Joseph Tong

Joseph Tong has established a reputation as one of the most versatile and imaginative pianists of his generation. Much in demand as a soloist, duo pianist and chamber musician, Joseph made his London Wigmore Hall debut in 1997 as winner of the Maisie Lewis Young Artists Award and now gives regular recitals throughout the UK and abroad. 

His CD of works by Robert Schumann for the Quartz label, recorded in 2018 at the Sendesaal in Bremen, was awarded Instrumental Choice of the month by BBC Music Magazine as well as drawing critical praise in the Sunday Times. In 2022 he returned to Wigmore Hall in London for a solo recital marking 200 years since Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy was written. 

Other recent projects include a new commission from the British composer David Matthews, Five Trees (inspired by the Sibelius Tree Pieces Op.75) which Joseph premiered at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford last summer. He also gave the Finnish premiere of the new work at the Sibelius Museum in Turku in August 2022, as part of a collaboration with The Åbo Akademi University Foundation which also involved the making of this new recording. 

Joseph’s ongoing Sibelius recording project has already seen two albums released on Quartz to widespread critical acclaim. He has performed in Finland regularly over 

recent years, including recitals at Ainola on the composer’s Steinway piano, Helsinki Music Centre (Camerata Hall), the Korpo Sibelius Festival and Hämeenlinna City Hall. 

Other recent highlights have included solo recitals in Germany and Spain, at
St John’s, Smith Square in London, the Presteigne Festival, St George’s Bristol, Newport Cathedral and Hatchlands, Surrey. 

He is also passionate about chamber music and has a long-standing duo with the Japanese pianist Waka Hasegawa, giving several Wigmore Hall recitals, appearing at the Cheltenham Music Festival and performing live on BBC Radio 3 and WFMT Radio Chicago. The duo commissioned new works from composers including Dai Fujikura, Nicola LeFanu, David Matthews, Robert Keeley, Edwin Roxburgh and the late John McCabe. Joseph has been teaming up with his brother Daniel to play piano duets for more than thirty years, ever since their London debut at the Purcell Room in 1990 performing Schubert’s F minor Fantasy. They have recently given concerts at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, the Barber Institute in Birmingham, Marden House in Wiltshire and at the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival and appeared on Radio 3’s In Tune. Joseph and Daniel frequently collaborate with the musicologist Richard Wigmore on chamber concerts and group study sessions. 

Over recent years, Joseph has formed a duo partnership with the violinist Fenella Humphreys, recently performing at the Three Choirs Festival and York University and making a recording of Sibelius violin and piano works. This was released on the Resonus Classics label in 2022 and was selected as ‘Chamber Choice’ in BBC Music Magazine and featured on Radio 3’s Record Review. 

Joseph Tong was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2008 and is a visiting piano teacher at Wells Cathedral School in Somerset and at Hampton School.