Experience a journey through five centuries of global music with award-winning Perth percussionist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Jet Kye Chong, as he brings it to life from the drummer’s perspective.

About the artist:

Jet Kye Chong is an award-winning Perth-based percussionist, composer and researcher. As a percussionist, Chong won the Malaysia Percussion Festival Performance Prize with his own work 'Rev 3', and is a two-time winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Vose Memorial Concerto Prize. He has produced 5-star award-winning Fringeworld shows in 2022 and 2023 with Taiko On, toured internationally with his band “The Hár” in the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and appeared as a guest with Irish Baroque. He toured nationally with the Momentum Ensemble, and recorded for Australian and UK labels, and with various ensembles for ABC Classic.

Chong holds a Bachelor of Philosophy in Mathematics and Statistics, and Music Specialist Studies (Composition/Percussion), with First Class Honours. His research thesis 'Predicting Marimba Stickings with Neural Networks' won the 2020 Dr Vincent Harry Cooper Memorial Prize, the 2022 Statistical Society of Australia Louise Ryan Best Presentation Award, and was recently published in the Australasian Joint Conference in AI proceedings. Chong performs as a freelance percussionist, taiko drummer, bodhrán and whistle player with The Hár, keys player, guest artist (drums/pipa) with the Chung Wah Chinese Orchestra, and conductor of the WA Medical Students Orchestra.

Photo credit: Olivia Davies for Pinata Percussion

Contact the host of Music @ the Library: A Percussionists Guide to 500 Years of Music