Elim Chan

The conductor Elim Chan, who was born in 1986 in Hong Kong, studied cello and piano from a young age and sang in choirs as a child. Despite this early training, she initially went to the United States to study medicine before deciding to pursue a career in music. She completed her training at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and with Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan. She was awarded the Bruno Walter Conducting Scholarship in 2013, and in 2014 she became the first woman to win the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition in London – a distinction that led to her appointment as Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. She subsequently received the Dudamel Fellowship and worked closely with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2016-17 season. From 2018 to 2023, Elim Chan served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and from 2019 to 2024 she was Chief Conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. She conducted the First Night at the BBC Proms in 2024 to such acclaim that she was immediately invited back the following year to lead the legendary Last Night, which was broadcast worldwide on television. Chan now ranks among the most sought-after conductors of her generation. In the United States, she has appeared with the San Francisco, Chicago, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras; in Europe, with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. In the 2025-26 season, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Munich Philharmonic. She makes her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in June 2027. Her repertoire spans the Viennese Classical period to the present day.

On 30 August 2016, she made her debut here on the podium of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra in a program of works by Saariaho, Adams, and Bartók.

March 2026