Elim Chan served as principal conductor of the Antwerp Symphony between 2019 and 2024 and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra between 2018 and 2023. She debuted at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2023, and returned for the First Night of the Proms 2024. Last summer also saw her reunite with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the opening of the Hollywood Bowl’s classical summer season and with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, as well as her debuts with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for the opening of the Salzburg Festival and with the Potsdam Kammerakademie for the opening of Beethovenfest Bonn.

Highlights of Chan’s 2024–25 season include two tours with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra as well as return engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Finnish Radio Symphony, and Sydney Symphony. She also debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, and Melbourne Symphony. Previous debuts include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in January 2023.

Born in Hong Kong, Chan studied at Smith College and at the University of Michigan. In 2014 she became the first female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and went on to spend her 2015–16 season as assistant conductor at the London Symphony, where she worked closely with Valery Gergiev. In the following season, Elim Chan joined the Dudamel Fellowship program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She also owes much to the support and encouragement of Bernard Haitink, whose masterclasses she attended in Lucerne.