Elim Chan on cancel culture, what she wants to do next and what she thinks of Hong Kong

Back in her home city, Chan hails improved HK Phil, and recalls her anger at concertgoers rejecting Russian music because of Ukraine war

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Conductor Elim Chan in Hong Kong, her home city, where she conducted the HK Phil four times in November 2024. In an interview, she talks about cancel culture, next steps and why Hong Kong is “a special place”. Photo: Antony Dickson

Published: 4:15pm, 5 Dec 2024

In November, Elim Chan returned to the city of her birth, Hong Kong, still bathing in the afterglow of a classical music hat-trick.

She had conducted, in quick succession, three of the most high-profile concerts of summer 2024: the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s appearance at the Hollywood Bowl, the First Night of the Proms in London, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Critics swooned. The Guardian gushed about her unique style at the Royal Albert Hall, from exerting “superlative” control using “minute finger-waggles” to “full air-traffic control” that mesmerised the audience in the huge venue.

The Los Angeles Times critic wrote that he was convinced of her greatness just 10 seconds into the concert, fanning speculation that Chan is being considered as Gustavo Dudamel’s successor.

Elim Chan conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in July 2024. Photo: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

The youthful-looking 38-year-old is no newbie, though. As she likes to remind people, it has been a decade since she made her international debut as a professional conductor.

After she became the first woman to win the Donatella Flick conducting competition in 2014 – one of the toughest of its kind in Europe – she became principal guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and was, until May 2024, principal conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, a role previously occupied by two former Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) music directors, Edo de Waart and Jaap van Zweden.