Elim Chan is one of the most sought-after conductors of her generation, and has a wide-ranging repertory of symphonic works, from the Classical period to the present day. Since 2019 she is the chief conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and from 2018 to 2023 she was principal guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She receives invitations to work with renowned orchestras and prominent soloists worldwide.
In the 2022/23 season the Vienna Musikverein dedicated a three-part portrait series to her, which along with her debut with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra also included concerts with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. With the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra she performed Mahler’s First Symphony and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, and toured Spain. Other highlights of the season have included her debuts with the Pittsburgh and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, and with the orchestras of Toronto, Cincinnati and Atlanta, along with a return invitation to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. She also expanded her activity in Europe through performances with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
In January 2022 Elim Chan made a celebrated debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, followed by her first collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra. Other orchestras with which she has worked include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Elim Chan was born in 1986 in Hong Kong, and studied at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and at the University of Michigan. In 2014 she became the first woman to win the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, which enabled her to spend a year in 2015/16 as an assistant with the London Symphony Orchestra, and to work with Valery Gergiev. The following season, Elim Chan participated in the Dudamel Fellowship Program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Other important artistic training included masterclasses with Bernard Haitink in Lucerne.
