Isaac Chan is a Music student at Clare College, University of Cambridge. He is conductor of the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra, in his capacity of Conducting Scholar at the Cambridge Centre of Music Performance. He studies conducting with Sian Edwards (Royal Academy of Music), and collaborative piano with Joseph Middleton. He looks forward to starting Masters' studies in Orchestral Conducting at the Juilliard School with David Robertson in September 2026.
Isaac has played the French horn from a young age, and has played as principal horn with the Pro Arte Orchestra of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Youth Orchestra and many others. He spent sixth form at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, and was awarded the Birchall Memorial Prize for Brass for his work in solo and ensemble playing in 2023.
Recent solo engagements include Mozart’s 4th horn concerto (Clare College), Britten’s Serenade (King’s College) and first horn in Schumann’s Konzertstück for 4 horns (Trinity College).
Isaac started his conducting studies with Mr. Ho-Man Choi. During his time at Chetham’s he founded the Chetham’s Camerata and Operetta, a student-led chamber group, with whom he made his debut of Hansel and Gretel in 2022. In 2024, Isaac was Conductor of the Hong Kong Youth Philharmonia, where he made his Hong Kong debut of Mahler’s First Symphony. At Cambridge, Isaac is active in orchestral, operatic and chamber ensemble conducting as Conducting Scholar at Cambridge. He is regularly engaged by Trinity College Music Society to conduct concerts, including Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Strauss' Four Last Songs, as well as a commemorative mass performance of Faure’s Requiem at the composer’s centenary. He has recently conducted a world premiere of Jeremy Thurlow's oratorio Earthquake in the Soul with Lady Clare's Consort & Ensemble, which is a passion based on the life and words of Hildegard von Bingen.
He has worked with and been mentored by renowned conductors such as Jac van Steen, Nicolas Pasquet, Grant Llewellyn, Colin Metters, Dominic Wheeler, and Timothy Redmond; and has been assistant conductor on projects with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Cambridge University Orchestra, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, Outcry Ensemble & the East Anglia Chamber Orchestra.
Isaac is an active repetiteur and collaborative pianist, especially in string and vocal (German and English song in particular) repertoire. He is a pianist on Cambridge University’s flagship Instrumental Award Scheme, where he plays in a piano trio, and is also a pianist on the Sir Arthur Bliss Lieder Scheme. He is currently the Artistic Director of the University's West Road Concert Series, where he curates concerts, and performs in the capacity of collaborative pianist,
Beyond performance, Isaac is a keen scholar of academic music, counting 19th century Germanic (instrumental and vocal) music as his main interest, while also enjoying intersections between music, literature and philosophy. His current undergraduate academic project is on Schenkerian theory and its broader application to turn-of-the-century music by Strauss and Berg. He is one of very few candidates to be twice-awarded the Donald Wort Prize by Cambridge's Faculty of Music for academic excellence, and was previously awarded Chetham’s Prize in Academic Music upon graduation. In 2024, Isaac was the inaugural speaker of the James Legge Culturati Award Scheme (Hong Kong), and has since become an Associate Artist of the scheme, where he continues to convene in events on music, art and literature.
