About Me
Alyssa Tong, Director & Violinist
My story started from an injury and continued with a career pivot into helping other achieve their dreams—which is what I have always loved doing. Impacting young people is at the heart of my personal mission and it continues today, with 8 OSSIs, 2 IPSIs, and countless other students I’ve worked with!
My Story
I experienced a devastating injury the day before Thanksgiving 2018. Pain shot up my left wrist and it was so strong, I had to put my instrument down. Little did I know I wouldn’t be able to play for another 3 months.
I didn’t want to accept that. Every few weeks, I’d pick up my instrument, only to realize I still couldn’t play even my scales without pain. Talk about disheartening. I ended up doing a LOT of cooking, baking, and reading… which didn’t make me feel any more hopeful about a return to my instrument.
I could tell you that I eventually got back to playing and even successfully auditioned for graduate school and summer festivals. I could tell you I learned to figure out my own body, not be upset over my injury, and never take my wrists for granted.
And that would all be true. But that would miss the point and a bigger, better story.
Sometime around January, my mom suggested I put together an online conference for string players. I laughed it off and said, “Absolutely not. That’s way too much work.” A week or so later, after another failed attempt at playing without pain, I finally gave in.
I decided I would just look into it. Do a little research and see if I thought I could handle it. Well, you know the outcome.
I realized I couldn’t NOT do this. I began to feel like the music industry needed to talk about topics and be open about how to actually make a career out of music, fix mindsets, and more.
And so the Strings Virtual Summit was born. It took a lot of rejection, a lot of frustration, a steep learning curve, and a ton of time.
It ended up being a wild success with some incredible artists and people taking part; we had over 1200 attendees, 30 speakers, and grew from 0 on Instagram and Facebook to over 1400.
Now, the String Insiders community on Facebook is over 700, and our Instagram is at 5,100 and growing!
Flash forward to 6 months later. I was planning the next Summit, since the first one had clearly struck a chord with so many musicians. And then the pandemic hit.
So I pivoted. And the Online Solo Strings Intensive was born: a two-week program for students to connect with top-tier teachers and other talented colleagues.
It was a success with 28 faculty members and 104 students.
Since then, I’ve been working on more programs, a course, my personal coaching, and learning and growing through it all.
What have I learned?
Your trajectory may not be what you hope for. If it isn’t, look for the silver lining. You have control over what’s important: your mind and your actions. So do something about it.
If you’re in search of a coach or an advisor/mentor, reach out! I’d love to meet you and see how I can help in any way.
My journey isn’t finished and neither is yours.
Thanks for stopping by and make sure to connect via social media to keep up with my future projects!