Randy Wong, Ed.M, CFRE is a nationally respected program developer, educational researcher, and arts administrator, specializing in the fields of Music-In-Education and youth orchestras.
NEC's Music-in-Education Guided Internship Program, which Wong directs, has partnered with schools, community centers, arts organizations, museums, and researchers throughout New England to develop initiatives that provide equity and access for a wide range of students and in diverse contexts. Current and past partnerships that Wong has forged include those with MusicLaunch/Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Cantata Singers/Classroom Cantatas, Boston Arts Academy, From The Top, Boston Children's Museum, the Josiah Quincy schools, Atrium School, and Roland Hayes Middle School. A majority of these partnerships have been reported on, and acclaimed, at national meetings held by the MIENC.
Wong simultaneously serves as Executive Director of Hawaii Youth Symphony, one of the largest independent youth orchestra organizations in the country, a position he was appointed to in 2012. As a nonprofit leader, Wong has been recognized by Pacific Business News and the League of American Orchestras, the latter which named Wong to its selective Emerging Leaders Program. (Wong was the only member of the 2016-17 class representing a youth organization.) Wong recently completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business's Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders. He serves as a board member on the League's Youth Orchestra Division board and Hawaii Public Radio's Generation Listen board.
Wong's major accomplishments with the Hawaii Youth Symphony include five consecutive years of balanced budgets; doubled net proceeds through gala fundraising; diversified revenue streams, including ongoing city and state grant monies; residencies with Midori, Toby Oft, Conrad Tao; and, in conjunction with a successful 50th Anniversary Season, the launch of a new strategic plan. Additionally, Hawaii Youth Symphony performed on "From The Top" (Show #331) in December 2016.
Prior to 2012, Wong was Program Director for the Music-in-Education National Consortium (MIENC), and oversaw projects in more than a dozen cities, states, and school districts where the Consortium was partnered. With Larry Scripp and the Center for Music-in-Education, Wong contributed educational research to the San Francisco Symphony's Keeping Score and Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education's PAIR initiatives. Wong's educational writing has been published in The Journal for Music-in-Education and Teaching Artist Journal.
As a teaching artist, Wong has taught and developed general music and music literacy curriculum for El Sistema Hawaii's Ka Liko Lehua Kaaawa project, and held a similar role at the Atrium School in Watertown, MA.
Trained as a double bassist at NEC, Wong performs throughout the world in pop, exotica, and jazz/world markets, having toured, recorded, or performed with Brother Ah, George Clinton, Susan Werner, Kenny Loggins, Michael Dease, Tim Mayer, Zaccai Curtis, Abe Lagrimas Jr., Robert Drasnin, and The Waitiki 7. As a classical musician, Wong is a member of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.
Equally accomplished as a composer/arranger, band leader, and record producer, Wong’s music is regularly featured on National Public Radio’s "Morning Edition," "Weekend America," and "All Things Considered" programs, The Pentagon Channel, and the Department of Defense's Armed Forces Network.
Recent projects produced by Wong include two chart-topping albums by The WAITIKI 7, Adventures in Paradise and New Sounds of Exotica, and WAITIKI in Hi-Fi (a 12" 180g vinyl LP) for Waitiki International LLC. Wong's expert knowledge of the historical and sociocultural conditions that led to mid-century exotica music has led him to be a frequent guest commentator on radio programs and podcasts dedicated to lounge music, being cited in Waikiki Tiki, as well as numerous other publications, including the feature-length documentary, DVD of Tiki. Wong is co-producing a 7" record in 2017 with beloved Boston icon Brother Cleve, highlighting music of Sun Ra.
B.M., New England Conservatory. Ed.M., Harvard University. Graduate Studies, Carnegie Mellon University. CFRE. Education studies at Harvard with Howard Gardner, Steve Seidel, Jessica Hoffman Davis, and Larry Scripp. Double bass studies with Todd Seeber, Jeffrey Turner, and Cecil McBee.