David Chin, DMA

Biography 

Dr. David Chin is a long-term visiting assistant professor of music within Augustana University's School of Music, where he directs the inaugural Bach Cantata Series, conducts various ensembles, as well as teaches music history and conducting. He is the founder and artistic director of Bachfest Malaysia and conductor of the award-winning Malaysia Bach Festival Singers and Orchestra. Their recent performance under Chin's direction at Bach's St. Thomas Church during the international Bachfest Leipzig in Germany was praised by Leipziger Volkszeitung for being "delicate, immaculately intoned, clearly articulated, smoothly phrased and as intelligent as it is boldly dynamic... rounded, yet transparently differentiated, magnificently bright and very eloquent sound... a first class concert." In 2022, Chin was named a senior fellow of Bach-Archiv Leipzig — becoming the fourth person to receive this honorary title since the institution's founding in 1950.

Chin has conducted all the major works by J.S. Bach and more than three dozen Bach cantatas. He has also led choirs and orchestras around the world in numerous major works by composers ranging from the Renaissance era to the 21st century, world premieres, a capella to choral-orchestral works, and standard repertoire to vocal jazz and Broadway musicals. He has performed and taught throughout the United States and Malaysia, as well as in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Canada, Germany and Italy. Also a versatile keyboardist, Chin has received awards for his performances as a concerto soloist on both harpsichord and piano. He has performed as harpsichordist in a collaboration with Ton Koopman at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, and played the organ for concerts presented by the Arnstadt Bach Choir, Capella Arnestati and Ukrainian Youth Symphony Orchestra. As an enthusiastic church musician raised in the Lutheran Church in Malaysia, Chin began as a church pianist at 12 years old and conducting the church choir at 16. Since then, he has served Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist and Anglican churches around the world.

Besides maintaining a vibrant performing career, Chin is equally active in the fields of education and musicology. He has served as director of choral activities and music professor at multiple universities, and his conducting students have been admitted to graduate programs at prominent institutions. In October 2023, he presented a talk at the Performers’ Present International Artistic Research Symposium hosted by Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore. He has also presented lectures and masterclasses at UCSI University in Malaysia and Silpakron University in Thailand. Chin translated renowned Bach scholar Michael Maul’s Bach: A Pictorial Biography from German into Chinese. The same year, he presented his paper, "Bach in the Far East," at the American Bach Society in Philadelphia. He was also commissioned by Bach-Archiv Leipzig to produce the Chinese version of the largest Bach database website. In 2020, Chin produced "Encountering Bach," a documentary on the life and music of J.S. Bach, which was filmed exclusively in Germany.

Chin is the music advisor of the National Chinese Independent High Schools in Malaysia, where he edits music textbook and trains music teachers throughout the nation.

Chin holds a master’s and doctoral degree in conducting from the Eastman School of Music, where he received full scholarships. He was also awarded the prestigious Harvey Fellowship by the Mustard Seed Foundation in 2015 and Burton Fellowship Awards for German Studies in Germany in 2017. His motto is Philippians 4:13.