Award-winning Singapore conductor Wong Kah Chun, 30, will take up the baton to lead German orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, in Heidelberg, Germany, tomorrow.

This was a last-minute substitution to replace Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda, who has gone on to take up engagements with an orchestra in Hamburg.

Wong describes the opportunity to conduct the orchestra, which has worked with the likes of renowned German composer Richard Strauss, as "highly prestigious and rare".

The orchestra on its website calls Wong "one of the fascinating young conductors who comes to us from Los Angeles". Wong is currently on leave from a Los Angeles-based conducting fellowship under Venezuelan maestro Gustavo Dudamel.

The evening's programme comprises Gustav Mahler's First Symphony, which Wong will be conducting for the first time, and Cello Concerto No. 1 by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Wong was recently appointed the chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany for the 2018-2019 concert season.

He won the prestigious Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition last year. After Heidelberg, his work engagements include concerts with the Tokyo Philharmonic in Japan and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

Nabilah Said