SA CHEN,  pianist

 

Described as “one of the brightest performers of her generation”, Sa Chen has been delighting audiences in European countries, China, Japan and the United States. Her first major performance was in 1996, when at the age of 16, she was seen live on BBC Television, competing in the Final of the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony. The British public was captivated.

 

Sa Chen was born in Chongqing, China. She began her musical studies at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and then at the Shenzhen School of Arts with Prof. Dan Zhaoyi in both places. In 1994, Chinese President Jiang Zemin listened to her performance and interviewed her along with Prof. Dan. Following her success in Leeds in 1996, she was subsequently offered a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where she has been studying with Prof. Joan Havill and obtained Master Degree in Performance. Since 2001, Sa Chen also studied with Prof. Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover.  She is now living in Germany.

 

Major awards and honors began in 1994 for Sa Chen, when she won first prize at the 1994 China International Piano Competition. Winning fourth prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition 1996 as the youngest contestant in the competition, marked the beginning of Sa Chen's international career. She also awarded at the 14th International Chopin Piano Competition in October 2000, at which she claimed the Best Polonaise Performance Award as well as the Fourth Prize, overall. Her success in the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition made her the only pianist in the history to award in all the top three piano competitions.

 

As a soloist, Sa Chen has worked with many celebrated conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Edo de Waart, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, James Conlon, Louis Lane, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Ilan Volkov, Kazimierz Kord, Bernhard Gueller, Long Yu, Muhai Tang, Jan Krenz, Howard Griffiths, several of whom offered return engagements. She has performed with, among many others, Takács Quartet, WDR Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony, Camerata Salzburg, Warsaw Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Strasbourg Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, China National Symphony Orchestra Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

 

Her solo assignments have taken Sa Chen to many of the European music centers: New York (Carnegie Hall), Washington D.C. (Kennedy Center), London (Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall，Purcell Room and Cadogan Hall), Warsaw (Philharmonic Hall), Milan (the Salla Verdi), Berlin (Broadcast Hall), Zurich (Tonhalle), Linz (Bruckner Hall), Basel (Foundation Beyeler Museum and Vitra Design Museum), Copenhagen (Louisiana Museum), Boston (Symphony Hall). Sa Chen has also given concerts in the United States (her U.S. debut took place in April 2002), Canada, Asia (incl. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tokyo), in Tel Aviv and at Sydney Opera House in Australia. Among the many festivals she has visited are the Duszniki Chopin Festival, Louisiana Museum, Lockenhaus Chamber Festival, Le Musiques festival. As well as in China, her appearances were in Beijing Music Festival.

 

She regularly tours in Japan. In 2000 and 2001, she was invited for over 20 concerts throughout Japan and she was selected in the prestigious Tokyo series “The 100 Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century”. She was invited as performance partner by renowned violinist Gidon Kremer to many occasions. In 2006, she toured with China National Symphony in USA and was highly acclaimed. She toured with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln under the direction of Semyon Bychkov in five cities of China. In March 2007, Sa Chen was nominated by World Bank and Norwegian Government to premiere “A Green Call”, a multimedia piano concerto with the China National Symphony in Beijing, sponsored by the World Bank, Norwegian Government and the Environmental Education Media Project.

 

Recently, Sa Chen performed with Los Angeles Philharmonic (Hollywood Bowl series), Bremen Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole in Toulouse (Tugan Sokhiev), Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (Edo de Waart), Stockholm Royal Philharmonic (Edo de Waart), toured in China with Hong Kong Philharmonic, participated in the Piano Extravaganza as well as a solo recital in the China National Center for Performing Arts. In 2009, she will collaborate with Pittsburgh Symphony (Manfred Honeck), Residentie De Haag (Edo de Waart), Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony (Suntory Hall) and conductor Vasily Petrenko. She has been invited back by Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. She will tour in America, Europe, Japan and China.

 

As the only female, Sa Chen was named as one of top ten focused Chinese artists of 2009 by L’OFFICIEL magazine. She appeared in the Heart of Music and Encore, the film documentaries about the 2005 Cliburn Competition which was aired on PBS stations across the United States beginning October 2005. Gramophone magazine chose Sa Chen as its featured artist for the launch of its Chinese edition. A documentary about her produced by RTHK was telecast on Hong Kong satellite TV network and CCTV. Sa Chen’s debut disc “Chopin Impression” was released in 2003 under the JVC label, second CD was in fall 2005 on Harmonia Mundi label. Her third CD will be released in fall of 2008 on PentaTone label.

 

For more information, please visit Sa Chen’s official website: www.chen-sa.com.