Principal of Capital College of the Arts, Management and Technology. Music Director and Conductor of Nanyang Philharmonic Chinese Orchestra & Nanyang Polytechnic Chinese Orchestra. Executive committee of NTUC-NICA, National Instructor and Coaches Association. Member of China Nationalities Orchestra Society. Advisor for Shanxi Province, Lin Fen City’s Musicians Association. Overseas Consultant for Xiamen Music School.
Graduated from China Conservatory of Music, Beijing with a Masters Degree in Orchestral Conducting under the tutelage of Maestro Xu Zhi Jun. Mike was also awarded with a full scholarship from Central China, “Beijing Foreign Student Scholarship” for his Masters program.
Mike Chiang is a talented homegrown musician and a pioneer musician of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO)1997-2009. He honed his conducting skills under the tutelage of Maestro Hu Bing Xu, the first Music Director of SCO and went on to acquire a Fellowship Diploma FLCM in Conducting under London College of Music from the University of West London(2016) and a Licentiate Diploma in Conducting and LLCM from Thames Valley University(2008). Mike attended the Florence Conductor Masterclass in Italy under Maestro Massimiliano Caldi in 2017 and other masterclasses world-widely by other great maestros Alexandrer Polishchuk, Viktor Akulovich, Shao En, Tang Muhai, Li Xincao and Hu Yongyan.
Mike was a member of The Huqin Quartet, which was conferred the distinguished Singapore Youth Award (Team) in 2004 for their pioneering efforts and musical excellence. The quartet represented Singapore in numerous international festivals over the decade.
He pursued his music studies in Beijing and Shanghai after being awarded the Zubir Said Scholarship by the National Arts Council in 1995. This was followed by a study grant from SCO in 1998 to China to further improve his skills and knowledge.
Mike was the 1st prize winner in the erhu senior section of the 8th National Music Competition held in 1991. In 1992, he was awarded the 1st prize in the National Chinese Instrumental Solo Open Category.
During his stint as the Music Director and Conductor of Cheng San Echoes of the Valley Chinese Orchestra from 1995 – 2011, Mike led the Orchestra into winning the 1st prize in the National Chinese Instrumental Ensemble Open Category in Year 2002, 2nd prize in Senior Ensemble Category in 2000 and 2nd prize in 1996. A concertmaster of the Singapore Armed Forces Music & Drama Company Chinese Orchestra (SAFCO), Mike has received annual invitation from SAFCO since 2004, to be the main speaker in their Conductor’s workshop, which was conducted as part of a leadership camp organised by the Ministry of Education.
As the Music Director & Conductor of Nanyang Polytechnic Chinese Orchestra (NYPCO), Mike has led the Orchestra to compete internationally at the Australian International Music Festival in 2007. NYPCO set a new record in the festival’s 18-year history for being the first performing group to secure perfect scores from the entire panel of international adjudicators. They were subsequently invited to perform at the festival’s Command Performance at the Sydney Opera House to a standing ovation. In 2011, the Orchestra clinched a ‘Gold’ medal at the Asia Pacific Chinese Music Exchange and Competition in Taiwan, despite facing tough competition from Chinese Orchestras from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The competition was adjudicated by a panel of nine eminent composers, Chinese classical musicians and renowned academics from around the region.
Mike is highly regarded for his musical expertise, and has mentored and tutored more than 10 professional and emerging musicians who hail from SCO, the Teng Ensemble, Central Conservatory of Music Beijing, China Conservatory of Music Beijing, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and NAFA. He was invited as a guest conductor for Taiwan Miaoli Province Chinese Orchestra in 2013 and for the youth orchestras from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao at the Hong Kong summer camp in 2015. In 2016, Mike was invited as a speaker representing Singapore, at the Boao New Year’s Concert that was held at the BFA International Convention Centre in Hainan, China. The conference centred on the theme of “How to Build and Nurture a Youth Chinese Orchestra in Asia Pacific region?”
Mike exposed student musicians to a wider genre of music beyond the classical. This resulted in a M-POP concert featuring Olivia Ong as the guest singer in 2010. In the same year, NYPCO was once again, invited by the Esplanade to produce a programme in conjunction with YOG. He then directed the Orchestra on a series of theme songs from famous movies, cartoons and video games, which included John William’s Superman. This was followed by 3 Korean POP concerts performed to a sold-out crowd as part of a collaborative concert series, termed K-ATTACK, with the Esplanade from 2011 – 2013. A video of the KPOP medley was uploaded on Youtube and attracted over 250,000 viewers within 2 weeks. In 2014, Mike and NYPCO presented billboard hits, which once again, were performed to a sold-out crowd at the Esplanade.
Mike’s active participation in the local arts scene has been widely commended. He is an established curator and Director for artistic events including 2017 River Nights Festival, 2019 Yu Hang Chinese Music Festival, 2020 Esplanade Huayi Festival “Strings of Time”, An Afternoon with Zaobao during Singapore’s lockdown due to COVID-19 and a Charity campaign digital presentation by Nanyang Philharmonic Chinese Orchestra. He was also awarded with Digital Presentation Grant in 2020 by National Arts council Singapore presented a theme “Amalgamation” with 3 music videos particular Red, Green and Blue which they come together in purity (White).
Mike is the founder and band leader of SZINC which was invited to showcase at the 2011 LIVE Singapore – a global performing arts trade fair and performed in many international conferences and Congress. In Summer 2017, he collaborated with renowned Hollywood composer Harry Gregson-Williams, composer of The Martian, Shriek, Armageddon, to arrange and record percussion tracks for Warner Bros.’ 2018 blockbuster “MEG”.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mike have actively curated many online presentations just to name a few, “An Afternoon Tea with Zaobao” by Lianhe Zaobao during the Circuit Breaker period, 《雪落下的声音》a tribute digital presentation to the frontliners and the invisible heroes fighting against the virus; at the same time a fund-raising project to help the poor, many webinars and online sharing sessions with the Self-Employed persons and a cross-culture fusion band digital presentation “Amalgamation” supported by NAC.
Mike has been a tireless practitioner and advocate of traditional Chinese music in the last 30 years, his gathering of numerous musicians to work together in meaningful projects in these years, especially in an extremely dire and difficult time for many musicians shows how he is highly respected by students and colleagues in the music scene.
