MANAGEMENT TEAM
Assoc Prof Chan Tze Law
Vice Dean (Communities & NUS Arts)
Academic Coordinator, Music, Collaboration & Production
Associate Professor Chan Tze Law is Vice Dean of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, where he is a founding faculty member. In 2023, he was appointed concurrently as Vice Dean of Students to oversee and reimagine the university’s Centre for the Arts, and he is the architect of NUS ‘Arts for All’, a framework for arts access for all NUS students.
Prof Chan holds performance qualifications in violin performance and teaching, Bachelor and doctoral degrees in conducting, and a Master’s degree in Arts and Cultural management. He embarked on his professional career originally as a violinist and chamber musician and co-founded the successful ‘The Chamber Circle’. He trained under distinguished violinists John Ludlow and Hugh Bean, and studied conducting under renowned maestros Christopher Adey and Norman Del Mar.
Prof Chan’s academic leadership spans multiple dimensions at YST Conservatory, where he lectures in conducting and music leadership while concurrently overseeing the conservatory’s Masters and Continuing Education and Training (CET) courses, Career Orientation and Community Engagement (COCE), and Student Life programs.
As a pedagogue, he is the founding chief conductor of the Australian International Summer Orchestral Institute and has conducted masterclasses at institutions such as the Peabody Institute (USA), Royal Academy of Music (UK), and Queensland Conservatorium (Australia). He has served on the selection committee of the Oxford Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference and conducted at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp in 2020 and 2022.
Since 2017, Prof Chan has co-presented leadership through music programs, including Prof Kenneth Paul Tan’s “Tune in to leadership” course at the annual Senior Management programme of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS, as well as workshops for NUS faculties and major Singapore and international business organisations.
As a conductor, Prof Chan has appeared at major European music festivals and led orchestras throughout China and the Asia Pacific region. His performances have garnered international critical acclaim, with his interpretation of Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the award-winning Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) and Sing50 concerts with Lang Lang and the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra being named “Best Concerts of 2015” by Singapore’s Sunday Times. Germany’s Der neue Merker noted that “listeners felt they have concluded a great journey of time and spirit,” while The West Australian praised his Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as “a tour de force.” Classical Voice America described his performance of Elgar’s The Music Makers in Taiwan as featuring “breathtaking walls of sound and intimate moments of haunting beauty.”
Prof Chan made history in 2020 when he conducted OMM and an international cast in Die Walküre at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore’s first-ever Wagner ring cycle opera production. Opera (UK) proclaimed that Chan “elicited a multitude of expressive nuances and drew immense power without force from his musicians.”
Prof Chan made his Singapore conducting debut with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2001. He currently serves as music director of Singapore’s Metropolitan Festival Orchestra (MFO) and the award-winning Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM). He recently returned to his chamber music roots as festival director and founder of the SoutheastAsian Chamberfest. His recordings have been featured on Singapore Airlines’ KrisWorld in-flight classical music selection and broadcast on Australia’s ABC Classic FM and UK’s BBC Radio 3, with recordings available on Spotify and Apple Music, and concert videos on YouTube.
For his outstanding contributions to Singapore’s cultural landscape, Prof Chan was bestowed the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore’s award for Artistic Excellence and Merit in 2018 and 2023 respectively, recognising his significant contributions to the Singapore music community.
YST CONSERVATORY
National University of Singapore
3 Conservatory Drive
Singapore 117376
