Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (NUS)

The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music is Singapore's national conservatory of music, part of the National University of Singapore. Founded in 2003, it describes itself as having quickly built a reputation as one of Asia's most exciting international conservatories, with a curriculum driven by two aims: nurturing artistic identity as a compass for excellence, and engaging the wider ecosystem to give music greater resonance. Unlike the private studios elsewhere in this directory, YST is a tertiary institution training conservatory-level musicians, so it does not offer walk-in weekly lessons to the public. What it does open to everyone is a busy public programme at its NUS home: orchestral concerts by the YST Orchestral Institute, recitals by faculty and visiting artists, and masterclasses such as the Kris Foundation viola masterclass with Georgy Kovalev, which the public may attend and observe. Its season spans everything from Steve Reich celebrations to fortepiano recitals and new works by its own composition students and alumni. For aspiring professional musicians, YST represents the conservatory pathway within Singapore's own university system; for everyone else, its concert hall programme is one of the easiest ways to hear conservatory-level performance in Singapore.