Dr. Xiangtang Hong is an Associate Professor of Music at Berea College, where she conducts the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers and teaches vocal lessons and conducting. Dr. Hong came to Berea from Moody Bible Institute (MBI) in Chicago, where she directed the Moody Chorale and Repertory Singers, prepared the Oratorio Chorus and conducted sold-out performances of Handel’s Messiah at MBI.

Dr. Hong holds degrees from East Carolina University (B. Mus in Performance, Sacred Music Summa Cum Laude, 2001), Westminster Choir College of Rider University, NJ (M. Mus in Choral Conducting, 2003), and the University of Illinois (D.M.A., Choral conducting & Literature, 2009). She has directed and guest conducted for several choir ensembles around the world from the Fairfield Methodist Secondary School Choir in Singapore to a Conducting workshop in Brazil and others in the U.S. Dr. Hong was the Moody Bible Institute Chorale conductor from 2011 to 2019.

Dr. Hong is a current member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO). She served as President of the ACDA Student Chapter for East Carolina University from 2000-2001 and has been a finalist in the ACDA National Convention Student Conducting Competition in 2001 and 2003.

Dr. Hong is a recipient of many rewards and honors. She was the recipient of the Jane Miller Smith Award, the Hillman Award, and the Mary Lou Hendricks Hultberg Conducting Scholarship at Westminster College in 2001. She received the UIUC’s Warren H. Schuetz Memorial Award for choral excellence, awarded to the most outstanding graduate choral conductor from 2005-2006. In 2011, she was the recipient of the MBI’s Patricia Finch Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching. Dr. Hong has lead Choir Tours from the years of 2007 to 2018 where they traveled to places such as the U.S., Canada, Hungary, Romania, Germany, and Poland.

Dr. Xiangtang Hong is described as a joyful and energetic person to be with as well as a tireless worker and well-respected colleague. Though Xiangtang delights in opportunities locally and abroad to share her love of music as a guest conductor, choral clinician, and adjudicator, her greatest joy is in mentoring her students.