Susan Chan
Violist Susan Chan is co-founder and Artistic Coordinator of the New Century String Quartet based at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center since 1999. Formerly the Accord Chamber Music Society of San Francisco, the NCSQ has earned high praise from California and Indiana critics. The NCSQ has also been featured in the Indianapolis Star, WFYI "Art of the Matter" for its distinctive programming, commissions and performances. Selections of its performances can be heard on WICR and WFIU as well. In addition to the NCSQ concerts and numerous Faculty Artist Series concerts at UIndy, Susan Chan also performed in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Guest appearances include collaborations with the late Rostislav Dubinsky (of the Borodin Trio); the Oxford String Quartet (OH); Suzuki and Friends; the Ronen Chamber Ensemble; Scott Chamber Players; and bassoonist Kim Walker at Indiana University in Bloomington. At Festivals at Princeton University (NJ), Tanglewood (MA), Grand Tetons (WY), Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg, Germany), and Music in the Mountains (CA), she has performed numerous chamber works including the premiere of a viola sonata written for her. A former member of the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia San Francisco and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, she also appears frequently with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.
A student of the late Walter Trampler, she also studied chamber music with the Juilliard String Quartet, Rostislav Dubinsky and Louis Krasner. A fellow at IHEM, Switzerland and twice a fellow at the Tanglewood Festival, she served as Principal Viola under conductors Seiji Ozawa and Gunther Schuller.
She holds a masters degree from Indiana University (Bloomington) where she was an Associate Instructor in Viola in 1980-82. She also serves as an adjudicator for several scholarship funds and regional orchestral Young Artist Competitions in Indiana. A recipient of the 2005-2006 Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship awarded by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, she will be researching and performing chamber music which promotes the viola from the late 1500s to the present.