Singapore National Youth Orchestra

Music Director

2nd Prize winner of the 2008 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition, Singaporean conductor Joshua Kangming Tan’s rise to prominence on the international scene has been marked by successful debuts in Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Mariinsky Hall and Bunkamura.

A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music (High Distinction), he is an awardee of numerous scholarships and awards, such as the Young Artist Award, Singapore (2011), Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award, NAC-Shell Scholarship, and the SSO/MOE Scholarship.

Joshua has conducted orchestras all around the world. These orchestras include the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Beethoven Bonn Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra,, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Urals Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Okayama Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Julliard Orchestra amongst others. He has studied with various eminent conductors—James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman and Kurt Masur—and worked with many others, such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Ingo Metzmacher and George Manahan.

Known as a versatile conductor, Joshua is at home with symphonic, operatic and ballet works. His substantial repertoire for opera includes La Traviata, Rigoletto, Der Fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, Turandot, among others. He has also served as cover conductor for Christoph Eschenbach and Lorin Maazel. He is also equally adept with music for ballet, film and multimedia. For the latter, his extensive work include Disney’s Fantasia and Pixar, all of BBC’s Blue Planet Series, West Side Story, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, James Bond and more. The Singapore premiere of Bernstein’s Mass, conducted by Joshua, was voted the best classical concert of the year 2018 by The Straits Times. For an unprecedented second year, his performance of the opera Don Pasquale was also voted the best classical concert of the year 2019 by The Straits Times.

Joshua is presently Music Director of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and Director of the Asia Virtuosi. He has served successful stints as Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Resident Conductor of the National Center for the Performing Arts (China) Orchestra, and as Principal Conductor of the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of this season include debuts with the Melbourne, New Zealand and Manila Symphony Orchestras, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bretagne, a new opera premiere in Hong Kong, return engagements to Hong Kong Philharmonic, Evergreen Symphony, the operas Das Rheingold, Die Fledermaus, Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana, and with the Singapore Ballet, The Nutcracker and Cinderella.

Associate Conductor

Seow Yibin is a Singaporean oboist and conductor. Since January 2022, he has been appointed as the Associate Conductor of Singapore National Youth Orchestra. He is also Associate Conductor of the Orchestra of the Music Makers and conducts the concert bands of National Junior College (Junior High), Tampines Junior College, Chong Boon Secondary School and Raffles Girls’ School (Secondary). Whilst based in Europe, he was the Conductor of the Junior Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), UK, Principal Guest Conductor of North Cheshire Wind Orchestra, UK and Conductor of the Musikgesellschaft Harmonie Büsserach, Switzerland.

Yibin has conducted at the Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival, at BBC Radio 3 live broadcast and guest conducted bands, including the Blasorchester Südwind, Germany, Zürcher Jugendblasorchester u25, Switzerland and the Sociedade Filarmonica Palmelense “Loureiros”, Portugal. He also worked extensively with British Orchestras such as Chester Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockport Symphony Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata.

In Singapore, he has conducted prominent musical groups such as the The Philharmonic Winds, Orchestra Collective and the Windstars Ensemble. As a keen educator, he also presented an eight-week radio series, The Concert Band Programme, which was broadcast on Symphony 924, led workshops at the Singapore Woodwind Festival and given conducting masterclasses at School of the Arts and National Junior College. He currently authors articles for The Band Post.

Yibin began oboe studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore before furthering them with Emanuel Abbühl at Musik-Akademie Basel, Switzerland, where he also pursued Wind Band Conducting studies with Felix Hauswirth. He subsequently joined the RNCM, studying Orchestral Conducting under Clark Rundell and Mark Heron. He has also participated in conducting masterclasses with Juanjo Mena, Jac van Steen, Tim Reynish, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Manuel Nawri.