Marin Symphony, Youthful Brilliance, Nathan Chan, Elgar Cello Concerto

Fresh. Local. Music.

59th Season | Maestro Alasdair Neale’s 10th Anniversary

Photo: Hanh Nguyen

Nathan Chan

Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

FEATURED ARTIST NATHAN CHAN

SHARES STORIES

The Marin Symphony’s third program

in its 59th Season of Fresh Local

Music features guest artist Nathan

Chan performing a dynamic Elgar

Cello Concerto on Sunday, January

29, and Tuesday, January 31, 2012.

This is part of a continuing series of

artist reflections that help demystify the

creative process and bring you closer to

the musicians that take our stage.

Meet an extraordinary talent that is

part of the next generation of classical

music: Nathan Chan.

Photo: Hanh Nguyen

”Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

CONNECTION

“ I met Alasdair Neale through the San Francisco Youth

Orchestra. This opportunity to play with the Marin

Symphony came up because that year I was the SFYO

concerto concert winner. I played Shostakovich No. 1

and Alasdair Neale was listening. He called me and

invited me to play and said, “How does Elgar sound?”

The Cello Concerto is grand and really demanding of

the player. It’s one of the top five concertos for cello.

ALASDAIR NEALE, MUSIC DIRECTOR

Nathan recalls how he and Maestro Neale connected, and what led to this concert.


CONNECTION

“ This piece has so many grand moments. There

are huge mountains you have to crest. If you

trek up that mountain, show every groove, climb

every rock — it’s much more interesting for the

audience. The journey is deeper. They have more

of an emotional connection to the music.

THE ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO

Eighteen-year-old Nathan Chan is a Bay Area native whose youth belies an

amazing maturity. Elgar’s impassioned and valedictory Cello Concerto is the

perfect vehicle for his exceptional talents. Nathan describes the connection he

feels with an audience performing this work.


EXPERIENCE

“ Nathan is perhaps one of the most inspiring

human beings that I’ve come across in the last

two decades. It never ceases to amaze me how

blessed, generously gifted and humble he is. He

is destined for big success. – Roberta Flack

IMPRESSIONS

Nathan’s intuitive abilities emerged at age three. Now, at age 18, his

experience includes conducting symphonies and performing as a cello soloist

with orchestras, within string quartets, an appearance in a documentary on

HBO, and collaboration with Roberta Flack on a Beatles recording project.


CONNECTION

“ When I’m playing the cello,

it’s about putting passion into

the music. In some ways the

music speaks for itself. Then

in this other sense you have to

add your own personality to it.

That’s what makes it unique.

Emotion, color, dynamics —

all these little factors go into

making that difference.

Photo: Mark Kitaoka


CREATION

“ One thing I do when I learn

music is I actually listen to other

people playing the piece to get

an idea what’s going through

their mind. Let’s say Jacqueline

du Pré, she gets suddenly soft

to create a special moment,

Yo-Yo Ma makes it really loud,

and so I’ll combine the soft

and the forte and have the

best of both worlds.

Photo: Mark Kitaoka


PERFORMANCE

“ It’s hard to explain how and why it works.

Sometimes in a concert hall there’s a vibe, an

unseen energy, a sixth sense. It could be a

combination of someone coughing or a little

wiggling, or it’s deathly silent during this beautiful

passage and when you finally lift your bow off

the string and still silent, then wow, the audience

really loved it. It’s like you make changes

unconsciously based on the energy in the room.

They don’t teach you that in your music lessons.


DISCOVERY

“ I play a lot. I play for others; maybe there’s that

sense of the audience. It’s so cool when that

happens. You can control the silence. One of the

huge parts of Elgar is the ending of one of the last

movements is like that. It’s kind of scary, I mean

haunting, and then you have to start the last part.

It is about fifteen seconds before the end. The whole

last page is this gradual transition from grand to

deathly silent and sad, and then BOOM you go back

to the main motif! And the audience is like wow!


DISCOVERY

“ First you get the bare bones of the piece, the

technique. That’s when the musicality gets

infused and you bring your own style to it. Yo-Yo

Ma’s recording of Elgar with Jacqueline du Pré’s

husband, Daniel Barenboim, conducting is one

of my favorites. The key player you think of when

you think of Elgar is Jacqueline du Pré. She died of

multiple sclerosis. When you hear this performance

with Jacqueline’s husband conducting, there’s

that added dimension of history behind it.


DISCOVERY

“ It makes that haunting silence behind it even more

haunting. How do you practice for special moments

like that? It’s pretty hard — you can try your best to

do the physical movements. Slowing the movement

of the bow, slowing the vibrato, but in the end what

makes that so special is the audience.

It’s so much more fun to play with an audience.

It was in those moments when I started to feel the

audience more instead of just playing the music

and taking a bow at the end.

”


ROOTS

“ My mom said I was WAY

too small for the double

bass, though. She said

to start with something

smaller, so I tried the cello.

I never looked back at the

double bass. Now when I

see them I say, “Boy they

gotta carry a lot of stuff.”

Photo: Mark Kitaoka


SHARING

LOCAL MARIN SCHOOL VISITS, A GREAT EXAMPLE OF NATHAN’S GENEROUS SPIRIT

On January 12, 2012, Nathan took a break from his studies at Columbia University-Julliard

School Excange to give talks at San Marin High and Hamilton Middle School in Novato

Photo: Peter Rodgers


SHARING

Nathan spoke and

performed parts of the

Elgar Concerto and

favorite pieces that

enchanted dozens of

music students at San

Marin High School in

Novato.



SHARING

The audience at Hamilton Middle School in Novato enthusiastically responded to Nathan’s

energy and performances. Nathan spontaneously played an audience request, the theme from

Mario on his YouTube channel, usually for two cellos. Nathan improvised on the spot as a solo!



SHARING

The enthusiasm spilled out of the hall into the grounds at Hamilton, where Nathan spent nearly

an hour signing autographs and answering questions.



FUTURE

“ In July I have a concert in Hong Kong. I have

an internship in Silicon Valley with an iPhone

company called Bump. I’m thinking of doing some

marketing for them. It’s a funny story how I got my

first iPhone. I had the money saved up to purchase

an iPhone, but my parents didn’t want me to get

that monthly plan. I was so determined to get that

iPhone that I recorded my own song and put it in

iTunes and got monthly revenue. When they saw

that, they said okay.

”


FUTURE

“ Writing the song and

posting it got me

interested in business.

The joy of seeing whole

process come together

was exhilarating. I really

like social networking.

That sense of connection

with others is pretty cool.


Youthful BrilliancePROGRAM 3

Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 3pmTuesday, January 31, 2012 at 7:30pm

Alasdair Neale, conductorNathan Chan, cello

Liebermann Symphony No. 3

Elgar Cello Concerto

Dvorák No. 9, “From the New World”

Connect with us: 415.479.8100, www.marinsymphony.org

Alasdair NealeFresh. Local. Music.

NathanChan

Photo: Matthew WashburnPhoto: Christian SteinerPhoto: Hanh Nguyen

LowellLiebermann

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Marin Symphony, Youthful Brilliance, Nathan Chan, Elgar Cello Concerto