Aaron Chan

Aaron Chan was the 2023 winner of Musicus Society's Young Artist Audition.

He remembers sitting in the backseat of his parent’s car as a kid, driving around the chaotic streets of Hong Kong and hearing Fritz Kreisler tunes on the radio. Something about the clear sweet sound of the violin appealed to him. His family had no particular interest in classical music, but Aaron liked it well enough and playing an instrument would help his chances of getting into a good elementary school. So his parents signed him up for violin lessons.

Learning the violin was fun, and Chan quickly excelled. Before long, he realised that the simple act of pulling a bow across the strings, of creating something beautiful in the moment, could result in a life-changing experience for the person listening. As a quiet, shy boy, he discovered that music could transcend words and gave him a voice.

Chan was helped by a great teacher in Hong Kong who believed in his potential. He studied violin and viola before leaving home at 18 to work with the charismatic Korean violinist Jinjoo Cho at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He followed her to Montreal when she joined the faculty at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.

And today, he is on a musical roll. He has won the Sylva Gelber Award – a prize given to exceptional young Canadian musicians – twice. He had won the all-important concerto competition at every music school he attended: Cleveland Institute of Music and McGill University for his bachelor’s, and the Shepherd School at Rice University in Houston for his master’s. He is currently a resident of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

His performance was praised by critics as displaying “singing tone…bravura technique and poetic imagination. Bravo!”

Chan especially loves playing chamber music, finding total joy in communicating with other musicians through sound alone. He has spent summers at the McGill International String Quartet Academy, the ENCORE Chamber Music Festival in Cleveland and the Verbier Festival’s Soloist and Chamber Music Academy in Switzerland. He is also fascinated with jazz and the freedom it offers, where “mistakes” open up possibilities and playing with a group is a way of sharing musical ideas that is completely spontaneous and limitless.

Chan thrives on the excitement and unpredictability of live concerts. He is inspired by musicians who play like no one else, and whose approach may seem outside the ordinary yet still manage to pierce the heart. It is the ideal he strives for.

Source: Musicus Society