EXHILARATION

CONCERT DATE MOVED TO JANUARY 24 DUE TO COVID RESTRICTIONS

Our January 24 concert features Seattle’s beloved cellist Nathan Chan in Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile and an arrangement of David Popper’s Fantasy on Little Russian Songs. Titled “Exhilaration,” the concert also spotlights the acclaimed young African-American composer Jessie Montgomery. About her piece Strum, the composer said, “Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.” The concert concludes with the exhilarating String Symphony No. 2 in D major by Felix Mendelssohn.

PROGRAM:

Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzon I ‘La Spiritata’ and Canzon II

Tchaikovsky: Andante Cantabile

Popper: Fantasy on Little Russian Songs, op. 43

Jessie Montgomery: Strum

Mendelssohn: String Symphony No. 2 in D major

​Alex Feldman and Colin Chandler, trumpets
​Laurie Heidt, horn
​Terry Freeman, trombone
​Chris Barnes, tuba

Singles $15, 4-Concert Subscription $50 per household

The concert video will be available for viewing for two weeks after the concert. And season subscribers will have access to all the concerts for the duration of the season.

If tickets prices are a barrier for purchasing tickets, please email us for a discounted rate.

SOLOIST – NATHAN CHAN, CELLO

Cellist Nathan Chan discovered his talent for music at an early age through conducting. Before he was two, he could emulate the styles of conductors he saw on music videos such as Seiji Ozawa, Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, using a chopstick as a baton. As a toddler, his imitations were so intuitively musical that he caught the attention of San Francisco Opera Assistant Conductor Sara Jobin. Under her eye, he made his debut as a conductor at age three, leading the San Jose Chamber Orchestra in a set of Mozart variations, despite not yet being able to read music. This was followed by a guest appearance with the Palo Alto Philharmonic a year later, conducting the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Initially drawn to the sounds of low strings, he began formal music lessons with cellist Irene Sharp at age five. He later studied with Sieun Lin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Nathan Chan has performed as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, working with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, James Gaffigan, Alexander Prior, Benjamin Simon, Donato Cabrera, Alasdair Neale, Edwin Outwater, Laura Jackson, and David Allen Miller, among others. He also participated in the Emmy-award winning NPR program From The Top and NPR’s Performance Today with Fred Child. In 2009, he was featured in The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies, a three-part British series documenting a global search for talented musicians, in which Nathan and three other performers gave the world premiere of the Velesslavista Quadruple Concerto, composed by Alexander Prior. Nathan Chan has performed benefit concerts for the American Alzheimer’s Association and the Friends of Children with Special Needs, among others. For his contributions to the community, he won the Peninsula Arts Council’s Ray Lorenzato Diamond Arts Award in 2007. In 2006, Nathan Chan appeared in The Music in Me, a documentary that aired on HBO and won the Peabody Award. This program led to a performance in Carnegie Hall and caught the attention of the legendary soul singer Roberta Flack, who invited Nathan to collaborate on her project of Beatles songs for Sony Records.

Nathan Chan was named a 2012 Davidson Fellow for his project entitled, “The Importance of Passion” and was awarded a $25,000 scholarship as part of this prestigious honor. While in New York City, he made his debut in Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall) playing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major and with the Juilliard Orchestra performing Strauss’ Don Quixote as the winner of the 2013 Juilliard Cello Concerto Competition, led by Maestro Leonard Slatkin. In 2015, Mr. Chan was chosen to participate in Classe d’Excellence du Violoncelle with world-renowned cellist Gautier Capuçon in association with Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France. Nathan won the 2015 Aspen Low Strings Concerto Competition playing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D Major and was a recipient of the 2016 Samuel Mayes Memorial Cello Award at Tanglewood.

Nathan is a strong proponent of using technology and media to attract others into the classical world and is committed to his fast growing Internet presence; to date, he has over 7 million views on YouTube and Instagram. (@nathanchancello) He recently joined the Seattle Symphony as their new Assistant Principal Cello. In 2018, Mr. Chan performed the Elgar and Schumann Cello Concertos with the Bainbridge Symphony and the Cascade Symphony. Nathan’s 2019-2020 season includes a performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D with the Everett Philharmonic and the Shostakovich Cello Concerto with the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, as well as a summer at the Marlboro Music Festival.

Nathan received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics at Columbia University and his Masters of Music with Richard Aaron at The Juilliard School.