ID: Tian Hui Ng

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Tian Hui Ng is the director of orchestral activities and a lecturer in music at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley. When he’s not conducting the orchestra or teaching courses in conducting, musicianship and performance practice, he likes to be outdoors, hiking and traveling.

Full name: Tian Hui Ng

People know you as: Tian

Date and place of birth: 1979, Singapore

Address: South Hadley

Job: Conductor

Who lives under the same roof as you? No one

Education: Received a bachelor’s degree in conducting and composition in 2001 from the University of Birmingham, U.K., and a master’s degree in choral conducting in 2010 from the Yale School of Music in New Haven, Conn.

Pets: None

Hobbies: Hiking, traveling and eating

Book you’d recommend to a friend: “The Solitaire Mystery” by Jostein Gaarder

Favorite movie/TV show/musical group: Movie — “Pulp Fiction”; TV — stuff on NatGeo Adventure; group — the Berlin Philharmonic

Five items you can’t live without: People – they are quite often why we do what we do; fun – to keep it all interesting; time – to do all those fun things; food – to fuel; perspective – to appreciate it all

Last thing you purchased just for fun: A hiking holiday out in Red Rock Country (in Arizona)

What’s at the top of your bucket list? Travel to Alaska

Life-changing experience: There were no opportunities to follow my dream in Singapore. When I received a scholarship to the University of Birmingham, this changed my life. It was a dream come true

Strangest job you ever held: Army recruit

Current Facebook status: “Pretty extraordinary,” in response to a video of Natalia de Andrade singing

A little-known fact about you: I love reading sci-fi and fantasy books

Dumbest thing you ever did: I leapt off a slide at age 5 and completely shattered my right elbow

One trend you’d like to see return: Going to symphony concerts to catch up with your friends

What really sets you off? Being stuck, in general. That feeling of helplessness, being stuck in a job you don’t like; a broken-down car; being stuck in a jam ... it’s an annoying feeling

If you could spend the day with a celebrity from any time in history, who would it be? Simon Rattle, music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, because there’s so much that I admire and am inspired by, and would love to talk to him about

Best advice you ever got: If you give up now, the story ends

Favorite place to get a bite: Taipei and Tokyo in Northampton because they have a Taiwanese speciality section of the menu that is basically authentic Taiwanese street food. Yummy, affordable and so satisfying. In the world: The Hawker Centers in Singapore

Favorite team or athlete: None. The sports I do are very focused on inner strength — triathlons, etc.

What does your ideal weekend look like? Hypothetically, breakfast in an awesome dim sum restaurant with friends, out for a hike somewhere over 6,000 feet with a view, a hearty dinner with my family, a night out at the opera or symphony, light supper (desserts?), out clubbing

One thing you would change about yourself: I would fix my sleep pattern

What gives you the creeps? Not much. But high-pitched whines, for example the mosquito ring tones on cell phones = very annoying

People who knew you in high school thought you were: Doesn’t it always depend on who you speak to? My friends probably thought I was fun and artsy. Some others probably thought I was from another planet, lol

Whom do you most admire? Cheesy, but true — my mother. I find her life story a real inspiration. A real “Joy Luck Club”-style story.

Parting shot: “It may be that when we no longer know what to do [that] we have come to our real work” — Wendell Berry

— Keri-Ann Aubin

Editor’s Note: To suggest someone for ID, email Keri-Ann Aubin at kaubin@gazettenet.com.