A conductor in frequent demand for symphonic, choral, operatic and balletic productions throughout the United States, Canada and Hong Kong, Teresa Cheung currently serves as Resident Conductor of the Endless Mountain Music Festival in New York and Pennsylvania, and has recently completed a successful 13-season tenure as Music Director and Conductor of Pennsylvania’s Altoona Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared on the podiums of prestigious organisations including the New York City Ballet, Regina Opera and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, as well as the Amarillo, American, Delaware, Mobile, Phoenix, Portland, Stamford, Venice and West Michigan symphony orchestras. Her dedication to music education is shown in her work with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for their “Meet the Artist” programme, as well as with various educational establishments.
Cheung is widely known for her creative concert programming, collaborative projects and community outreach programmes, and for being a passionate advocate for music education for all ages. Since the beginning of her tenure in Altoona, she has created numerous outreach programmes which have engaged children and high school choristers, ballet companies, and civic organisations. Under her leadership, the orchestra has performed with instrumental and choral ensembles from Penn State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Juniata College, and collaborated with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council in the filming of Dvořák’s New World, a programme for Humanities on the Road which was broadcast throughout the state of Pennsylvania in 2011. Another groundbreaking interdisciplinary project was the North American première of F W Murnau’s Nosferatu in 2017 on Halloween, in which the original symphonic score of Hans Erdmann was reunited with the silent film in a reconstruction by Berndt Heller.
A native of Hong Kong, Cheung received her Master’s Degree in Conducting at the Eastman School of Music. She was a recipient of the JoAnn Falletta Conducting Award for the most promising female conductors, and began her career as Resident Conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, where she was also conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Evansville Philharmonic Chorus. Among her many artistic initiatives, she led the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra on its first international concert tour to Japan in 2002. Subsequently, she served as Resident Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Conductor for the Bard Music Festival and SummerScape, where she served as rehearsal and off-stage conductor for operas such as the 2010 US première of Franz Schreker’s Der Ferne Klang, the first US fully-staged production of Schumann’s Genoveva in 2006, and the 2004 production of Marc Blitzstein’s Regina.
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