About Me

Dr. Tang Tee Tong, affectionately called Tee, is currently the Artistic Director and Head of Strings of The Music Circle Singapore. As a devoted violin teacher, she has more than 20 years of teaching experience in both the US and Singapore. Aside from teaching violin lessons at TMC, Tee oversees the Music Teachers' Academy as well as mentors the teaching team.

Tee is passionate about imparting her pedagogical knowledge to the younger generally and is also currently adjunct faculty at the School of Music, NAFA, where she mentors and teaches aspiring string teachers in both the diploma and degree program. Tee also works with youths from her alma mater, Hwa Chong, and is also a tutor with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, where she served as concertmaster in her younger days.

She continues to pursue her love for chamber music, working with well-esteemed colleagues Christoven Tan and Leslie Tan as well as her 92steel&guts partner-in-crime Wong Yun Qi.

Tee also performs freelance with orchestras in Singapore such as the Re:Sound Collective and Metropolitan Festival Orchestra.

Most recently, she attended the Violin Teacher’s Retreat at Indiana University and worked closely with prominent violin pedagogues Brenda Brenner, Mimi Zweig, Sherry Sinift and Rebecca Henry as well as the Paul Rolland String Pedagogy Conference.

Tee counts eminent violinists Dr. Jonathan Swartz, Prof Andres Cardenes, Dr. Margaret Schmidt and Dr. Lina Bahn as her mentors in the US. Throughout her musical journey in Singapore, she was under the tutelage of Foo Say Ming, Leslie Tan and Lim Soon Lee.

While she has been exposed to music from a young age, Tee was no child prodigy, and had in fact, wanted to give up violin for good on several occasions. Thankfully, her parents’ firm belief in music as a means to complement her academic studies — coupled with the passionate teachers and musicians she met along the way — inspired Tee to push on in her musical journey.

Tee was concertmaster of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO), which she was a member of since age 10. She also participated actively in the orchestra’s chamber music efforts performing in concerts in Singapore and Aberdeen, Scotland. While pursuing a degree in Engineering at the National University of Singapore, Tee was keenly involved in the University’s Orchestra, where she served as concertmaster. Along with avid chamber musician friends, Tee founded Artsylum Quartet in 2005. The vibrant quartet performed regularly at the Esplanade Concourse, and went on to collaborate with numerous Singaporean composers and artistes, serving up an expansive repertoire ranging from tango and jazz to classical and contemporary. In 2013, she founded Sophron, a musical group keen in working with at-risk-youths to elevate their quality of life through music-making. Sophron made their debut performance the Singapore International Festival of the Arts O.P.E.N. series and was also invited to share their music at Music and Makan.

Her latest project is 92steel&guts, a violin-piano duo with Germany-based pianist Wong Yun Qi. The vivacious and dynamic duo made their successful debut concert in Jan 2015 (Singapore) and has also performed in Italy (2015) as well as Arizona, USA (2017). As avid believers of spreading the word of music as well as the healing power of music, the duo also collaborates with Dover Park Hospice (Singapore) to bring music to their patients. The duo also constantly work with new collaborators for their multi-disciplinary performances.

Tee's strong conviction that music education can be used as a means to help youths build character as well as instill integrity and discipline has led her to work with at-risk-youths at the Singapore Boy's Home and Singapore Girls' Home. She hopes to create more opportunities for at-risk-youths to be empowered through the arts.