Sarah Chong joins the San Francisco Symphony cello section, holding the Elizabeth C. Peters Cello Chair, in the 2025–26 season. A Bay Area native, she began her musical studies at age nine under Jihee Kim. She has appeared as a soloist with the Prometheus Symphony Orchestra as well as the FilAm Music Foundation and was a prizewinner at the MTNA Competition, United States Open Music Competition, and American Fine Arts Festival Competition. An avid chamber musician, Chong performed on the stages of the St. Paul String Quartet Competition and Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Other notable chamber appearances include the Meadowmount School of Music, Music@Menlo, and Musique Dans le Gers. Chong was the cellist in residence of Nova Linea Musica’s 2024–25 season, focusing on new music and commissions. She spent years under the guidance of the Dover Quartet and has shared the stage in performance with the Takács Quartet. Other chamber influences include Rainer Küchl, Kikue Ikeda, David Geber, and Julia Lichten.Chong received her bachelor’s degree in cello performance and a minor in psychology from Northwestern University, where she studied under Hans Jørgen Jensen and Wei Yu.
