Meet Elim Chan

Bernard Haitink’s orchestra

Elim Chan first heard the Concertgebouw Orchestra as a tourist in Amsterdam in 2016, with Mariss Jansons conducting. Two years later (by now, she was living in Amsterdam with her life companion, percussionist Dominique Vleeshouwers) Chan was standing in front of this orchestra herself. ‘That did go rather fast, now that you mention it. My only concern was how I could make this concert go as well as possible. I still remember thinking what an unbelievably good group of musicians this was.

‘Also: this was Bernard Haitink’s orchestra. I learned an awful lot from him, during masterclasses when I was in London. We kept in touch until his death. He was a master in using the “less is more” principle. I could see that with him it was: don’t tell, but instead show what you want to say.’

Making music isn’t about perfection

Chan herself is always looking for transparency, so that the sound can be three-dimensional. She makes up a story for every piece, even if it’s not ‘programme music’ (music that represents images or events), so that she can get the essence of it across. Every listener should take a note, a phrase and preferably an experience home afterwards.

After the pandemic, she realised more than ever that you can’t assume that people will come and hear your concert, that people will go to a physical location for music. ‘It’s so easy to put on a CD at home. I want to really reach people. Making music isn’t about perfection, but about something much more important. One person feels angry, another daydreams away, it’s all fine as long as everyone in the audience feels an emotion. And don’t we all love a good story? You want to go on an adventure, to experience what the characters experience.’

Drama queen

‘Soon I’ll be conducting excerpts from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with the Concertgebouw Orchestra – it’s heartrendingly gorgeous music about love. Mendelssohn is tricky; I was afraid of his Fourth Symphony, the ‘Italian’. Mendelssohn sounds simple and that’s precisely the problem: how do you get that simplicity? The simpler the music looks, the harder it is to make it sound that way.

‘Mendelssohn has to be sparkling and clear. In this symphony, you have to hold everything together really well, because the music can fall apart into little chunks. I did ballet as a child, and part of me is a drama queen. I love strong emotions. As artists, we’re emotional and highly sensitive, qualities you also need to tell your story. The melodies in the Russian repertoire, come on, they’re wonderful! Rachmaninoff is my great love.

‘In the last few years, I’ve made storytelling more my own thing. At first I was much more careful, younger. The wonderful thing about conducting is that it feels like a marathon. In 2019 everything in my life exploded. So many opportunities crossed my path. And I jumped on them. I was only at home two days a year. I was very clearly finding out and establishing my place in the world. I was more concerned with being a conductor then, but now I can say with full conviction that I’m a musician. I’m looking for what’s hiding behind the notes.’

By: Frederike Berntsen
This article previously appeared on the website of the Concertgebouw