Amelia Chan

violinist | Creator, First Principles Violin

Amelia Chan is currently concertmaster of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK).

She came to this position from her tenure as concertmaster of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra (US). An experienced leader, Amelia has served in the concertmaster chair under acclaimed conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Manfred Huss, Sergiu Commissiona, Anton Coppola, Zdeněk Mácal, Jorge Mester, Julius Rudel, and Gerard Schwarz. She has also performed with the New York Philharmonic extensively. As a chamber musician, Amelia has served as first violinist of the Montclaire String Quartet, and has collaborated with guitarist Sharon Isbin, accordionist Richard Galliano, violinist Lara St. John, the Ying Quartet, members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players (NYC), among others. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the West Virginia Symphony, the International Virtuosi Orchestra on tour in Central America, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra (NYC), the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra (NYC), and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. She has shared the stage as co-soloist with acclaimed flutist Sir James Galway, and frequently acts as director for the City Chamber Orchestra. She has performed at the Costa Rica Music Festival, the Guatemala Music Festival, Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival in New York and the Pacific Music Festival (Japan).

Amelia has been heard on WQXR, New York; WQED, Pittsburgh; West Virginia Public Broadcasting; BBC Radio Scotland, Scotland; and RTHK Radio 4, Hong Kong.

As an educator, Amelia approaches the teaching of technique through the lens of whole-body biomechanics, and on the principle that techniques of playing an instrument need to be relational to the body, and to how it moves, instead of relying on a static one-size-fits-all method. She believes in a focused and deep education that goes beyond rote training, where the student learns discernment and critical thinking, while sifting through the layers of intellect needed to decipher the depths of the musical art, to get to the natural, joyful simplicity of music-making.

Amelia holds undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees from the Mannes College of Music and Manhattan School of Music (NY). She began her violin studies in the junior school at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Her major teachers included Thomas Wang, Alice Waten, Albert Markov, Shirley Givens, Lisa Kim, Yoko Takebe, Sheryl Staples, Glenn Dicterow, and double-bassist Julius Levine.

For more information on Amelia, please go to her Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/ameliachanviolin/ 

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"Concertmaster Amelia Chan in particular played with passion, acting as the vibrant soul of the ensemble.” South China Morning Post 

“…gutsy solo violin throughout [by] concertmaster Amelia Chan…” theprickle.org

Rolland's "X" and Beyond: The Engine of the Left Hand [Video]

June 04, 2026  /  Amelia Chan

I often emphasize how the body's larger structures having to support the smaller ones—a proximal-to-distal relationship. That's because, as string players, we tend to talk about fingers and arms in isolation, twisting them into all kinds of unnatural positions and fighting the rest of the body to achieve technical goals. But the distal can indeed be a useful entry point into playing biomechanics as well—as long as we remember the whole body's interconnectedness. This article is about that other direction: how a distal constraint can help us organize the larger structures, too.

Paul Rolland teaches a setup in which the base joint of the index finger (the MCP joint)—marked here with an "X"—stays near the neck of the violin while the finger crease near the palm remains visible.

This is not only a wonderful way to establish good form for beginning and developing students; it's also a great entry point for players of all levels to re-examine how powerfully this part of the hand can affect overall technique when used as the engine of the left hand.

Think of the "X" as a constant anchor and engine—even when it isn't physically touching the neck. If that feels too abstract, imagine an invisible mechanical arm extending from the violin neck to support it. Depending on your position on the fingerboard and which fingers are active, you'll need to drive the "X" in different directions. Try this with shifting and with vibrato. For instance, driving it slightly away from the neck while keeping the first joint of the vibrating finger mobile will give you a freer vibrato.

Experimenting with this engine can benefit your playing on multiple levels: it creates access to the arches of the hand that make the fingers far more powerful; it clarifies what gives a hand frame its strength; and it naturally guides the elbow and shoulder into their most efficient alignment with little effort. It also clarifies what an optimal wrist position feels like (see the article Purposeful Movement: The "Rubber Wrist" [Video]).

In the video below, I focus on feeling the engine of the movement coming from the MCP joint. What surprised me was how many more directional changes my left hand needed in order to make both position shifts and individual finger weight shifts feel effortless. At first, it seemed like I was moving more to achieve the same result—but once I got past the novelty of the sensation, I realized I was actually finding the precise path and the subtle nuances needed for speed and efficiency. The band supplies a natural force that helps the hand organize its direction, sending subtle cues to my arm, shoulder, and core about how to cooperate rather than resist.

https://youtu.be/pg_WykAa7W4

And here the band work is applied directly to my playing. Even though I lose contact slightly with the "X" when shifting down to the F (third finger on the E string in fifth position), my fingers needed far less active effort thanks to the more efficient arm position. Unsurprisingly, the connection this exercise built with my core even made my bow arm feel smoother.

https://youtu.be/t4BDoNeAohc

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