Elim Chan

Twenty-eight year old Elim Chan from the UK has won the 2014 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, consisting of a cash prize of £15,000 and the opportunity to work as an assistant conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra for a year. She was presented with the award at the end of a public concert at London's Barbican Centre on 8 December. Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade were performed.

The other finalists, who also conducted at the 8 December concert, were Jiří Rožeň from the Czech Republic and Mihhail Gerts from Estonia. The following candidates were also selected for the first round of the competition: Joseph Bastian (France), Gabriel Bebeselea (Romania), Jonathan Bloxham (UK), Danko Drusko (Germany), Dominic Grier (UK), Rafal Janiak (Poland), Ciaran McAuley (Ireland), Giuseppe Montesano (Italy), Francesco Pasqueletti (Italy), Christian Reif (Germany), Giancarlo Rizzi (Italy), Azis Sadikovic (Austria), Juan Pablo Simon Monje (Spain), Daniele Squeo (Italy), Zoi Tsokanou (Greece), Christopher Ward (UK) and Johannes Zurl from Germany.

Born in Hong Kong, Elim Chan is the Music Director of the University of Michigan Campus Symphony Orchestra. As a recipient of the 2013 Bruno Walter Conducting Scholarship, Chan made her debut with Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Francophonie as part of the Summer Music Institute with Kenneth Kiesler and Pinchas Zukerman. She has led performances in workshops with the Cabrillo Festival and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras working with Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz and Gustav Meier. Elim Chan previously served as Music Director of the Michigan Pops Orchestra and as Assistant Conductor of the UM Opera Theatre, leading a performance of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. She has worked with the Toledo Symphony, Youth Orchestras of Curanilahue and the Orchestra of Universidad de Talca in Chile. Chan holds degrees from Smith College and the University of Michigan, where she currently studies with Kenneth Kiesler.

Inaugurated by Donatella Flick in 1990, the biennial Donatella Flick Conducting Competition aims to advance the careers of young conductors and help the winner to establish an international conducting career. The Competition is open to candidates up to the age of thirty-five who are citizens of the twenty-eight member countries of the European Union.

The 2014 jury consisted of conductor Xian Zhang, conductor Vladimir Spivakov, conductor Bertrand de Billy, Mauro Bucarelli of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, LSO principal tuba Patrick Harrild, LSO principal guest conductor Daniel Harding and LSO chairman Lennox Mackenzie (chairman of the jury).

Posted: 1 February 2015

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