Interested in learning how to create your own music?

We provide high quality training in the art of music composition, according to the student’s individual stylistic and aesthetic preferences.  It is our strong belief that the job of a composition teacher is not to teach students what to write, but to equip students with the relevant tools and skills, in order to find their own compositional voice.  In addition, the composition teacher should inspire students by exposing them to different stylistic influences and encouraging them to get out of their comfort zones to try new things.

About the Teacher

Programme Director Ms. Jon Lin Chua is a multifaceted composer who credits her versatility in traversing musical cultures and genres to her eclectic musical background.

Ms. Chua is currently the composer-in-residence of the Toronto Chinese Orchestra for the 2018-2019 concert season.  Recent composition awards include the First Prize (large ensemble category) as well as the Young Singaporean Composer award on the 3rd Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Chamber Music, “Composium 2018,” organized by the Ding Yi Music Company (Singapore).  As composer, she has also worked with groups such as the MusicaNova Orchestra based in Phoenix, Arizona, as the orchestra’s composition fellow for the 2015-2016 season. Other groups she has worked with include the Southeastern Ensemble for Today’s and Tomorrow’s Sounds (SETTS), the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the Guitar Ensemble of the National University of Singapore, the Zen Ensemble, and has had works performed in festivals such as the 18th Biennial Festival of New Music organized by the Florida State University College of Music (2017), the Women in Music Festival (2014), and the National University of Singapore Arts Festival (2012).   She is also one of the selected composers in the upcoming 35th Asian Composers League Conference and Festival to be held in Taiwan in October 2018.

Ms. Chua studied at the Eastman School of Music, where she graduated with highest distinction as a double major in composition and music theory, and also a recipient of numerous scholarships, including the prestigious Presser Scholar Award and the National Arts Council of Singapore Arts Scholarship.  She also received composition awards such as the Wayne Brewster Barlow Award, Louis Lane Award, and the Bernard Rogers Memorial Prize.  Ms. Chua is a member of the national honor music society Pi Kappa Lambda in the United States, the current treasurer of the Composers Society of Singapore (CSS), as well as a member of the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS).

Her teachers in composition include composers Oliver Schneller, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Robert Morris, David Liptak, and Robert Casteels, and she has participated in composition masterclasses with Moritz Eggert and Louis Karchin.  In Eastman, she also studied piano performance under the tutelage of classical/jazz pianist and pedagogue Tony Caramia, and has also received instruction from Vincent Lenti, piano professor at the Eastman School of Music. Apart from being a pianist, she is also an erhu player, and has obtained a performance diploma from the Central Conservatory of Music of China.  In addition, Ms. Chua has also taken the effort to venture into alternative styles of music, including traditional Nanyin music, various subgenres of traditional Chinese opera, and has collaborated with Flame of the Forest, a contemporary Northern Indian music trio.

Ms. Chua was also invited to present her paper A Collapse of Musical Categories? : A Closer Look at Ethnic Chinese Music within the Chinese Conservatory Tradition Today at the Composition in Asia International Symposium and Festival held in the University of Florida (2015).  Her recent research interests include analytical approaches to timbre-based works, as well as the music of Helmut Lachenmann.  Prior to pursuing her degree in music, Jon Lin obtained a B.A. (Hons) in philosophy from the National University of Singapore.