Bio
"…brings to mind those few really creative interpreter-pianists like Richter and Serkin"
Clive O'Connell, The [Melbourne] Age
“[Chen] introduced himself with magnificence and mega-chords... When a virtuoso line was called for, as in the final cadenza, Chen responded with torrential brilliance.”
William Dart, New Zealand Herald
"Chen's interpretation of the [Liszt B minor] sonata showed an astonishing maturity."
Peter Shaw, New Zealand Listener
Summary
John Chen remains the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition, having captured that prize at the age of 18. He also captured special prizes for best performance of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chamber Music, and the 19th/20th Century Concerto. His Sydney win came close on the heels of his first-prize placement in the Third Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition in Brisbane the year before, a competition where he also swept all the special prizes.
In the years since, John has become one of the very few worldwide whose career has matched its auspicious competition beginnings. He has a formidable profile in Australia where he has worked with all the major orchestras, he has appeared in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the US and Europe, and he returns each year to perform with one or more of this country’s top orchestras.
John Chen Biography (full)
John Chen remains the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition, having captured that prize at the age of 18. He also captured special prizes for best performance of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chamber Music, and the 19th/20th Century Concerto. His Sydney win came close on the heels of his first-prize placement in the Third Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition in Brisbane the year before, a competition where he also swept all the special prizes.
In the years since, John has become one of the very few worldwide whose career has matched its auspicious competition beginnings. He has a formidable profile in Australia where he has worked with all the major orchestras, he has appeared in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the US and Europe, and he returns each year to perform with one or more of New Zealand’s top orchestras.
Eminent conductors with whom he has worked include the late János Fürst, Olari Elts, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Oleg Caetani, Werner Andreas Albert, Vladimir Verbitsky, Christopher Seaman, Marc Taddei, James Judd, James MacMillan, John Storgårds, Christoph Poppen, Johannes Fritzsch, William Southgate, Rodolfo Fischer, Edwin Outwater, Yasuo Shinozaki, Nicholas Milton, Marco Zuccarini, Paul Daniel and Ken Young.
As a chamber musician, John has performed with the Los Angeles, Australian, and Australia Pro Arte Chamber Orchestras, collaborating with Jeffrey Kahane, Christoph Poppen and Ben Northey, and just last year made his debut at the Huntington Estate Music Festival. In 2008 he completed an extensive Australian tour with Paganini Prize winner violinist Feng Ning under the auspices of Musica Viva – presenting the same programme twice in New Zealand. In 2009 he concluded a triumphant New Zealand collaboration with the T’ang Quartet (Singapore) at the Christchurch Arts Festival, and later at the Macao International Music Festival. Later than year his schedule permitted him the rare opportunity to give an Australasian solo recital tour that encompassed 13 cities in two countries.
John’s Saguaro Piano Trio (which includes violinist Luanne Homzy and cellist Peter Myers) gained international attention by taking first prize at the Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition in September 2009, also winning a prize for the best performance of a work by Brahms (Menahem Pressler was Jury Chairman). The ensemble, only two years in existence at that time, had won Bronze in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in the United States, and Silver in the 6th Osaka International Chamber Music competition in Japan the year before. Now based in Hamburg, John and the Saguaro Trio are concertizing extensively throughout Germany and Scandinavia. The Saguaro has just completed a major tour of New Zealand and Australia under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand and Music Viva, respectively.
Chen began his piano studies at the age of three. He studied with prominent New Zealand pedagogue Rae de Lisle for 11 years, gaining a Master of Music degree from the University of Auckland by the time he was 18 under her tutelage. He won his first piano competition at the age of nine, and over the subsequent years was successful in a number of national competitions. He made his official orchestral debut aged 15, performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has performed in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, USA and Germany (at the prestigious Ruhr Festival). In 2006 he completed a tour of 31 Australian cities, which holds the record for the longest Australian tour ever undertaken by a classical musician. The same year he toured 14 New Zealand cities with Chamber Music New Zealand. In 2007 he made another extensive Chamber Music New Zealand and was re-invited to many Australian and New Zealand orchestras.
Chen has a particular passion for 20th century French music. He has recorded the complete solo piano works of Henri Dutilleux (Naxos 8.557823) and a selection of Debussy and Ravel, released in 2008 on the ABC Classics label (ISBN / Catalogue Number: 4766834).
John is also deeply committed to New Zealand music, giving the world premieres of works by New Zealand composers Jenny McLeod, Ross Harris, Claire Cowan, Tony Lin and Alwyn Westbrooke. He has also given the world premiere of the second piano concerto of Australian composer Roger Smalley, and the Piano Quintet “Mei, Lan, Zhu, Ju” of New Zealand composer Gao Ping.
In 2008, John was honoured as the University of Auckland's Young Alumnus of the Year. John is based in Hamburg, where between recitals and touring he is working towards his doctorate in piano performance at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
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Revised 15 September 2011. Please destroy all previous or undated biographies.
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