βChan revealed both a profound technical gift and an expressive directness that many a better-known virtuoso could only envy. His string tone is rich and dark-hued, his intonation is fearlessly precise, and his mastery of musical narrative unfolds with unerring clarity.β
βNathan is perhaps one of the most inspiring human beings that Iβve come across in the last two decades. It never ceased to amaze me how blessed, generously gifted and humble he is. I canβt wait to do other things with him. He is destined for big success.β
βIn Tchaikovskyβs Variations on a Rococo Theme, Chanβs rich cello tone and empathy for the workβs delicacy were evident throughoutβ
βThe Music in Me is at once cheerfully hopeful and downright awe-inspiring. Nathan Chan, an 11-year-old cellist, performs Saint-Saensβs βSwanβΒ so plaintively that it calls to mind the human voice.β
Photo: Mike Grittani
βNathan was a joy to watch. This young man obviously loves what he does... he exuded the most passion while performing. Parallels with Yo Yo Ma? You bet!β
News Articles
Review: Hillsborough native Nathan Chan returns home in triumph
Nathan Chan and Donato Cabrera Shine With the California Symphony
Crosscut: Nathan Chan talks about his pandemic pick-me-ups, Yo-Yo Ma and TikTok.
Inside the Seattle Symphony: Chatting Cello with the Irrepressible Nathan Chan
Music fills McIntyre during Central Cello Celebration
He conducted at 3 and now he's playing with Seattle Symphony: Cellist Nathan Chan
Chan and Vardanega: Age, Scores, Beauty
Nathan Chan and Audrey Vardanega dazzle in duos and solos at Old First Concerts
Google Zeitgeist '13: Here's to the Curious, with Gerry Slavit and From The Top
NPR's Performance Today with Fred Child
Circle of Inspiration - Johns Hopkins University Imagine Publication
From The Top Green Room - Nathan Chan spreads the gospel of music
Columbia Spectator - Chan wins Juilliard competition
Article in Arts & Living Magazine
Nathan Chan at the National Chinese Language Conference w/ Asia Society
Young cellist Nathan Chan performs Shostakovich - SFGate
Young cello prodigy ventures into pop music with Roberta Flack - SFGate
Masterful young musicians hit Hong Kong high note
Prodigies from around the world to perform classical musicο»Ώ
βAt 23, and with a small frame and Harry Potter-ish glasses, Chan at first looks like a high-school kid who sneaked into the symphony. But once Chan starts to play, he brings a wide, rich tone, and you can hear why heβs one of conductor Ludovic Morlotβs most exciting recent hires.β
Photo: Brandon Patoc
ββ¦a full, rich sound. His forte is his preternatural engagement with music. His sense of style in three of Schumannβs Fantasiestucke and Chopinβs Introduction and Polonaise Brilliante was developed and slyly sophisticated, yet something apparently innate.β
βAged 15, Nathan Chan, from San Francisco, was the oldest hand, his DvorΓ‘k Cello Concerto in B minor a remarkably assured reading. He managed the scurrying scale passages with aplomb but where the musicality really shone was in the spacious feel he gave the long, yearning melody β rhapsodic, intense and completely convincing.β
β...expansive gestures [that] revealed a deep musicality with his interpretation of the Elgar concerto.β
