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

Gestures in the Context of Musicianship

March 25, 2024  /  Amelia Chan

I’ve been working with a guzheng player and I’m blown away by her incredible musicianship. Lately I’ve felt the urge to put into words simple breakdowns of what that is, and this powerful musician demonstrates it so clearly in her playing. If you’re curious, her name is 蘇暢 (Su Chang). The videos and recordings I found of her don’t remotely do justice to her live playing and presence, though they do offer a glimpse. It is a persuasive reminder of the importance of going to live performances—easier said than done, however, for people like me whose introverted and antisocial streaks create more than a bit of resistance.

Beyond her flawless control and incredibly layered, compelling storytelling, there is an almost dance-like quality to her movement that is part and parcel of her music-making. It reveals a perfect union: an intellectual understanding of the music, a thorough grasp of how to translate that into a story, and a deep, nuanced communication of feeling without a hint of falsity or extraneousness. It’s thrilling to see how completely her gestures become part of the sound. They are part of the drama that makes the music feel unimaginably vast, alive, and captivating—adding a richer, 3D level to the experience. I am not sure I have ever seen such an all-encompassing, powerful physical and aural embodiment of drama in music (as opposed to superfluous theatrics). And oh, her sense of time: the flawless integration of rhythm between her gestures and the musical pulse amplifies the effect of both to degrees I had not known possible.

Part of my awe likely stems from the novelty of this musical style to me (it’s not even entirely to my taste, but I am in awe of how it is executed). This is exactly why I think we must not stay stuck in our own lanes. I love being inspired by the "different-same," and how wide we cast that net is limited only by our imagination and capacity. I believe this breadth of capacity determines the quality of a mind. Ultimately, I know my true limits are not defined by what I can or cannot do, but by where I feel resistance or blockages—whether intellectual, emotional, or otherwise—to stretching how far I can connect the dots. In this case, the leap isn't even very wide, yet people so often fail to see the relevance between expertise in different instruments or genres, let alone between music and other fields.

Anyway, I am so happy to be playing alongside this highest level of artistry. A part of me would rather just watch and listen to fully absorb it, though!

This brings to mind another musician who feels like the natural, all-encompassing embodiment of music to me: the accordionist Richard Galliano. However, I don’t find the physical movement in his playing to be as defining as it is in Su Chang’s. Her quality is unique in my experience. I adore many, many great Western classical musicians. But I think because of the nature of the music, it’s much harder for classical instrumentalists to use physical movement to contribute to their expression. Or perhaps it isn’t even a matter of difficulty; maybe movement is simply not as essential to the makeup of Western classical instrumental music. Now I’m left with more questions about what it is we play and do. Opera singers certainly require a marriage between their gestures (acting) and singing—just look at Maria Callas. But in instrumental music, this feels like the first time I’ve experienced a level of unity between physical gesture and musical drama that elevates the entire experience in such a profound way.

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