Bio
"…brings to mind those few really creative interpreter-pianists like Richter and Serkin"
"...a formidable performance"
"…a remarkable pianist, and a musician wise beyond his years..."
"Chen's interpretation of the [Liszt B minor] sonata showed an astonishing maturity."
Summary
In 2004, at the age of 18, John Chen became the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition. He was also awarded special prizes for best performance of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chamber Music, and the 19th/20th Century Concerto. This followed his win in the third Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition in Brisbane in 2003, where he swept all the special prizes.
Since then he has built and retained a remarkably high profile throughout Australasia, performing with all the major orchestras and conductors in the region and continuing to receive re-invitations. His most recent per-formance in Auckland had to add seats behind the orchestra and was still sold out. In 2008 he was re-invited to tour Germany, including an appearance with the Jena Orchestra and recitals in Coswig and Bochum. Later this year he gives his Hong Kong Philharmonic debut with conductor Zdeněk Mácal. He performs again in Melbourne this year, and collaborates on a Musica Viva (Australia) recital tour with violinist Feng Ning.
John Chen Biography (full)
In 2004, at the age of 18, John Chen became the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition. He was also awarded special prizes for best performance of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chamber Music, and the 19th/20th Century Concerto. This followed his first-prize win in the third Lev Vlassenko Australasian Piano Competition in Brisbane in 2003, where he swept all the special prizes.
In the five years since, John has become one of the very few whose career has matched its auspicious competition beginnings. He has a formidable profile in Australia where he has worked with the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, West Australia, Tasmania and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, The Queensland Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, and where limelight magazine placed him in their new year top 50 power players to watch in the arts – in the company of luminaries such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Cate Blanchett, and Richard Hickox.
In New Zealand, John has appeared with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Vector Wellington Orchestra and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Eminent conductors with whom he has worked include the late János Fürst, Olari Elts, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Oleg Caetani, Werner Andreas Albert, Vladimir Verbitsky, Marc Taddei, James Judd, James MacMillan, John Storgårds, Christoph Poppen, Johannes Fritzsch, William Southgate, Rodolfo Fischer, Edwin Outwater, Nicholas Milton and Ken Young. October 2008 sees his debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Zdeněk Mácal.
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. His Suguaro Piano Trio (with violinist Luanne Homzy and cellist Peter Myers) won Bronze at this year’s Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, the most prestigious chamber competition in the United States, and second place at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition – one of the world’s top 3 chamber music competitions. Later this year he undertakes an extensive Australian tour with Paganini Prize winner violinist Feng Ning under the auspicies of Musica Viva – presenting the same programme twice in New Zealand. 2009 plans are developing for an exciting New Zealand collaboration of Piano Quintets with the T’ang Quartet (Singapore).
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, USA, and Germany (at the prestigious Ruhr Festival). In 2006 he made his Singapore International Piano Festival debut, completed a 14-city tour of New Zealand with Chamber Music New Zealand and a tour of 31 Australian cities, which holds the record for the longest Australian tour ever undertaken by a classical musician. 2007 saw him reinvited to many Australian and New Zealand orchestras, and he gave recitals in Western Australia, in New Zealand, and made another extensive Chamber Music New Zealand with violinist Julia McCarthy. This year John returned to Germany for a series of recitals and to participate in the Bochum Festival with the Jena Orchestra.
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, just released this month (ABC Classics 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, and Claire Cowan (a work he commissioned himself). He has also given the world premiere of the second piano concerto of Australian composer Roger Smalley.
In 2008, John was honoured as the University of Auckland's Young Alumnus of the Year. He is based in Los Angeles.
Revised 30 September 2008. Please destroy all previous or undated biographies.
John Chen Biography (Short)
At 18, John Chen became the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition, which followed his win the year before of the Lev Vlassenko Competition in Brisbane.
Since then he has become one of the very few whose career has matched its auspicious competition beginnings. He has a formidable profile in Australia where he has worked with all the major orchestras, and where limelight magazine placed him in their top 50 power players to watch in the arts – in the company of luminaries such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Cate Blanchett, and Richard Hickox.
John has also appeared with all the major New Zealand orchestras, and worked with such eminent conductors as the late János Fürst, Olari Elts, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Oleg Caetani, Werner Andreas Albert, Vladimir Verbitsky, Marc Taddei, James Judd, James MacMillan, John Storgårds, Christoph Poppen, Johannes Fritzsch, William Southgate, Rodolfo Fischer, Edwin Outwater, Nicholas Milton and Ken Young. October 2008 sees his debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Zdeněk Mácal.
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. His Suguaro Piano Trio (with violinist Luanne Homzy and cellist Peter Myers) won coveted 3rd and 2nd places respectively this year at two of the world’s top chamber music competitions, the Fischoff (USA) and Osaka (Japan). This year he undertook an extensive Australian tour with Paganini Prize winner violinist Feng Ning under the auspicies of Musica Viva, and in 2009 performs with the T’ang Quartet (Singapore).
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, just released this month (ABC Classics ISBN / Catalogue Number: 4766834).
In 2008, John was honoured as the University of Auckland's Young Alumnus of the Year. He is based in Los Angeles.
Revised 30 September 2008. Please destroy all previous or undated biographies.
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