Gwhyneth Chen

Ms Gwhyneth Chen (陳毓襄)(Born: July 29, 1970) a Taiwanese American pianist who in 1993, won the biggest cash prize in the history of piano competitions, ($100,000.00.) Ms. Chen, then a young lady of 23, was the youngest contestant at the 1993 Ivo Pogorelich International Piano Competition. Subsequent to the award, Mr. Pogorelich himself said of her talent, “She is too good to be true.” Immediately recognized as one of the foremost pianists of her generation, the victory was broadcast internationally on CNN television.

Born in Taiwan, Ms Chen emigrated to the United States with her family in 1980, where she continued her musical studies with Eduardo Delgado, Robert Turner, and Aube Tzerko. She received her Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees from the Juilliard School. While in New York, her teachers were Martin Canin, Byron Janis and Yin Cheng-Zong.

At the age of nineteen, she was a laureate in the 1990 Tschaikovsky International Piano Competition. In 1992, she was once again a laureate, this time in the Prokofieff International Piano Competition. She was the grand prize winner of the International Web Concert Audition Competition in 1999, and her first performance with orchestra was at age eleven when she performed Prokofieff’s Third Piano Concerto.

A leading Chinese musical figure, Gwhyneth Chen was included in the 1995 edition of The One Hundred Most Successful Chinese People and appeared in a nationally televised gala concert at the Presidential Palace in the presence of President Lee of Taiwan, and in 2002, she was invited to perform and speak in Washington D.C. in celebration of the first Peace Travel of Madame Chen Wu, Sue-Jen, First Lady of the Republic of China on Taiwan, to the United States. She has been a jury member in the Taiwan Chopin Piano Competition in 2005 and 1999, the 2003 First Taiwan International Piano Competition, the 2003 Asian Division of the 6th Monopoli International Piano Competition, and the 1998 Taiwan Young Artists International Competition.

Ms Chen has appeared with an outstanding number of orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Moscow Radio Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Kyushu Symphony of Japan, Taiwan National Orchestra, Shanghai Symphonic, Moscow State Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, Pacific Symphonic, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Taipei City Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Orchestre de Fresne, Zagreb Philharmonic, and Lake Placid Symphonietta.

Ms Chen has collaborated with David Atherton and the Hong Kong Philharmonic on a tour of the United States and Canada, with Vladmir Fedoseyev and the Moscow Radio Symphony throughout North America and Mexico, and completed an exciting tour of Taiwan with the Russian Philharmonic under Vladimir Ponkin. For the extravagant debut of the New Colorado Symphony, she was chosen as the first soloist performing the Tschaikovsky First Piano Concerto before a crowd of 15,000 at the McNichols Stadium.

In 1994, Gwhyneth Chen made her recital debut in Munich at Herculessal, followed by a recital tour of Croatia and Spain. That same year, she played the opening concert of the season in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev performing the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. In 1999, she made her New York debut at Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center. That same year, her first CD was released, featuring works by Scriabin and Stravinsky.

In 2004, Ms Chen toured as the featured soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, performing the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto; followed by a solo recital tour of Estonia in the Eduard Tubin Music Festival. A popular figure at international festivals, Ms Chen has frequented the Aspen Music Festival, Montreal Music Festival, Pogorelich Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Chopin Festival in Majorca, Chopin Festival in Poland, and Lake Placid Music Festival. Her extensive concertizing career has thrilled audiences in halls such as the Kennedy Center, Davies Hall, Los Angeles Music Center, Royal Theater, Orpheum, National Concert Hall in Taiwan, Belles Arts, Tilles Center, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tschaikovsky Hall of Moscow, and Debussy Hall in Cannes.

Highlights of Ms Chen’s 2005-2006 season include appearance as the featured soloist in a benefit concert for the Avatamsaka Monastery in Calgary in collaboration with the Calgary Philharmonic under the baton of Edmon Colomer, re-engagement in Festival Chopin of Majorca, guest artist in the Classic Music Festival of Cyprus and re-engagement as a guest soloist with the Miami Symphony Orchestra in the U.S., the Regional Orchestre de Cannes in France as well as the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan.

Ms. Chen received high honor from international musical and diplomatic circles when she was invited by the government of China (PRC) to perform a concert in the National Grand Theatre (“Steel Egg”) in Beijing, China, to celebrate the 2008 Olympics. She performed with the Taipei Symphony under the direction of Lu Shaochia. The concert in Beijing was preceded by a triumphant preview concert in Taiwan at the National Music Hall, where she was acclaimed nation-wide as “The Pride of Taiwan.” Inasmuch as Taiwan has never had an olympic athlete, her nomination by the Chinese Government to represent the people of Taiwan at the Olympic arts program in Beijing is a momentous honor.

A frequent visitor to the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Chen has performed benefit concerts for the Fountain Project, and the American Cancer Society’s California Chinese Unit. Ms Chen’s concert on February 24, 2008, sold out the 1000 seat Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College and raised a record-breaking amount of donations for cancer patients.

References

*http://www.worldjournal.com/wj-sf-news.php?nt_seq_id=1675913
*http://www.dialogue360.net/media/videoOne.aspx/397
*http://www.gwhynethchen.net/
*http://www.gwhynethchen.net/open.html