Jonathan Ong is first violinist and founding member of Oberlin’s Quartet-in-Residence, the Verona Quartet. The Verona Quartet was awarded the 2020 Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association’s 2025 Educator Award, and has premiered pieces by composers Christopher Theofanidis, Julia Adolphe, Texu Kim, and Sebastian Currier. Ong also serves as co-director of the CREDO Music Summer Institute at Oberlin and as co-artistic director of the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia. He has maintained a performance career, appearing at Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Hong Kong City Hall, and the Kennedy Center.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about your musical upbringing and the formation of the Verona Quartet.
I was born in Singapore into a musical family, and I started the violin when I was seven. My three siblings and I played in a quartet.
When I was in the Singapore Youth Orchestra, I got really obsessed with Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet. I formed a quartet to play it, and we became the inaugural Singapore National Youth Orchestra String Quartet.
When I was 16, I graduated from high school and later attended Eastman School of Music. Afterward, I went back to Singapore to serve in the army. When I got out, I received my master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where, incidentally, I played with Dorothy Ro, who’s in the Verona Quartet.
The Verona Quartet was founded, initially for credit, at the University of Indiana. The Pacifica Quartet, of which Professor of Violin and Director of Strings Sibbi Bernhardsson, OC ’95, was a member at the time, heard us play and said, “We think you have a very promising future. You should do competitions.”
So, we went on to do the Coleman Competition, the Chesapeake Competition, and also won a Grammy. It was a lot of hard work — daily six-hour rehearsals, waking up at 7 o’clock, getting a coffee, starting rehearsal by 7:30. After winning a few things, we went to The Juilliard School and then New England Conservatory of Music for graduate quartet residencies. The rest is history.
What are your musical activities outside of Oberlin and the Verona Quartet?
As quartet musicians, you get to know each other very well. There’s a real value in that organism being so tight-knit, but it’s very easy to become insular because you only play with each other. Going out and interacting with other musicians is really important.
I’m involved with the Singapore Chamber Music Festival — and also with Credo Music, which was started by Professor of Viola Peter Slowik. The quartet members are also artistic directors of the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance.
It adds to the workload, but it’s refreshing to explore different avenues of music-making. It widens our webs. I think musicians are global creatures: We don’t want to be defined by one location.
What do you do with your limited free time?
Well, as a quartet, we love food. Whenever we’re on the road, we search for good food. When I’m home, I like to cook.
I wasn’t very successful during the winter because it was way too cold, but I like going to the gym. Staying healthy helps your playing.
I also have a great social circle in Cleveland. Some of my old high school classmates from Singapore are in Cleveland!
What’s a musical moment that made you think, “This is why I do this?”
Whenever I play a concert and a former student comes up to me. Those moments for me are very special. It’s almost like — this makes me feel old — I’m a parent who gets to see their child. Those are special moments for me. It reminds me of why I love teaching.
For a specific event: When I was in the army in Singapore, I performed in low-stakes environments — maybe a church service. Someone came up to me, handed me a post-it note and walked away. The post-it note said, “Thank you for playing in service. It really made a difference to my experience.” Seeing that you made a difference in someone’s day — I think that’s the power of music: to inspire and to heal. That was very memorable.
What sort of repertoire do you feel drawn to?
You’ll hear this from other members of the quartet: When we’re asked what our favorite piece or composer is, we always say the one we’re playing at the time. Of course, everyone has proclivities. Growing up, I was always enamored with Stravinsky. I was very drawn to his music and his imagination. And of course, how can you not love Beethoven?
How do you balance both performing and instructing?
I think a fulfilling musical life is one where the aspects of your musical work feed into each other. I learn so much from teaching; it helps me when I’m performing. What I learn from performing, I pass on to my students. In practice, though, it’s all being good at organizing your time.
Of both your personal and your quartet’s achievements, what are you the most proud of?
One of the greatest inspirations for me to become a string quartet musician when I was young was Peter Salaff, the second violinist of the Cleveland Quartet. I was so struck by his love for chamber music and the quartet’s fifth voice. I look up to him very much, so receiving the Cleveland Quartet Award in 2020 was very meaningful. I always dreamt of achieving it when I was in school.
Another one was when my quartet performed in Singapore. We were together for maybe 10 years before we actually got to perform in Singapore. Performing where I grew up was really meaningful to me.
