Alana Chan
Alana Chan is an active conductor, music educator, adjudicator, examiner, and pianist across Canada, America, Europe, Macau and China. With a deep passion for conducting, she was recognised as one of the Top Emerging Canadian Conductors at the RBC Canadian Conductors Showcase where she made her guest debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. She is the Music Director of the Simon Fraser University Concert Orchestra since 2015, and A Little Night Music Orchestra since 2018. The orchestras she has conducted include the London Serenata, Prague Summer Nights Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Pacific Region International Summer Music AcademyOrchestra, Hong Kong Symphonia, Hong Kong Elite Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra on concert tour in Vienna. She also conducted the Chamber Orchestra of New York at the International Respighi Conducting Competition where she was the first female conductor tobe awarded Honorable Mention in Carnegie Hall. In the summer of 2018, Alana was the Assistant Cover Conductor for the fully staged opera of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” at the Prague Summer NightsMusic Festival in the historical Estates Theater (the only standing theater where Mozart conducted in) in Prague. She also conducted a staged opera scenes concert in Tabor, Czech Republic.
Alana was invited to return to Prague in 2019 for the production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and “Marriage of Figaro”. Back home in Canada, she was invited to conduct the musical production “Once Upon a Mattress” by Rodgers and Barer, presented by the North Shore Light Opera Society in May 2019. Alana was the International Ambassador and Conductor for the project “Recuperar Bomtempo” in collaboration with the “Associação
Cultural Ekletica” and the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, where the Piano Concerto no.3 by João Domingos Bomtempo was rediscovered and showcased as a Canadian premiere in Vancouver with A Little Night Music Orchestra in their 50 th Season Finale in 2023. Alana’s conducting teachers and mentors include Dr. John Farrer, Professor Howard Williams, Dirk Brossé, Salvatore Di Vittorio, Timothy Long, John Nardolillo, Frank Klassen, Ken Hsieh, Darrell Ang, Jonathan Darlington, Arthur Arnold, Jimmy Chiang, and Professor Mark Shapiro with whom she studied with at The Juilliard School in the Advanced Conducting Intensive Program.
In her earlier musical career as a pianist, Alana has won numerous awards including First Place in the Canadian Music Competition, First Prize in the Kay Meek Competition, and was placed top ten in the International Pacific Piano Competition. This was followed by her debut piano concerto performance with legendary Maestro Victor Feldbrill and The Vancouver Academy of Music Orchestra at the prestigious Orpheum Theatre. She is an alumnus of the Vancouver Academy of Music where she studied with Professors Saida Matyukov and Lee Kum Sing. In Hong Kong, she studied with renowned pianist Choi Sown Le. Alana attained her Master of Arts degree in Music with Distinction, and was awarded the Scholastic Award for being the top of her graduating class from the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). A few years later, she was featured in the Hong Kong Ming-Pao Daily newspaper (Feb.2nd 2018 issue) for being one of the most successful alumni of HKBU. Upon invitation, she wrote and published an article on “Playing Together as One” for The Pianist Magazine (Issue 9). In recent years, Alana was featured in the Japanese magazine Fraser Monthly, the Fairchild Chinese Radio, and was interviewed on Fairchild TV of Vancouver in 2020 after she created and directed a music video with A Little Night Music Orchestra dedicated to everyone in the world affected by Covid-19 and discussed how music can promote healing.
Alana’s abundance of music teaching experience involved leading music workshops, school bands and choirs. She founded and taught the school choir for children with special needs at the Jockey Club Sarah Roe School of the English Schools Foundation in Hong Kong. Alana was on faculty at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In 2012, she was invited by the Government of Hong Kong to give a series of “Summer Music Workshops – First Music Lessons” for two consecutive summers. In Canada, Alana is currently on faculty at the Vancouver Academy of Music in the Piano & Theory Depts and the College Division of the S.K. Lee College. She is also an Examiner and Advanced Specialist of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Piano, Music Theory & History. The competitions she adjudicated include the Canadian Music Competition (CMC), the 20 th Asia Piano Open Competition, Vancouver International Music Competition, The Pacific Rim International Music Festival, 25 th & 26 th Annual Edith Lando Gifted
Youth Music Competition, Phyllis Salter Annual Piano Competition, Vancouver Academy of Music Junior and Intermediate Symphony Concerto Competitions, Mozart School of Music Vancouver Piano Concerto Competition, and Mastery School of Music Concerto Competition. She is currently the Vice President of the Vancouver International Music Competition and the Canada International Arts and Music Society; and has served on the board for the Vancouver Women’s Musical Society.
Besides music, she has also made contributions in the field of Chemistry and was awarded the Vice President Research Award from the Simon Fraser University.