Michellina Chan

Michellina Chan, 陈嘉灵, is a Singaporean saxophonist, educator & interdisciplinary collaborator. Michellina’s musical endeavours span 3 continents, more than 17,000 km. After graduating from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (MCM) with a Bachelor of Music (Performance) with First Class Honours,she won the highly coveted Welsford Smithers Memorial Travelling Scholarship which made her European adventures possible. She went on to pursue a Master of Music studying with Arno Bornkamp at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of the Arts and the Diplôme d'Etudes Musicales (DEM) at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux Jacques Thibaud, Bordeaux, France under the tutelage of Marie-Bernadette Charrier.

A champion for chamber music and new music, Michellina co-founded Xin Saxophone Quartet in 2016, one of Singapore’s first professional saxophone chamber groups. To date, they have commissioned 6 new pieces from local Singaporean composers. Inspired by their adventure abroad sees Michellina in a recent project, K⼝U, an unconventional mixed instrumental quartet aiming to revolutionise the average concert-going experience. K⼝U innovates by engaging multiple senses of the audience, allowing one to fully immerse the mind of production.

Having ventured into ballet at a young age, Michellina resparked this passion in 2015 with Duo plastiCITY (with dancer Valerie Lim) to create interdisciplinary performances that challenges not only gravity but the perception of audiences towards classical contemporary music.

As a soloist and educator, Michellina has performed and taught at several international festivals such as Melbourne Summer Saxophone Academy, Kuching Youth Band Fiesta, World Saxophone Congress 2015 & 2018, Asian Saxophone Congress 2016 & 2019, Singapore Saxophone Symposium, Wind Band Association Singapore Youth Band Festival and Performers, Present International Artistic Research Symposium (Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music). Michellina currently holds the position of Adjunct Lecturer of Saxophone at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore.

Photo credit: Andrew Ng