Elim Chan, 39, will begin serving as music director of the San Francisco Symphony in 2027, taking the podium for the 2027-28 season after signing a six-year contract. She will be the 13th music director in the orchestra’s 115-year history and the first woman to lead one of the Big 7 American orchestras. Chan is Hong Kong-born and US-trained, studying Italian and forensics at Smith College before joining the college choir. She won the Donatella Flick conducting competition in 2014, leading to an assistant conductor role with the London Symphony. She later served as principal conductor of the Antwerp Symphony and held principal guest and prominent conducting engagements, including the First Night of the Proms in 2024.
"Elim Chan is 39, she trains with a boxing coach, and as of this morning she is the next music director of the San Francisco Symphony, beginning in 2027. She is the 13th person to hold the job in the orchestra's 115-year history, and the first woman ever to lead one of the so-called “Big 7” American orchestras; the club that includes New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and us. That is a real ceiling, and it just broke in San Francisco."
"Chan joins other notable first women in the 2020s. Eun Sun Kim became the first woman to serve as music director of the San Francisco Opera, taking the post in 2021; her contract now runs through the 2030-31 season. Tamara Rojo, the former English National Ballet star and Royal Ballet principal, became artistic director of San Francisco Ballet in December 2022, and she has spent her tenure since commissioning new work and upending the classics."
"Chan signed a six-year contract, and she becomes music director designate immediately and takes the podium for real in September 2027, opening the 2027-28 season. If you want to meet her sooner, she conducts Davies on June 5 and 6: Wagner's Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and Debussy's La Mer. There is a party after the Friday show. Go. Bring someone who thinks the Symphony isn't for them."
"Hong Kong-born, US-trained, Chan landed at Smith College studying Italian and forensics before the college choir rerouted her entire life. In 2014 she became the first woman to win the Donatella Flick conducting competition in London, which got her a season as assistant conductor at the London Symphony. She was principal conductor of the Antwerp Symphony from 2019 to 2024, alongside a stint as principal guest at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra before that, and she conducted the First Night of the Proms in 2024."
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