Sarah Chong

Cellist

Mather Evanston

23-year-old cellist and San Francisco Bay Area native Sarah Chong began her musical studies at age 9 under Jihee Kim. Sarah made her orchestral debut in 2018 with Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 2, and later performed with the Prometheus Symphony Orchestra as the 2019 Felix Khuner Concerto Competition winner. Other awards include the first prize winner of the 2019 MTNA CA state division, the grand prize winner of the United States Open Music Competition in 2019, and prize winner of the 2022 and 2023 Samuel and Elinor Thaviu String Competition. 

Dedicated to her passion for orchestral music, Sarah has immersed herself in prestigious ensembles and transformative performance experiences across the world. Sarah sat as principal cellist in the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra as well as the Chamber Orchestra and is a substitute cellist for the New World Symphony and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Over the summers, Sarah has led sections in orchestras at the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Music Academy of the West. She spent her most recent summer at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan playing under the baton of Manfred Honeck and substituting with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, Sarah won a trial period with the San Francisco Symphony, where she will perform with the symphony in February of 2025. Also an avid chamber musician, Sarah and the Forst String Quartet were semifinalists of the 2024 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and finalists of the 2023 and 2024 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. Over the years, Forst has performed in numerous masterclass series taught by the Dover Quartet. Coached by renowned chamber artists Kikue Ikeda and Julia Lichten, Sarah’s numerous chamber ensembles performed spectacular performances at the Meadowmount School of Music. In 2022, she made her European debut with her ensemble at Musique Dans le Gers in France, and in the following year she collaborated and shared the stage with the Takács Quartet in a performance of Tchaikovksy’s Souvenir de Florence at the Music Academy of the West.