07:00 pm
Elim Chan Conductor
María Dueñas Violin
Frederik Hanssen Introduction
JOHANNES BRAHMS · Violin Concerto in D major op. 77 (1878-1879)
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF · Symphony No. 2 in E minor op. 27 (1906-1907)
Here’s a women’s team to look forward to! The conductor Elim Chan, originally from Hong Kong, trained in the USA and living in the Netherlands, has made a name for herself in recent years with talent and temperament, leading the most renowned orchestras in Europe and America. The Spanish violinist María Dueñas, only 24 years old, has already enjoyed a meteoric career, which reaches further milestones this season with debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic. Even with these stellar references, the concert at Young Euro Classic does not have to hide its light under a bushel, for the EUYO, uniting the best young players from all EU countries, represents the cream of the crop of international youth orchestras. The programme reflects these Olympian heights: the first part features the extremely challenging yet melodious Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms, and the second the Second Symphony by Sergey Rachmaninov, a work hardly less popular. Together, the EUYO and Elim Chan will find plenty of opportunity to blend gorgeous sound and temperament.
Introduction and Q&A at 6:00 PM with Frederik Hanssen in the Werner-Otto Saal. Entry with a concert ticket.
Language: German
The European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) comprises approximately 120 young musicians aged 16-26, selected annually from over 3000 applicants across all 27 EU Member States. Established in 1976, the EUYO is a unique bridge between conservatoires and the professional world, fostering Europe’s best musical talents and collaborating with the finest conductors and soloists in the world, from Founding Music Director Claudio Abbado to current incumbent Iván Fischer. The EUYO has performed in major concert halls and festivals worldwide, such as the BBC Proms, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. Recent accolades include the Medal of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella for performances at the 2023 Bolzano Festival Bozen, the Golden Prague International Festival Crystal Award for the best-televised concert of 2022, and the European Cultural Brand of the Year 2020. The EUYO is supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, Grafenegg, the Department of Art and Culture of the Provincial Government of Lower Austria, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Comune di Bolzano, and the European Union’s 27 Member States.
The Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan made her most recent appearance in Berlin at the 2025 Musikfest, her debut with the Staatskapelle Berlin; she has previously led the Deutsches Symphonieorchester DSO and the Konzerthaus Orchestra. These concerts are part of the long list of renowned orchestras worldwide which Elim Chan has recently conducted. During the 2025/26 season, she returned to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Staatskapelle Dresden, among others. Debuts took the 39-year-old to the Munich Philharmonic, the Bamberger Symphoniker and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. A special career highlight was her performance at the First Night of the Proms in London in 2024, followed by the legendary Last Night of the Proms in 2025. Elim Chan studied at Smith College in Massachusetts and at the University of Michigan. In 2014, she was the first woman to win the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition. She was mentored by the conductors Valery Gergiev and Bernard Haitink.
Winning the Yehudi Menuhin Competition in 2021 was not the first event that catapulted María Dueñas into the premiere league of most promising violinists. The list of orchestras she has played with is long and prominent; in Berlin, she most recently appeared with the Staatskapelle Berlin under the baton of Christian Thielemann. The list of conductors she has worked with contains further resounding names: Herbert Blomstedt, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Antonio Pappano. Among the season highlights of 2025/26 are her debuts with eh Vienna Philharmonic under Karina Canellakis and the New York Philharmonic under Manfred Honeck. An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, she chose Beethoven’s Violin Concerto for her debut CD, writing her own cadenzas. The second album featured the 24 Caprices for solo violin by Niccolò Paganini, flanked by further works from Hector Berlioz to Gabriela Ortiz, all inspired by the “devil’s violinist”. Born in 2002 in Granada in Spain, the 12-year-old won a scholarship to the Dresden Music Academy, later studying with Boris Kushnir in Vienna. She made her Young Euro Classic debut in 2023 with the Concertgebouworkest YOUNG under Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
Frederik Hanssen, born in 1969 in Berlin, studied musicology and French philology in his hometown as well as in Clermont-Ferrand and Milan. From 1998 until the end of 2025, he worked as an editor for classical music at the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel. In addition to his journalistic work, he is active in music education serving as the author of programme booklets, concert moderations, and speaker for introductory lectures. Frederik Hanssen lives with his family in Berlin and Rome.