Betty Anne Wong

Obituary

Betty SiuJunn Wong passed away peacefully in the mid-afternoon on December 13, 2025.  Born in San Francisco, Chinatown on September 6, 1938, Betty is survived by her Sister, and identical twin, Shirley Wong-Frentzel. 

Betty and Shirley, or Bood and Sood, as they are lovingly called by friends and family, kept close during their whole lives and musical careers.

Betty was a pianist, composer, teacher, musicologist and authority on Chinese music.
She played 10 instruments, composed and conducted movie and theater scores, pioneered in the development of electronic music, produced multiple CDs, and co-founded, The Flowing Stream Ensemble.  Betty was a gal with abundant life and sparkle, who made friends everywhere she went.

Her natural musical curiosity began when she was a small child. She noticed her mother’s church program and wondered about the musical notation.  Her father, Wong Sare King, having established himself as the Mayor of Chinatown, founder of Young China Daily newspaper, and an official with the Six Companies, supported his twin daughters by sending them to piano lessons with Eva Chan, in Chinatown, when they were seven years old.  

By 12 years old, having outgrown their first piano teacher, they were introduced to Lev Shorr, who was enamored with the little pigtailed twins. They were quickly accepted to study under the tutelage of this famous Russian teacher, Lev Shorr, in San Francisco, but outside of their safe Chinatown, together, for the first time.  Earlier in his career, Lev Shorr was the Symphony pianist and a classmate of Sergei Prokofiev, at the Petrograd Conservatory, in Russia.

Betty cherished the memories from every chapter of her life.  After over a year long stay at a Tuberculosis hospital for children, Betty was able to return to the comfort of her home and neighborhood, but had to relearn the Cantonese language of her mother. 

Mills College, in Oakland, California, was a welcome all women’s experience for Betty and Shirley.  Betty studied music with famous teachers like, Darius Milhaud (one of the most influential French composers of the 19th century), and graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor of Arts.  At Mills, Betty and Shirley were a popular piano duo in local musical events and created life long friendships.  Betty deeply loved Mills College; she participated in their events throughout the decades to the very end.

Later, the twins continued on to study at UC San Diego.  Betty received a Master of Music degree in Composition in 1971.  The influence of teachers like Pauline Oliveros, helped Betty to branch out to new areas of musical creation.

During a Summer break from UC San Diego, their brother Zeppelin, suggested She and Shirley take an eight week workshop on Chinese Music from the Chinese Cultural Center taught by David Liang.  Betty started with the guzheng (like a koto) and Shirley on the sheng.  When the course had completed, they were inspired to form the Flowing Stream Ensemble, that became one of the first groups to play Chinese music outside of Chinatown. 

They practiced at their father’s store in 1971, together with Noel Jewkes, Bill Douglass, and all. They met Leo Lew shortly thereafter, who became their musical director. 
The Ensembles first concert was in 1972.

In 1973, they both started working at the Community Music Center in the Mission District of San Francisco.  They mentored hundreds of students during a 53 year career at the CMC. 

In February of 1974, together with her older sister, Sarah, Betty visited New Delhi, India where she was initiated and became a disciple of Sant Kirpal Singh.  She was a devout follower, and true to her Master’s practice and community throughout her life until the very end.  Betty would often say that her Mother and her Master were protecting her.  

After her visit to India, having being immersed in Hindustani music, she had the opportunity to participate in world music classes in the Summer of 1974. This is when the Center for World Music took over the Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley. Betty found the Indian music classes there, with the kanjira instrument, that taught her drumming rhythm for the first time.

In 1977, the Phoenix Spring Ensemble (named after her mother) was created to practice the art of collaboration between musical styles and cultures.  Her highlight was performing jazz at the Asian-American jazz festival and meeting Jon Jang.

Betty and Juliet McComas (1949-2020) became piano partners in the 1980’s, with a strong friendship that lasted 40 years.  To this day, the Juliet McComas Keyboard Marathon, which started in 2004, is held at the CMC every Spring to celebrate the music of Bach.

In 1988, Betty was awarded the Hollywood Dramalogue Critics Award for Outstanding Achievement for Original Music Theater for her work  with the American Conservatory Theater’s  Academy Award winning production of Eugene O’Neill’s, Marco Millions, produced by Allie Light and Irving Saraf.  

This was also the year Betty visited her parent’s country for the first time.  She traveled with 7 family members and seven friends to Southern China (Guangdong), Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as a family tribute to their ancestors.

Never slowing down, Betty became interested in Tango music of Argentina when she was in her 70s. During that era, she performed the work of Astor Pantaleo’n Piazzolla, Argentina’s master composer of tangos.  

She also blended jazz into her work with many jazz musicians.  Jazz was introduced to her by her sister Sarah at a young age. Early on, she was even friends with the Jazz great, Ornette Coleman.

She received many acknowledgements including from former SF Mayor, Diane Feinstein, and congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

In her musical career, she recorded three CDs.  The first was a ten year long journey into the culture of Xinjiang, China, and the Uyghur people (a Turkic ethnic group that follows Islam). 

With her first CD production, Xinjiang Time, Betty played the Hulusi, an instrument used by this minority ethnic group of China. She paid special attention to the mistreatment of the Uyghur people in China.  Betty collaborated with Mary Ellen Donald (SF’s maven of Middle Eastern percussion) and Mimi Al Khayyam (aka Mimi Spencer renowned for her work on the qanun, a Turkish Zither).  

Her second CD was, Desert Dreams of Light and her third was, Silk Road Experience. 

She coordinated a concert for the CMC musicians at the Bird and Becket bookstore in her neighborhood, every Spring for the Lunar New Year.

Betty was a decades long fan of the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors.

Let it also be known that caring for her Cat children was of utmost importance to her life since her twenties.

Betty is survived by her twin sister, Shirley Wong-Frentzel, brother-in-law Peter Frentzel, nieces Emily Wong and Heather Wong-Xoquic, nephews Anton Wong and Duncan Wong, grand nephew Philip Wong, Ian Wong, Subaru Saito-Wong, and Satoru Saito-Wong, and a grand neice, Isa Wong.

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