From Apple fanboy to the youngest tenured member of the Seattle Symphony
Mar 29, 2019, 8:25 AM | Updated: Oct 10, 2024, 2:26 pm
Nathan Chan is a cellist who was performing Mozart at age 3. He has an econ degree from Columbia, and graduated from Juilliard School of Music in New York City. He is the youngest tenured member of the Seattle Symphony.
Now, Nathan is Entrepreneur of the Week on the Saul Spady Show.
“Most people don’t really associate musicians as being business-oriented, but I had a very interesting predicament growing up in that that I was a very big Apple fanboy,” Nathan explained.
Nathan really wanted the latest iPhone. He was fascinated with the technology, but his parents wanted him to pay for it himself.
“So pulled up GarageBand and I said ‘you know what, I have that’s some skill as a musician,'” he recalled. “And so I recorded a Super Mario Brothers theme song remixed for cello and I put that on iTunes and I actually created a data spreadsheet and sold enough of that song — 99 cents at a time — and I bought it.”
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“It was after that I realized, if you go from idea to execution you can really kind of get what you want; if you take your skill-set and put it together in a way that works — (since) I’m a professional musician people will buy my stuff.”
Nathan’s love of technology remains, and so did his love of music. He has 6.1 million views on YouTube. He became a member of the Seattle Symphony at age 23.
“The thing about being a professional musician now is I’m less motivated by the financial incentives of doing a certain project,” he said. “I’m motivated by the artistic fulfillment that I can get out of something and so I’m always weighing the benefits of the financial gain, but also what really makes me happy as a musician — and that’s, you know, playing for folks like you.”
Do you know any Seattle area entrepreneurs that we should have on the show? Comment below and let us know!
Listen to the Saul Spady Show weekdays from 6-9 a.m. on AM 770 KTTH.
