Andrew Wan has been Concertmaster of the Orchester symphonique de Montréal since 2008, while pursuing an acclaimed international career as soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist. He has performed with leading orchestras across North America, Europe, and Asia, appearing under conductors including Rafael Payare, Kent Nagano, Maxim Vengerov, Vasily Petrenko, Bernard Labadie, Carlo Rizzi, Peter Oundjian, Xian Zhang, Michael Stern, and James DePreist.
A dedicated chamber musician, Wan is a founding member of the New Orford String Quartet, one of Canada’s most acclaimed ensembles, noted for its dynamic performances and award-winning discography. He has also collaborated with the Juilliard Quartet, Vadim Repin, Marc-André Hamelin, Daniil Trifonov, Menahem Pressler, Jörg Widmann, Emanuel Ax, Johannes Moser, Arabella Steinbacher, James Ehnes, and Gil Shaham, and is a frequent guest at leading festivals such as Seattle Chamber Music, La Jolla SummerFest, Ottawa Chamberfest, Toronto Summer Music, Orford Musique, St. Prex, Colorado College, and Olympic. He regularly appears as guest concertmaster with the Pittsburgh, Houston, Indianapolis, National Arts Center, Toronto, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras.
His discography spans Grammy-nominated, Juno, Félix, and Opus award-winning recordings on the Analekta, Onyx, Bridge, and Naxos labels with ensembles including the Seattle Chamber Music Society, New York’s Metropolis Ensemble, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and the New Orford String Quartet. With the OSM and Kent Nagano, his albums of the Saint-Saëns violin concertos and of works for violin and orchestra by Bernstein, Moussa, and Ginastera earned international acclaim, the latter winning the 2021 Juno Award for Best Classical Album (Large Ensemble). His duo partnership with Richard-Hamelin has produced the complete Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin, including a 2022 Juno Award–winning album, followed by the Schumann sonatas in 2022. Their next project, a complete cycle of the Brahms sonatas, will be released in 2026.
Wan studied at The Juilliard School, earning Bachelor, Master, and Artist Diploma degrees. He is Associate Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, where his students have gone on to win prizes at national and international competitions and to secure positions—including principal chairs—in major North American orchestras. He was Artistic Partner of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in 2017–18 and received the Schulich School of Music’s Part-Time Teaching Award in 2019.
Wan performs on a 1744 Michel’Angelo Bergonzi violin, on loan from the David Sela Collection, and an 1860 Dominique Peccatte bow generously provided by Canimex.
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