Celebrate the New Year with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and you’ll also have a chance (in truth, five chances) to see a local who’s also an internationally acclaimed cellist before he leaves next year. It’s not that Nathan Chan doesn’t like the Bay Area; it’s just that this high school senior has gotten notice of his early acceptance at Columbia University, so he might not be performing quite as often around here as he has in the past.
Although Chan is still only 17, in terms of actual performing experience he’s an old hand. He made his debut not as a cellist, but as a conductor: At age 3, he conducted the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, though he really doesn’t remember that. His first real memory is conducting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony at age 5: “I remember standing on a chair.” He still does a bit of conducting (of his sister’s orchestra), and it’s something he’d like to get back to.
Age 5 was also when Chan began playing the cello. His original instrument of choice was the double bass “because of the low sound and grand size,” but his parents convinced him that he really wasn’t big enough to play it. So he decided on the cello, and he’s “really happy” he did, he says. He debuted at Carnegie Hall at age 12 and was featured in the HBO documentary The Music in Me and British television’s The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies. He’s also played with nonclassical performers, such as on Roberta Flack’s Beatles Tribute, and was a performer at the Museum of Music Making Gala honoring Ravi Shankar. He’s still had time to play with an electric cello; he feels it has a more direct sound, which he thinks is cool and allows the player to add effects, expanding the sound. As if that weren’t enough, also in his instrumental repertoire are the piano and saxophone.
In the meantime, Chan’s attending Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, where, like any good high school kid, he’s in the school chamber orchestra and is a teaching assistant; making videos (you can watch him play and also see a school project or two on YouTube); playing table tennis and badminton; and tweeting and blogging.
Chan will be performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra. Also on the program will be Mozart’s 1st and 40th Symphonies, plus The Ugly Duckling, by Jon Deak. The two other featured performers are soprano Anja Strauss and orchestra member Michel Taddel playing the double bass that Chan so admired as a youngster. The performances range throughout the Bay Area, from Vallejo to Palo Alto, and are free.
So why not plan to attend? As Chan says, “It’s going to be a really great time and a fun way to celebrate the New Year’s holiday.”