The Marin Symphony’s third program in its 59th Season of Fresh Local Music features guest artist Nathan Chan performing a dynamic Elgar Cello Concerto on Sunday, January 29, and Tuesday, January 31, 2012. This is part of a continuing series of artist reflections that help demystify the creative process and bring you closer to the musicians that take our stage. Meet an extraordinary talent that is part of the next generation of classical music: Nathan Chan. Connect with us: 415.479.8100, www.marinsymphony.org

1. Nathan Chan
Photo: Hanh Nguyen Fresh. Local. Music.
59th Season | Maestro Alasdair Neale’s 10th Anniversary

2. FEATURED ARTIST NATHAN CHAN
SHARES STORIES
The Marin Symphony’s third program
in its 59th Season of Fresh Local
Music features guest artist Nathan
Chan performing a dynamic Elgar
Cello Concerto on Sunday, January
29, and Tuesday, January 31, 2012.
This is part of a continuing series of
artist reflections that help demystify the
creative process and bring you closer to
the musicians that take our stage.
Meet an extraordinary talent that is
part of the next generation of classical
music: Nathan Chan.
Photo: Hanh Nguyen
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

3. CONNECTION
ALASDAIR NEALE, MUSIC DIRECTOR
Nathan recalls how he and Maestro Neale connected, and what led to this concert.
“ I met Alasdair Neale through the San Francisco Youth
Orchestra. This opportunity to play with the Marin
Symphony came up because that year I was the SFYO
concerto concert winner. I played Shostakovich No. 1
and Alasdair Neale was listening. He called me and
invited me to play and said, “How does Elgar sound?”
The Cello Concerto is grand and really demanding of
”
the player. It’s one of the top five concertos for cello.
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

4. CONNECTION
THE ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO
Eighteen-year-old Nathan Chan is a Bay Area native whose youth belies an
amazing maturity. Elgar’s impassioned and valedictory Cello Concerto is the
perfect vehicle for his exceptional talents. Nathan describes the connection he
feels with an audience performing this work.
“ This piece has so many grand moments. There
are huge mountains you have to crest. If you
trek up that mountain, show every groove, climb
every rock — it’s much more interesting for the
audience. The journey is deeper. They have more
”
of an emotional connection to the music.
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

5. EXPERIENCE
IMPRESSIONS
Nathan’s intuitive abilities emerged at age three. Now, at age 18, his
experience includes conducting symphonies and performing as a cello soloist
with orchestras, within string quartets, an appearance in a documentary on
HBO, and collaboration with Roberta Flack on a Beatles recording project.
“ Nathan is perhaps one of the most inspiring
human beings that I’ve come across in the last
two decades. It never ceases to amaze me how
blessed, generously gifted and humble he is. He
is destined for big success. – Roberta Flack
”
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

6. CONNECTION
“ When I’m playing the cello,
it’s about putting passion into
the music. In some ways the
music speaks for itself. Then
in this other sense you have to
add your own personality to it.
That’s what makes it unique.
Emotion, color, dynamics —
all these little factors go into
”
making that difference.
Photo: Mark Kitaoka
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

7. CREATION
“ One thing I do when I learn
music is I actually listen to other
people playing the piece to get
an idea what’s going through
their mind. Let’s say Jacqueline
du Pré, she gets suddenly soft
to create a special moment,
Yo-Yo Ma makes it really loud,
and so I’ll combine the soft
and the forte and have the
”
best of both worlds.
Photo: Mark Kitaoka
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

8. PERFORMANCE
“ It’s hard to explain how and why it works.
Sometimes in a concert hall there’s a vibe, an
unseen energy, a sixth sense. It could be a
combination of someone coughing or a little
wiggling, or it’s deathly silent during this beautiful
passage and when you finally lift your bow off
the string and still silent, then wow, the audience
really loved it. It’s like you make changes
unconsciously based on the energy in the room.
”
They don’t teach you that in your music lessons.
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

