will be situating Singaporean repertoire within the broader programming of the season.
In shaping a season, Chris keeps three priorities in view: artistic ambition, audience reach, and the SSO’s identity.
“To me, these elements are deeply interconnected. A strong artistic vision naturally strengthens the orchestra’s identity and when communicated well, it also broadens audience engagement. The balance comes from ensuring each programme serves all three aims simultaneously.”
To me, these elements are deeply interconnected. A strong artistic vision naturally strengthens the orchestra’s identity and when communicated well, it also broadens audience engagement. The balance comes from ensuring each programme serves all three aims simultaneously.
A New Collaborative Chapter
The 2026/27 season marks a moment of transition, coming as Chris’s first full season and as Maestro Hannu Lintu begins his tenure as Quantedge Music Director. Chris describes this as a period of mutual discovery. "It’s a bit of a season of discovery for a new music director to get to know the orchestra, and for us to learn how to work well with Hannu."
The collaboration has already been energising. “Hannu is intellectually curious, open, and eager to explore new ideas. He reminds me of some of the top lawyers I’ve had the privilege to work with: quick, sharp, and decisive. Beyond musical matters, he is a strategic and critical thinker. Working with him has been a real joy, and I’ve learned a great deal from our discussions thus far.”
Some personal highlights for him include upcoming performances of Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Scenes from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, and John Adams’s Harmonielehre.
Looking Ahead
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from changing industries, it’s that mastering what musicians sometimes refer to as the ‘admin’ side of things can indeed make dreams possible. The ability to organise, follow through, and turn ideas into action is often what separates intention from reality,” Chris shares.
Chris also believes in staying open to experiences that may not seem immediately relevant is key to thriving in the 21st century. Reflecting on Tim Greiving’s biography of John Williams which he is currently reading, he notes how seemingly unrelated experiences up to the composer’s mid-30s became the foundation for the extraordinary speed, versatility, and consistency of his later work.
Even if a task you do, or knowledge you acquire is not directly relevant to your immediate course of study or work, it could help you in the future. It’s a reminder that nothing is truly wasted. Every skill, every random detour, every curiosity becomes part of your toolkit.
The path, as he puts it, is rarely linear while one is walking it, but can help shape a future that is still just out of sight.
For Chris, that path has led to the SSO and to shaping many seasons to come.