HK-born conductor Elim Chan wants to shake up 'dinosaur' orchestras

Since her first brush with fame a decade ago, Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan has fought a "long-term battle" against tired assumptions about herself, music and how orchestras should be run.

- AFP

In 2014, she became the first woman to win the major Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, kick-starting an international career that included a stint at the London Symphony Orchestra and opening the 2024 BBC Proms, Britain's top classical music festival.

"I love to surprise people," said Chan, 38, in an interview ahead of guest-conducting the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in November.

"When I started, people had super low expectations of me. They thought, yeah, a little Asian girl... What can she do?"

Her rise reflects how the classical music world is gradually being reshaped by a new generation of conductors.

Chan's most recent gig - a five-year tenure as principal conductor at the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra that ended in May - left her convinced that musicians need new ways to engage audiences in an age of easy distractions.

Many ensembles hit the reset button when the Covid-19 pandemic ended, but Chan said they should "incorporate things that they have learnt, and not just completely go back to what has been".

Plenty of mistakes were made including some early video productions that Chan admitted were "very bad" - but she said she would keep pushing.