Jaco Wong can be seen on multiple podiums across the Bay Area, but his newest one builds on his career of working with the next generation of the region’s musicians.

Earlier this year, Wong—a '22 Conducting grad who studied with SFCM Music Director Edwin Outwater—was named Conductor of the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra (SRSYO), a position that builds on his work teaching conducting at SFCM’s Pre-College and serving as Orchestra Director for the prestigious Harker School in Saratoga. He also works as Assistant Conductor for the San Francisco Symphony, and just served as Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor of Opera Parallèle’s recent production of Harvey Milk Reimagined. Of course, he had to balance travel plans: The SRSYO performed in Berlin and Amsterdam this summer, while the Harker School Orchestra was invited to play at Chicago’s Symphony Hall. (A somewhat less stressful trip was a guest-conductor slot with the Diablo Symphony in Walnut Creek in March and conducting the San Jose Chamber Orchestra in October 2024.

Wong with the Harker School Orchestra in Chicago.

“I've always tried to balance my work between professional, youth, and community ensembles,” Wong says. “I've worked at four different high schools at this point, so I have a teaching credential at this point, so I've always had experience in that realm as well as the professional groups.” Wong was doing this before he even got to SFCM: He worked as Choral Director at the Pacific Palisades Charter High School and continues to serve as Music Director of the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church.

“I’m at a point in my career where there's a lot of growth,” Wong says. “But there are always people who I just enjoy working with. Santa Rosa reached out last year, so I worked for them as their interim conductor in the fall, and then after building the relationships with their community and students, I officially applied for their long-term position and was fortunate enough to be selected."

He continues, “This trip that just happened, where the students performed in four different cities and were able to spend time with members of the Berlin Philharmonic, just kind of confirmed that there's a mutual love between the parents, the community, the students and myself, which is really great.”

Wong is still juggling his own conducting career with education, but says that whatever else happens, he’ll be staying with the SRSYO and the Harker School Orchestra: “Those have been very, very important positions to me.”

Jaco Wong and the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra performing in Amsterdam.

It was his work at the Harker School that both brought Wong to the Bay Area and, in a roundabout way, to SFCM. “When I moved from LA, that was my first job that enabled me to move. I've had multiple roles there and again, there’s mutual love. But when I met Edwin, I took the risk of leaving a full-time job to study with him because of his amazing mentorship. I knew I would learn a lot from him and the program both musicially and professionally. So I have never stopped working for Harker. There was just a period where I wasn't full-time.” (With only a handful of students in the program at a time, studying conducting at SFCM guarantees individualized instruction, with rehearsals and performance in conjunction with the SFCM Orchestra and other Conservatory ensembles.)

Jaco Wong and the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra performing in Berlin.

Wong acknowledges he’s lucky to be able to juggle this many roles. “It was a risk. Of course, you have to make choices, but my choices ended up really working out. In Santa Rosa especially, the kids are really passionate about classical music; they're really dedicated, and it’s wonderful to watch them develop because of this passion. As music director I’m also choosing music that will really push and challenge them, and they seem to enjoy that even more.”

For the recent SRYSO tour, Wong programmed a piece by Mexican composer Juan Pablo Contreras. “It's very difficult to put together, but they ended up really loving it and were really dedicated to nailing it,” he recalls. “And we did Dvořák’s 9th symphony, the ‘New World,’ which is definitely not the easiest. The kids were getting a lot of challenges throughout the year that they overcame, and now there’s this vibe of just wanting to get better. It’s really positive, and sometimes I think that need is more urgent for them than some professional groups.”

Learn more about studying conducting at SFCM.