Jeffery Tong, 16, cello

Today we hear from cellist Jeffery Tong of Lisle. He’s joined by pianist Liang-yu Wang in music of Saint-Saëns, Beethoven, Bach, Perkinson, and Nadia Boulanger. Jeffery Tong is a cello student of Tanya Carey, on the artistic faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University. He was named a 2024 Classical Music Award Winner by the National YoungArts Foundation and was selected to perform for the Young Steinway concert series. He was invited to perform in Carnegie Hall as the first-place winner of the 2023 American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition. He has also won awards at the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, London Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition, Society of American Musicians, DuPage Symphony Orchestra Young Artists, Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra Dr. Robert Stanger Young Artists Competition, and the Rockford Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. He has been a part of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras for three years, serving as Principal Cello of the Philharmonic Orchestra and a selected member of the Symphony Orchestra and Classical Orchestral Repertory Ensemble (CORE). He has won awards in CYSO’s concerto competitions for both the Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras. Jeffery is a sophomore at Naperville North High School. Outside of music he enjoys cooking, skiing, collecting souvenirs, and playing card games. He plays a 1980 Gunther Reuter cello generously loaned from Bein & Fushi.