A former scholar of the Royal College of Music, UK, Chan conducts widely in the Asia-Pacific region, with repeat engagements in Australia, China, Singapore and Vietnam, including a live TV broadcast with the Ho Chi Minh City Symphony Orchestra, a noted performance with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra of Bartok’s Viola Concerto featuring a Principal Violist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and concerts with the Singapore Festival Orchestra. He was twice Artist-in-Residence at the University of Western Australia School of Music, and performs regularly with the Western Australian Youth Orchestra. He was also the founding Chief Conductor of the Australian International Summer Orchestral Institute, establishing the Institute as a major training centre for orchestral musicians in the Asia-Pacific region, with its concerts broadcast on Australian national radio, and garnering critical acclaim for much-lauded performances of major orchestral works such as Mahler’s 6th Symphony and Shostakovich’s 8th Symphony.


Chan is also a fervent advocate of new music, having conducted as part of the Esplanade's Spectrum series Singapore premieres of works by John Adams, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Chen Yi, Chen Qigang, Brett Dean, Gyorgy Ligeti, Andrew Schultz and Toru Takemitsu with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s New Music Ensemble (NME). Singapore-based composers such as Ho Chee Kong, Phoon Yew Tian, PerMagnus Linborg, Yuan Pei Ying and the late Leong Yoon Pin have also had their works performed under his direction.


Chan is widely recognised for his pivotal role in the continuing success of several Singapore orchestras. As the pioneering Music Director of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra, Chan built what has been regarded as “Asia’s best conservatory orchestra” within a mere 3 years, establishing the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music as a major player in the professional music performance education domain, attracting top music students from all over the world to Singapore. Chan is also Music Director of the Singapore Festival Orchestra (SFO), the resident professional orchestra of the Singapore Arts Festival, with the SFO receiving unanimous plaudits from the press and international artists for delivering world-class performances across a wide spectrum of genres and mediums. Chan also conducts the SFO at the National Piano & Violin Competition, establishing the Artist Category concerto finals as a biennial highlight of the music scene.


Under his guidance, Singapore's award-winning Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) has performed challenging repertoire to international acclaim. OMM’s recent CD album releases of Mahler’s 1st and 2nd Symphonies have received superlative international reviews in the Fanfare magazine and American Record Guide, and have put the next generation of Singapore orchestral musicians in the international spotlight.  His leadership and vision have also shaped OMM as a unique philanthropic force in the music community, helping raise over $300,000 for ChildAid, Singapore Children Cancer Society and other charitable causes in just 3 short years of its existence, and drawing praise and support from no less than the President of Singapore HE SR Nathan.


Chan’s contributions towards the development of the Singapore music scene have included service on supervisory boards and committees of the Ministry of Information Communications and the Arts, Ministry of Education, National Arts Council, Singapore Armed Forces Music and Drama Company, Singapore National Youth Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Aeromodelling Federation of Singapore

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Updated on 05/12/2011