“Chan 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.”
“Nathan is perhaps one of the most inspiring human beings that I’ve come across in the last two decades. It never ceased to amaze me how blessed, generously gifted and humble he is. I can’t wait to do other things with him. He is destined for big success.”
“In Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, Chan’s rich cello tone and empathy for the work’s delicacy were evident throughout”
“The Music in Me is at once cheerfully hopeful and downright awe-inspiring. Nathan Chan, an 11-year-old cellist, performs Saint-Saens’s ‘Swan’ so plaintively that it calls to mind the human voice.”
Photo: Mike Grittani
“Nathan 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!”
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
“At 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 he’s one of conductor Ludovic Morlot’s most exciting recent hires.”
Photo: Brandon Patoc
“…a full, rich sound. His forte is his preternatural engagement with music. His sense of style in three of Schumann’s Fantasiestucke and Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise Brilliante was developed and slyly sophisticated, yet something apparently innate.”
“Aged 15, Nathan Chan, from San Francisco, was the oldest hand, his Dvorák 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 – rhapsodic, intense and completely convincing.”
“...expansive gestures [that] revealed a deep musicality with his interpretation of the Elgar concerto.”
