Zhen Chen

Pianist
Composer

Praised as a "technically proficient soloist with sparkling tone"(das Orchester, Germany) and "astonishing stylistic confidence"(Piano News, Germany), multi-award-winning pianist-composer Zhen Chen has performed as a soloist and chamber music artist at prominent music venues in USA, Europe and China, such as Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center, China National Centre for Performing Arts and Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall. His live performances and recordings have been broadcast by France's Radio Classique, Austria's Radio Klassik, Chicago WFMT 98.7, Princeton WPRB 103.3, WCNY Classic FM, and China Central Television.

Recent performances include appearing as a soloist with Chamber Orchestra Mannheim in Germany (Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester) under the baton of the prominent French conductor Paul Meyer and the internationally acclaimed conductor Thomas Rösner of the Beethoven Philharmonie in Austria, interpreting Mozart's quintessential piano concertos including Nos. 15, 20, 21 and 24. Zhen's "fresh, spontaneous, natural and warm"(Pizzicato, Belgium) performance of Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos.15 & 21 has been featured by Europe's leading classical concert video streaming service Symphony.Live. Highlights of upcoming seasons and projects include Zhen’s debut at the Berliner Philharmonie with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Berliner Symphoniker) performing George Gershwin’s riveting Piano Concerto in F major, recording collaboration with the German State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate under the baton of the British-Swiss conductor Howard Griffiths and a tour engagement with the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra (Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie) playing Mendelssolhn's monumental piano concertos.

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As an enthusiastic chamber musician, Zhen Chen has worked with eminent violinists, such as Maxim Vengerov, Cho-Liang Lin, Elmira Darvarova, and outstanding instrumentalists of the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestra of Metropolitan Opera in concert and recording engagements. He has been an official collaborative pianist of the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (SISIVC) and the International Music Competition Harbin (IMCH). In the 2025 season, he tours with the Vienna-based Glière String Quartet in Europe, presenting an all-Mozart chamber music program.

Zhen Chen wears another hat as a performer-composer who bridges Eastern and Western sensibility and musicality. His cross-culture and cross-genre composition works were crystallized in the albums ERGO: New Music for Piano and Chinese Folk Instruments (Navona/Naxos, 2017) and On & Between: New Music for Pipa and Western Ensembles (Navona/Naxos, 2018). The featured music video of Turpan Tango, a hit from his album ERGO, has accumulated over 1 million views on various video platforms. The album On & Between won the Gold Medal of Global Music Awards for Best Show top honor, Best Album, and Best Instrumentalists. As an avid recording artist, Zhen has been a voting member of the Grammys (The Recording Academy) since 2017.

Zhen Chen received a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a master’s degree in piano performance under Arkady Aronov at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he also earned a master’s degree in collaborative piano and chamber music with Heasook Rhee. He joined the piano and the chamber music faculty of Manhattan School of Music Precollege in 2022 and was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame in 2023. 

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