9. DISCOVERY
“ I play a lot. I play for others; maybe there’s that
sense of the audience. It’s so cool when that
happens. You can control the silence. One of the
huge parts of Elgar is the ending of one of the last
movements is like that. It’s kind of scary, I mean
haunting, and then you have to start the last part.
It is about fifteen seconds before the end. The whole
last page is this gradual transition from grand to
deathly silent and sad, and then BOOM you go back
”
to the main motif! And the audience is like wow!
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

10. DISCOVERY
“ First you get the bare bones of the piece, the
technique. That’s when the musicality gets
infused and you bring your own style to it. Yo-Yo
Ma’s recording of Elgar with Jacqueline du Pré’s
husband, Daniel Barenboim, conducting is one
of my favorites. The key player you think of when
you think of Elgar is Jacqueline du Pré. She died of
multiple sclerosis. When you hear this performance
with Jacqueline’s husband conducting, there’s
”
that added dimension of history behind it.
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

11. DISCOVERY
“ It makes that haunting silence behind it even more
haunting. How do you practice for special moments
like that? It’s pretty hard — you can try your best to
do the physical movements. Slowing the movement
of the bow, slowing the vibrato, but in the end what
makes that so special is the audience.
It’s so much more fun to play with an audience.
It was in those moments when I started to feel the
audience more instead of just playing the music
”
and taking a bow at the end.
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

12. ROOTS
“ My mom said I was WAY
too small for the double
bass, though. She said
to start with something
smaller, so I tried the cello.
I never looked back at the
double bass. Now when I
see them I say, “Boy they
”
gotta carry a lot of stuff.”
Photo: Mark Kitaoka
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

13. SHARING
Photo: Peter Rodgers
LOCAL MARIN SCHOOL VISITS, A GREAT EXAMPLE OF NATHAN’S GENEROUS SPIRIT
On January 12, 2012, Nathan took a break from his studies at Columbia University-Julliard
School Excange to give talks at San Marin High and Hamilton Middle School in Novato
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

14. SHARING
Nathan spoke and
performed parts of the
Elgar Concerto and
favorite pieces that
enchanted dozens of
music students at San
Marin High School in
Novato.
Photo: Peter Rodgers
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

15. SHARING
Photo: Peter Rodgers
The audience at Hamilton Middle School in Novato enthusiastically responded to Nathan’s
energy and performances. Nathan spontaneously played an audience request, the theme from
Mario on his YouTube channel, usually for two cellos. Nathan improvised on the spot as a solo!
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

16. SHARING
Photo: Peter Rodgers
The enthusiasm spilled out of the hall into the grounds at Hamilton, where Nathan spent nearly
an hour signing autographs and answering questions.
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

17. FUTURE
“ In July I have a concert in Hong Kong. I have
an internship in Silicon Valley with an iPhone
company called Bump. I’m thinking of doing some
marketing for them. It’s a funny story how I got my
first iPhone. I had the money saved up to purchase
an iPhone, but my parents didn’t want me to get
that monthly plan. I was so determined to get that
iPhone that I recorded my own song and put it in
iTunes and got monthly revenue. When they saw
”
that, they said okay.
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

18. FUTURE
“ Writing the song and
posting it got me
interested in business.
The joy of seeing whole
process come together
was exhilarating. I really
like social networking.
That sense of connection
”
with others is pretty cool.
Photo: Peter Rodgers
Featured Artist | Nathan Chan, cello | Youthful Brillance | Concert No. 3

19. Nathan
Chan
Youthful Brilliance
PROGRAM 3
Sunday, Januar y 29, 2012 at 3pm
Tuesday, Januar y 31, 2012 at 7:30pm
Alasdair Neale, conductor
Nathan Chan, cello
Liebermann Symphony No. 3
Elgar Cello Concerto
Dvorák No. 9, “From the New World”
Connect with us: 415.479.8100, www.marinsymphony.org
Lowell
Liebermann
Fresh. Local. Music. Alasdair Neale
Photo: Hanh Nguyen Photo: Christian Steiner Photo: Matthew Washburn