Jonathan Shin
Jonathan Shin (b. 1992) performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, as well as composes and improvises across multiple genres and styles. A prizewinner of Singaporean and international piano competitions, he was awarded top prizes across all age categories of the National Piano and Violin Competition. At 16, he made his concerto debut with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra with Franck’s Symphonic Variations; the following year, Jonathan became the youngest winner of the concerto competition at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Eminent artists with whom Jonathan has worked with include John Perry, Cyprien Katsaris, Albert Tiu, Vladimir Viardo, Luis de Moura Castro, Eliso Virsaladze, Mark Ray, and Nico Muhly.
Jonathan began composing professionally in 2015, starting with his song cycle for countertenor The Other Merlion and Friends, which was critically reviewed as “probably the most compelling and worthwhile new work from any Singaporean composer in recent years.” (The Straits Times)
During his graduate studies at the Longy School of Music, Jonathan won the concerto competition twice, as well as the orchestral composition competition; upon graduation he was conferred the Patricia Sherman Award and the Roman Totenburg Award. In October 2019, he was awarded the Emerging Artist Award by the St. Botolph Club, a Massachusetts-based foundation. In the same month, his 1819 Suite, commissioned for the Singapore Bicentennial, was reviewed to be “supremely confident and comfortable in its own skin.” (The Straits Times)
In November 2022, he was co-commissioned alongside Phoon Yu by the Esplanade to compose a large-scale choral symphony for their 20th anniversary celebration — the work was Illuminations, which was premiered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony choral groups. His solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works like The Other Merlion and Friends, Lunarabesque, The Night Bazaar, and Mad Dog Mancha have taken flight and lives of their own overseas. In 2024, two of his operas The Bright-Eyed Otter and Beacon (Phase 1) premiered locally; the latter is in development towards a fully-staged evening-length opera by 2027 with The Opera People.
Most recently, Jonathan’s piano concerto Child of the Shore premiered to critical acclaim, with Bachtrack headlining it as “a Singapore landmark” and The Straits Times concluding that “a repeat performance cannot come soon enough.”
Jonathan collaborates closely as pianist and composer with many local and international ensembles ranging from instrumental outfits, youth and adult orchestras, choral groups to dramatic companies, with the sole aim of uplifting his community with his experience and music. His recent work has taken on a more pedagogical dimension: Jonathan teaches ear-training and improvisation at YST. He also conducts improvisations workshops and coaches large-ensemble productions with tertiary and secondary institutions such as Kuo Chuan Presbyterian and Republic Polytechnic.
Jonathan holds a doctoral degree in classical composition under the tutelage of Kevin Puts, with a concentration on phenomenology and how perceptual time is experienced in opera. He is a founding member of Singapore-based multi-genre quintet, the Lorong Boys.
