Elim Chan & Patricia Kopatchinskaja

One of the most sought-after artists of her generation, Elim Chan performs an unusually wide-ranging repertory of symphonic works extending from the Classical period to the present day. The Sunday Times describes Elim Chan as “a rare example of a young conductor at once brilliant and not in the least showing off.” In January 2022, the Boston Classical Review spoke of a “marvel of control and understanding” following Elim Chan’s debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra: “…Chan was the night’s revelation. As a conductor, she’s the embodiment of the principle that less is more. Like Fritz Reiner or Bernard Haitink, she’s not overly demonstrative on the podium. But her beat is clear, gestures economical, and cues precise. Also, she has an exceptionally sensitive ear.“
Elim Chan has been appointed Chief Conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra with the beginning of the 2019-20 season. Highlights of the orchestra’s 2022-23 season see Elim Chan conduct the orchestra in Mahler’s Symphonie No. 1 and Brahms’ “A German Requiem” as well as on tour in Spain.
Elim Chan is one of Musikverein Wien’s 2022-23 Portrait Artists, collaborating with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra as well as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the Goldener Saal throughout the season. Other highlights of the 2022-23 season include her debuts with the Pittsburgh and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, appearances with orchestras in Toronto, Cincinnati and Atlanta and her return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In Europe she will be expanding her field of activities with her debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and concerts with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester of Berlin.
A native of Hong Kong, Elim Chan studied at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, and at the University of Michigan. In 2014 she was the first female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, enabling her to spend the 2015-16 season as assistant conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra, where she worked closely with Valery Gergiev. For the following season Elim Chan joined the Dudamel Fellowship program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She also owes much to the support and encouragement of Bernard Haitink, whose masterclasses she attended in Lucerne in 2015. In recent seasons, Elim Chan celebrated debuts amongst others with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s focus is to get to the heart of the music, to its meaning for us – now and here. With a combination of depth, brilliance and humour, Kopatchinskaja brings an inimitable sense of theatrics to her music. Described by The New York Times “a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition”, Kopatchinskaja’s distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work, whether it is with an out-of-the-box performance of a traditional violin repertoire classic or with an original staged project she presents as experimental performance dramaturge.

In the season 2022/23, Kopatchinskaja once again goes beyond boundaries with a daring musical experiment joining forces with Herbert Fritsch and visual artist Jannis Varelas to create a Neo-Dada opera production Vergeigt at Theater Basel. It is Kopatchinskaja’s Artist Spotlight season at the Barbican Centre and she also takes up the position of Associated Artist of the SWR Experimentalstudio, one of the most important international research centres in the field of electronic music. 2022/23 also sees Kopatchinskaja permiere her new project In search of a lost melody inspired by György Ligeti’s oeuvre and a revival of Maria Mater Meretrix with Anna Prohaska on European tour presenting the image of women throughout the centuries in a musical mosaic, a project that is also released on CD this season. Further ahead, Kopatchinskaja reunites with longstanding recital partner in crime – Fazil Say – for an extensive European tour to kick off the release of their new recording.

Highlights of the previous season included tours of Europe with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Il Giardino Armonico and the Philharmonia Orchestra, a return to the BBC Proms 2022 and her continued residency as Artistic Partner with Camerata Bern. Kopatchinskaja brought her unlimited creative potential, versatility, and diverse repertoire in innovative curated projects to residencies with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg enrichting every programme with eccentric re-interpretations.

Her absolute priority is music of the 20th and 21st century and the collaboration with living composers such as Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, György Kurtág, Márton Illés, Esa-Pekka Salonen. Kopatchinskaja directs staged concerts at venues on both sides of the Atlantic and collaborates with leading orchestras, conductors, and festivals worldwide. Following the international success of her previous collaboration with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra – Bye Bye Beethoven – Patricia Kopatchinskaja returned for the premiere performances of a new concert staging with the ensemble – Les Adieux – a project confronting the rapid deterioration of the environment and the loss of the natural world. Kopatchinskaja’s other projects explore music staged through contemporary contexts, such as Dies Irae, another musical reflection on the the growing environmental crisis. She bought this production to Glasgow during the global COP26 summit. Kopatchinskaja also performs as a vocal artist in Ligeti’s Mystères du macabre or Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire where she takes on the role of the Pierrot himself, also in her project presenting Kurt Schwitters’ poem Ursonate as a film in the style of Dada. Following its recent showcase at the Berliner Philharmonie and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Ursonate will be shown at the Sprengel Museum Hannover, home to the Kurt and Ernst Schwitters Foundation, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Kurt Schwitters‘ death.

Kopatchinskaja’s discography includes over 30 recordings, among them GRAMMY award-winning Death and the Maiden with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a project which was also re-created as a semi-staged filmed performance with Camerata Bern, premiered on HarrisonParrott’s digital platform Virtual Circle. Recent CD releases season included Les Plaisirs Illuminés with Sol Gabetta and Camerata Bern, which was saluted with a BBC Music Magazine award and Le monde selon George Antheil with Joonas Ahonen (both on Alpha Classics).

Kopatchinskaja is a humanitarian ambassador for Terre des Hommes, the leading Swiss child relief agency and was awarded the Swiss Grand Award for Music by the Federal Office of Culture for Switzerland in 2017.