About

Biography
(revised 4/2025)

Kielor How Tung is a graduating senior at Swarthmore College, where he will be receiving a dual degree with a BA in music and a BS in engineering in Spring 2025. He currently studies conducting with Andrew Hauze at Swarthmore, violin with Joel Link of the Dover Quartet at the Curtis Institute of Music, and voice with Lara Slotwiner-Nie at Swarthmore. He was an Assistant Conductor of the Swarthmore College Orchestra from Fall 2023–Spring 2025 and an Advanced Student Conductor of the Swarthmore College Lab Orchestra from Fall 2022–Spring 2025.

In his senior year at Swarthmore, Kielor was a featured conductor on several concerts: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Swarthmore College Wind Ensemble (Andrew Hauze, piano) on November 17, 2024; Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the Swarthmore College Lab Orchestra and the Jasper String Quartet on December 7, 2024; the world premiere of Omar Camps-Kamrin's The Green Path Ahead with the Swarthmore College Orchestra on December 8, 2024; and the world premiere of Yixin Cui's Twink Death with the Swarthmore College Lab Orchestra on April 28, 2025.

Kielor is also the assistant conductor of the Passacaglia Chamber Orchestra, based in Los Angeles, CA, where he conducted the first movement of Bach's Keyboard Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052 and the first movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 on March 16, 2025 for the Westside Music Foundation Robert Turner Piano Concerto Competition Winners Concert. 

In Summer 2023 and 2024, Kielor studied conducting with Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Andrew Kim at The Conducting Institute in Fort Worth, TX. In Summer 2022 and 2023, he was a conducting intern with the Los Angeles Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, under the tutelage of Dr. Gene Chung, where he will be returning in Summer 2025. Kielor made his debut at age 11 in Spring 2014 with the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra, conducting Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro.

In Fall 2025, Kielor will be starting a 2-year program at the Graduate Conducting Program (GCP) of the Bard College Conservatory of Music to pursue an MM degree with a concentration in Orchestral Conducting under the direction of Leon Botstein and James Bagwell.

Kielor was concertmaster of the Swarthmore College Orchestra from Fall 2022–Spring 2025 and was the bass section leader of the Swarthmore College Chorus and Garnet Singers from Fall 2024–Spring 2025.  An avid chamber musician, Kielor also participated in the Swarthmore College Fetter Chamber Music Program in each of his eight semesters, playing violin, viola, and cello. 

When home in Santa Monica, CA during breaks, Kielor plays violin professionally with local groups in the greater Los Angeles area, such as the Culver City Chamber Orchestra, Passacaglia Chamber Orchestra, Passacaglia Westside Chamber Music Collective, St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Santa Monica Chamber Music Ensembles, Southwestern Youth Music Festival Orchestra, and Westside Music Conservatory Chamber Music Ensembles. In June 2024, he was a member of a trio (violin, cello, piano) that gave the world premiere of James Matheson's Blue Blaze—the commissioned work for the Friends of Today's Music program—at the Music Teachers' Association of California (MTAC) State Convention.