Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” – Summer Symphony Nights

Born in Hong Kong, Elim Chan became the first female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in December 2014. As a result, she held the position of assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in the 2015-16 season and was appointed to the Dudamel Fellowship program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2016-17 season.

Beginning this season, Elim holds the position as principal conductor of the orchestra of NorrlandsOperan with a symphony season in Umeå and concert tours in Sweden, including stops at Stockholm Konserthuset and Göteborg Konserthuset. She becomes principal guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Highlights this season include debuts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Orchestra national de Lyon, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, among others. Elim will return to the London Symphony Orchestra for concerts in London and at the Music Academy of the West near Santa Barbara, and to the Orquesta Filarmónica de Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico where she is principal guest conductor.

Recent notable highlights include her North American debuts with orchestras in Berkeley, Detroit and Chicago; the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra; the Lucerne Festival with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra; Orchestra Philharmonie Luxembourg; National Orchestra of Belgium; The Australian Youth Orchestra and Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria as well as a return visit to the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Previous engagements include her debuts with National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa, and in 2012, with the Orchestre de la Francophonie as part of the NAC Summer Music Institute where she worked with Pinchas Zukerman, her participation in the Musical Olympus Festival in St. Petersburg, workshops with the Cabrillo Festival and Baltimore orchestras (with Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz and Gustav Meier). She also took part in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink in Lucerne in 2015.
Elim Chan holds degrees from Smith College and the University of Michigan where she served as music director of the University of Michigan Campus Symphony Orchestra and the Michigan Pops Orchestra. She received the Bruno Walter Conducting Scholarship in 2013.

Venezuelan violinist Rubén Rengel, 22, winner of the 2018 annual Sphinx Competition, is currently pursuing his master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under the guidance of Paul Kantor. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Jaime Laredo and won the CIM Concerto Competition (2014), the Anna Y. Tringas Award for excellence in violin performance at CIM (2013) and the Juan Bautista Plaza National Violin Competition of Venezuela (2011).

As a soloist, he has appeared with the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the Firelands Symphony Orchestra, the CIM Orchestra, Virtuosi de Caracas, Filarmonía Caracas and Arcos Juveniles de Caracas, working with conductors such as Theodore Kuchar, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Carl Topilow, Andrew Grams and Ulyses Ascanio.

Rubén has performed at the Teatro Teresa Carreño in Caracas as a soloist, at the Kennedy Center as a representative of CIM, at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra Seminar and on tour with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. He has been concertmaster of the New York Orchestra Seminar, the Shepherd Symphony Orchestra, the CIM Orchestra, the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra and assistant concertmaster of the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

Rubén attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop and the Meadowmount School of Music. An avid chamber musician, he is a member of the Autana Trio, which won the bronze medal at the 2015 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. His chamber music coaches have included Sharon Robinson, Merry Peckham, Joel Smirnoff, Norman Fischer, James Dunham, Donald Weilerstein, Peter Salaff, Itzhak Perlman and Joseph Silverstein. He has participated in master classes with the Brentano String Quartet, Quatuor Ébène, Sylvia Rosenberg, Leon Fleisher, Peter Wiley and the Miró Quartet.

Rubén began violin at age 3, studying at the National System of Youth Orchestras of Venezuela (El Sistema) until 6. He later studied at the Emil Friedman Conservatory and School in Caracas with Maestro Ivan Pérez Núñez for 11 years. His performances of Venezuelan folk music and Jazz, allow him to develop a talent for improvisation. Rubén also has a strong interest in the art of conducting.