Chen just finished five memorable seasons as only the fourth Conductor and Music Director during Portland Youth Philharmonic’s 83 years of history (America’s first youth orchestra). In addition to her primary responsibilities at the PYP, Chen was also appointed by Carlos Kalmar as the Assistant Conductor of the Oregon Symphony from 2003 to 2005 and served numerous times as a guest cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

During Chen’s tenure with the PYP, she led its sold-out debut performance in Carnegie Hall which received standing ovation, and premiered works in Jordan Hall (Boston), Vermont and Maine.

Other accomplishments include receiving the 2005 ASCAP award for her creative programming with the PYP, establishing new partnerships with the Oregon Symphony and Chamber Music Northwest, and developing a new musicianship training program which provides young musicians with exposure to Chamber Orchestra Literature, Composition, Conducting, Music History, and Theory.

For her outstanding work as a dedicated educator, Chen was honored with a Sunburst Award from Young Audiences and was named Educator of the Week by a major radio station in Portland (OR).

Chen’s national honors include an invitation from the American Symphony Orchestra League to be showcased with the Jacksonville Symphony during 2003 National Conductor Preview, a fellowship to study at the renowned Aspen Music Festival with David Zinman, and an invitation from Leonard Slatkin to conduct the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC as part of 2002 National Conducting Institute.

Prior to coming to Portland, Chen was a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan where she studied with Kenneth Kiesler and Martin Katz, served as Music Director of the Campus Symphony/Philharmonia Orchestras, and conducted performances of three complete opera productions as Conductor for the newly established Arbor Opera Theater and Assistant Conductor for the University of Michigan Opera Department.

In addition to conducting, Chen is also an accomplished violinist. She has performed under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, and has appeared in Tanglewood Music Festival and Carnegie Hall. As the recipient of the Alexander Schneider Memorial Award, she performed Haydn’s string quartet “The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross” with Laurence Lesser, Masuko Ushioda, and Scott Nickrenz in the renowned chamber music series at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum concert series in Boston.

Born in Taiwan, Chen began playing the violin and piano at age seven. Her violin performance came to the attention of Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at the New England Conservatory, while the YPO was touring in Asia in 1989.

Consequently, she was invited to study violin on a scholarship at the New England Conservatory with Marylou Speaker Churchill, James Buswell, Eric Rosenblith, and chamber music with Eugene Lehner (the violist in the legendary Kolisch String Quartet), Colin Carr, and Borromeo String Quartet.

Chen went on to receive the first Double Master’s degree simultaneously in Orchestral Conducting and Violin in NEC’s history and was awarded two of its most prestigious medals:
- Chadwick Medal for being the most outstanding undergraduate and
- Schuller Medal for her extraordinary contribution to musical life in the community.

Chen came to Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as a member of the American Conducting Fellows Program, a national conductor-training program developed and managed by the American Symphony Orchestra League to support the musical and leadership development of exceptionally talented conductors in the early stages of their professional careers. Aiming to improve the qualifications of American conductors to assume leadership roles as music directors of American orchestras, the program is funded by major grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.