As a composer, Prof. Chan was the first Resident Composer of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and has written 9 symphonies plus over 200 musical works. Seven of his nine Symphonies were published on CD by Hugo Productions performed by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and Voronezh State Symphony Orchestra in Russia, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. His over 200 compositions range from western and Chinese orchestral and chamber works to choral music, hymns and children songs. Some of his music scores were published locally and internationally including the People’s Music Publishing in Beijing.

Internationally he has received First Prize in the International Double Reed Society Composition Contest, USA; the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Award from the Asian Composers League, and the 20th Century Masterpiece Award by the China Culture Promotion Society, Beijing. Locally he received the Composer of the Year Award from the Hong Kong Artists’ Guild (1991), the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award (1992), TVB Children Song Gold Award, CASH Golden Sail Music Awards 2004 and 2007.

His works had been performed in the International Society for Contemporary Music-World Music Days Festival in Stuttgart, Germany; Summer Music Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia; Trieste Prima Festival in Trieste, Italy; Alesander Tansman Music Festival in Lodz, Poland; Festival LIM 2Mil in Madrid and the Festival BBK in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; Klang-Klee Festival to commemorate Paul Klee in Winterthur and Bern, Switzerland; and music festivals in Argentina, Australia, USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Russia, Romania, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines and Mainland China. His biography is included in the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians Online.

As a conductor, Prof. Chan is the Music Director of the Hong Kong Oratorio Society(established in 1956) since 1995 and has been leading this choir with regular concerts and occasional concert tours to perform oratorios and other sacred masterpieces. In 2017 he brought the choir and orchestra to perform his Symphony No.8 ‘This Boundless Land’ for organ, choir and orchestra in the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with great success. In 2019 he will bring the choir together with the Vancouver Oratorio Society to Toronto to premiere his Symphony No.9 ‘Universal Harmony. The Hong Kong Government appointed him Justice of the Peace in 2000. He was invited to become a Council member of the Chinese Musicians Association in 2009.

He received his BA in music from the Chinese University of Hong Kong studying composition with Professor David Gwilt. He went on to finish his Master and Doctor of Music degrees from the University of Toronto on a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship studying with Professor John Beckwith. He had also attended the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music with a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service.

Chan had been Associate Dean of Arts, Professor of Music and Chairman of the Music Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Deputy Director at HKU SPACE and Vice-President of the Centennial College established by HKU. He is now a Council member of China Musicians Association, Chairman of the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong, Music Director of the Hong Kong Oratorio Society, Council member of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Chairman of the HK Association of Choral Societies, Adjunct Professor at CUHK and advisor to numerous groups including the Hong Kong Dance Company and Hong Kong Children’s Choir.