Wong Yong En is a final year student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YST), majoring in ‘Music & Society’ and ‘Voice’. Her current research interests lie in contemporary Southeast Asian music, especially in identity and culture. As a performer, Yong En loves inter/multi-disciplinary art, and prefers to move and act while she sings.

Her arts journey began early with ballet classes from age 5, which ended up being a lifelong hobby and supplement to her primary musical studies. She began formal training in Western art music from age 13 at School of the Arts, Singapore (SOTA), a specialised pre-tertiary arts school. During this time, she also attended summer schools in drama and dancing, in addition to her main vocal studies.

With the majority of her early education in Western classical forms, she has recently begun looking closer to home. This expansion into Asian art forms converged with her entry into Odissi dance school Chowk in 2018, and her later decision to transfer from a production degree into the ‘Music & Society’ programme at YST in 2020. This programme allows students to study at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences— Yong En has chosen to take Southeast Asian studies and Sociology. A broad palette of frameworks is essential to her artistic philosophy, and she hopes to acquire the skills to move comfortably between various disciplines.