“Chan conducted the orchestra with an ear toward arching phrases, even while bringing out an astounding amount of musical detail in every instrumental line.”
Best known as one of the most accomplished violinists of his generation, David Chan is fast making a name for himself as a conductor too. The 2018-19 season marks not only his 19th as concertmaster of New York’s MET Orchestra, but also his second as the inaugural Music Director of New Jersey’s Montclair Orchestra, with which he is already developing a reputation for innovative and adventurous programming, and his first as Music Director of Camerata Notturna, one of New York City’s foremost chamber orchestras. As a soloist, he has appeared under the baton of such conductors as James Levine and Fabio Luisi, with orchestras including the MET Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and Moscow State Symphony. He is also a dedicated chamber musician who performs regularly in the New York area and at all the leading summer festivals.
Increasingly in demand on the podium, Chan has conducted l’Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne in France; the student orchestras at New York’s Juilliard and Mannes conservatories; at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan; and at Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot, where the festival orchestra comprises musicians from the Metropolitan Opera, the Berlin Philharmonic, and all of the top orchestras in Paris. This season, his guest conducting engagements include his Carnegie Hall conducting debut, his first appearances with Belgium’s l’Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and the Malta Philharmonic, and a return to l’Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne.
“David Chan played with poised brilliance and profound integrity...His priorities are in order, like a great artist’s should be, and we ended up witnessing an interpretation that was both technically polished and sublime.”
In addition to his concert appearances, Chan is active as an entrepreneur and creative director. In 2008, combining his interest in wine with his passion for music, he co-founded the Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot festival in Burgundy, France. As artistic director of the festival, which pairs wine tastings with music, he has overseen its growth from a small, intimate gathering to a two-week extravaganza attracting many of the biggest names in classical music, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Joyce Di Donato, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Matthew Polenzani, Emmanuel Pahud, Menahem Pressler, Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Marlis Petersen, and Ildar Abdrazakov. He is currently involved in the creation of a new cultural festival in the Xian province of China.
A native of San Diego, Chan began his musical education at the age of four. After winning prizes at the Tchaikovsky and Indianapolis international violin competitions, he made his New York debut in 1995 at Avery Fisher Hall, and his Carnegie Hall debut in 2003, performing the Brahms Double Concerto with the MET Orchestra. A student of Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, and Michael Tseitlin, he received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his master’s from the Juilliard School. He is currently on the faculty of both Juilliard and the Mannes School of Music, and lives in the New York City area with his wife, violinist Catherine Ro, and their children Annalise, Micah, and Arianna.