Andre Chan

Hailing from Hong Kong, Andre Chan is a conductor based in Manchester. In recent seasons, he has led the BBC Philharmonic in numerous studio and educational concerts, and assisted various major orchestras in the Northwest including the Hallé, RLPO, Manchester Camerata, and latterly the BBC Philharmonic, including at the BBC Proms. Equally at ease before orchestras as well as choirs, Andre has conducted the RNCM Chamber Choir on several occasions, including performances alongside the Edvard Grieg Vokalensemble, as well as presenting Roxanna Panufnik’s music at Wigmore Hall with the composer in attendance.

​Outside of conducting, Andre is an avid researcher on the music of Hans Gál, a Viennese-Jewish (and later British émigré) composer whose successful career in interwar Germany was upended by Nazism. Andre is currently involved in editorial work on Gál's music, and also in a PhD project at the RNCM investigating the history of German choral music in the early to mid-twentieth century through a historiographical perspective, so as to better situate Gál’s oeuvre within twentieth century music history, i.e. beyond more general categorizations like “exile music”. As both a performer and academic, Andre sees it as his mission and duty to return persecuted or silenced composers like Gál to the repertory, and seeks to inspire audiences with not only the beauty of classical music, but also the manifold stories found therein. 

Prior to his time at the RNCM, where he pursued conducting with Mark Heron and Clark Rundell, Andre completed a MSt in Music (Musicology) at Oxford with the support of the Rhodes Scholarship, and a BA in Music and Philosophy at Columbia, where he led Columbia Bach Society.

• Music philology & editions
• Exile and identity in music
• Historiography of twentieth century music
• Music under Nazism