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Tong Soon joined Emory in the autumn of 2001. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (PhD 1998; MA 1995) and University of Durham, UK (MBA, 2002; BA Hons., 1993). He holds an Advanced Certificate in Asian Studies (Pittsburgh, 1998) and also the licentiate diplomas in piano performance from the Royal Schools of Music (LRSM, 1993) and Trinity College of Music, London (LTCL, 1990). Prior to joining Emory, Tong Soon was a Lecturer in Music at the University of Durham (1998-2001). A member of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), Tong Soon has served on the SEM Council (2000-2003), as editor of the SEM Newsletter (2000-2006), and as Chair of the Local Arrangements Committee for the SEM 50th National Conference (2005). He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Ethnomusicology and is the President of the Society for Asian Music. Tong Soon has served as an external examiner for Australian National University, University of Western Australia, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2006, he was appointed to the Music Advisory Committee of the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators in the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. He is also a member of the Ethnomusicology Advisory Committee in the College Music Society and delivered the keynote lecture on music and sustainability for the 2009 Finger Lakes Project: Infusing Sustainability into the Curriculum at Ithaca College. Tong Soon's research focuses on Southeast and East Asian music, with particular interests in Singapore and the musical practices of diasporic Asian communities. He conducted field research on Chinese street opera in Singapore for his doctoral studies with the support of the International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship (1997), under the supervision of Bell Yung and René T.A. Lysloff. A research award from the British Academy (2000) enabled further study in this area and his book, Chinese Street Opera in Singapore, is published by the University of Illinois Press (2009). Tong Soon has also worked with the Islamic community in Singapore to examine the religious significance of the Islamic call to prayer. The research led to the publication of "Technology and the Production of Islamic Space: The Islamic Call to Prayer in Singapore" in Ethnomusicology (1999) (reprinted in Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, Routledge, 2006; with a revised and expanded version published in Music and Technoculture, Wesleyan University Press, 2003). In 2006, Tong Soon was awarded a research grant from the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange for his current book project on Chinese music and migration in the UK since the 18th century. The first publication of this research, "Grace Liu and Cantonese Opera in England: Becoming Chinese Overseas," is in Lives in Chinese Music, edited by Helen Rees (University of Illinois Press). Tong Soon is also conducting research on Peranakan musical cultures in Singapore, exploring the multiple identities of the Peranakan community through their musical theatre (wayang peranakan), narrative singing (dondang sayang), dance, and other forms of expressive cultures. He is currently working with renowned Singaporean playwright and female impersonator of the wayang peranakan tradition, G.T. Lye, on the creative processes and social history of his plays and musical compositions. At Emory, Tong Soon is the Director of Undergraduate Research in the music department. He teaches disciplinary studies in musicology and ethnomusicology, survey courses in world musical cultures, and topical courses in South, Southeast and East Asian music. A student of Endang Sukandar in Bandung, West Java, Tong Soon specializes in the West Javanese suling (bamboo flute); he has learned West Javanese gamelan (gamelan degung) performance with Euis Komariah and Andrew Weintraub, and Central Javanese gamelan with René T. A. Lysloff. As the Director of the World Music Program, he oversees the North Indian and South Indian classical music ensembles, Chinese classical music ensemble, and directs the Emory Samul Nori (Korean percussion) and Emory Javanese Gamelan Ensemble.
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