Chelsea Chen
Encyclopedia
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
Life
Chelsea Chen began piano studies at a young age, studying with Jane Smisor Bastien and Lori Bastien Vickers. At age fifteen, she began studying organ, first with Leslie Robb, and later with Monte Maxwell, Chapel Organist for the United States Naval AcademyUnited States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
. After only two years of lessons, she was accepted into the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
, where she studied first with John Weaver
John Weaver
John Weaver was an English dancer and choreographer, and is often regarded as the father of English pantomime....
and then with Paul Jacobs
Paul Jacobs (organist)
Paul Jacobs is an American organist.Paul Jacobs began piano lessons at age five and organ lessons at age 12 in his hometown of Washington, Pennsylvania. At age 15 he was appointed head organist of Immaculate Conception Church, a parish of over 3,000 families in Washington, PA...
, completing her undergraduate degree in 2005 and her graduate degree in 2006. In 2006, she was accepted for a Fulbright Fellowship
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
and spent the next year composing and performing in Taiwan, where she played an important role in increasing exposure to the pipe organ in that country. In 2007, she was accepted into the Artist Diploma program at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, where she currently studies with Thomas Murray
Thomas Murray (organist)
Thomas Mantle Murray is an internationally renowned American organist and well-known interpreter of Romantic organ music. He is currently professor of organ and university organist at the Yale School of Music, where he teaches alongside Martin Jean...
. She performs a wide variety of repertoire, and in addition to works from the standard repertory, she has premiered both her own compositions and works of fellow Juilliard composers such as Teddy Niedermaier
Teddy Niedermaier
Edward "Teddy" Niedermaier is an American composer and his music has been performed throughout the United States and in France, Germany, South Korea, Kosovo, Moldova, and Japan.-Biography:...
and Ola Gjeilo.
Chelsea has been the recipient of numerous awards. In 2003, she won the Region IX regional convention of the American Guild of Organists
American Guild of Organists
The American Guild of Organists, or AGO, is a national organization of academic, church, and concert organists in the U.S., headquartered in The Interchurch Center in New York City. It was founded in 1896 as both an educational and service organization...
. In 2004, she made it to the final round of the Augustana/Reuter National Organ Undergraduate Competition, returning next year to win first place. While at Juilliard, she was awarded the John Erskine Prize for scholastic and artistic distinction. In 2005, she recorded her first CD and DVD at Heinz Chapel
Heinz Memorial Chapel
Heinz Memorial Chapel is a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark and a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in Pittsburgh. In 2004 and 2006, she was invited to perform at the AGO National Conventions in Los Angeles and Chicago. In addition to her academic studies, she maintains a busy performing career both in the states and abroad. She has recently performed in San Diego, Dallas, New York, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, among other places. Notable upcoming performances include her debut at the Disney Concert Hall
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the...
in Los Angeles, and a performance of Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
's "La Nativite du Seigneur" at Christ Church
Christ Church (New Haven)
Christ Church, also known as Christ Church New Haven, is an Episcopal parish church in the Broadway district of New Haven, Connecticut. Christ Church follows an Anglo-Catholic style of worship and has a strong focus on urban ministry...
in New Haven, CT, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Reviews
"Well here is a young talent in top form. I first heard Chelsea Chen when she played a few years ago during an organ class at the Juilliard School. She was a student of John Weaver and Paul Jacobs at Juilliard. Chelsea played with confidence, style, and imagination at a level that many older performers would surely envy. She went on to win the Augustana Arts/Reuter competition in Denver in 2005, and superbly presented a fully memorized program to an American Guild of Organist's Winter Conclave in LasVegas in January 2006, and appeared again for the AGO in Chicago [at the National Convention] this summer. All of 21 years old, at the time Chelsea was also invited to play at the Heinz chapel of the University of Pittsburgh, during an American Institute of Organbuilders Conference. On that occasion she shared music which she herself had composed--honoring her father and his Chinese ancestry--a Taiwanese Suite based on folk melodies. Both Bach and Reger surely would have approved of the formidable talent of our soloist Chelsea Chen. The [organ's] future is in the hands as players such as Chelsea Chen who not only perform exceptionally well but also compose for the organ and encourage other friends of their generation to write for it too.""The recital ended with a thunderous and exciting rendition of Duruflé’s Toccata from Suite, Op. 5. I believe that I spied the figures in the stained glass windows dancing along with Chelsea’s music. Ms. Chen is to be congratulated for an excellent recital. She presented herself in a professional, well-informed and humble manner."
"A highlight of the week was a concert by Chelsea Chen, who was introduced to the pipe organ at our first Pipe Organ Encounter in 1997 and now is a nationally recognized concert organist."
"At [organbuilders] conventions I generally listen intently to the instrument, appreciate the efforts of the organist, and pay relatively little attention to the performances. But I was powerless to ignore the playing of Chelsea Chen. It's easy to qualify, to say 'she's great...for one so young!' Playing like that is captivating, regardless of age. It wasn't just that I enjoyed her selections or agreed with her choice of stops. She does not play the organ. She makes the organ her instrument for making music. Her every move is musical. Every piston she pushes, every manual change, every tiny nudge of the shades is a fluid part of her music. I watched her left hand playing the almost inaudible accompaniment in the Bach 'Badinerie'. Every note perfectly attacked and released. Not fussy, just perfect. If Chelsea Chen is a harbinger of the generation on the horizon, there's going to be a lot of organbuilding to do."
Recordings and Compositions
External links
- Chelsea Chen, Concert Organist
- Chelsea Chen Plays Durufle's Prelude and Fugue on the name ALAIN, Part 1
- Chelsea Chen Plays Durufle's Prelude and Fugue on the name ALAIN, Part 2
- Chelsea Chen Plays her Taiwanese Suite, Part 1
- Chelsea Chen Plays her Taiwanese Suite, Part 2
- Chelsea Chen Plays her Taiwanese Suite, Part 3