Bio

Photo: Olivia Davies, Piñata Percussion

Jet Kye Chong is an award-winning Perth-based composer, percussionist and researcher. His music has been performed throughout Australia, Asia, Canada and the USA, premiered by the Flinders Quartet (VIC), Perth Symphony Orchestra, the Irwin St Collective, and members of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Australian National Academy of Music among others. As a percussionist, Chong won the Malaysia Percussion Festival Performance Prize with his own work ‘Rev 3’, and is a two-time winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Vose Memorial Concerto Prize. He has produced 5-star award-winning Fringeworld shows in 2022 and 2023, toured nationally with the Momentum Ensemble, and internationally as Principal Percussion with the Australian Youth Orchestra, recorded works of Myburgh for Australian and UK labels, and recorded with Australian Baroque for ABC Classic.

Chong holds a Bachelor of Philosophy in Mathematics and Statistics, and Music Specialist Studies (Composition/Percussion), with First Class Honours. His research thesis ‘Predicting Marimba Stickings with Neural Networks’ won the 2020 Dr Vincent Harry Cooper Memorial Prize, the 2022 Statistical Society of Australia Louise Ryan Best Presentation Award, and was recently published in the Australasian Joint Conference in AI proceedings. Chong performs as a freelance percussionist, taiko drummer, bodhrán player with traditional Irish band The Hár, keys player, and conductor of the WA Medical Students Orchestra.