Rebecca Tong

Rebecca Tong is a conductor appearing with the Fresno Philharmonic in November 2026, leading a program pairing a new work by Tanzil with MacDowell's Second Piano Concerto and Elgar's Enigma Variations. Based on the appearance data alone, listeners can expect her to shape a program that moves from contemporary orchestral color to Romantic piano writing to a beloved set of orchestral character sketches.

On this program, listeners can expect Tanzil's "Ascending Creatures" to open with newer orchestral textures before the evening turns to MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2, a Romantic showpiece built around a stormy first movement and a light, dance-like finale, giving the soloist room for both weight and sparkle. The closing work, Elgar's Enigma Variations, is a set of fourteen short musical portraits, each one a sketch of one of Elgar's friends, ranging from tender to comic to grand, culminating in the famous "Nimrod" variation's slow build and the triumphant finale. A conductor's job here is to give each variation its own character while keeping the whole set feeling like one continuous story, and to balance the concerto's soloist against the orchestra with clarity.