Sa Chen

The Crystal Award winner of the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Sa Chen was named “a brilliant pianist” by the great pianist Emanuel Ax. Her first major performance was in 1996, at the age of 16, when she was seen live on BBC Television competing in the final round of the Leeds International Piano Competition, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony.

Chen was born in Chongqing, China. She began her musical studies with Dan Zhaoyi at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and continued with him at the Shenzhen School of Arts. In 1994, Chinese President Jiang Zemin listened to her performance and interviewed her along with Zhaoyi.

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, Muhai Tang, Long Yu, Jan Krenz, and Howard Griffiths, several of whom offered return engagements. She has performed with, among many others, the Takács Quartet, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony, Camerata Salzburg, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Her solo performances have taken Chen to many of the world’s leading music centers, including Washington, DC, London, Warsaw, Milan, Berlin, Zurich, Linz, Basel, Copenhagen, and Boston. Sa Chen has given concerts in the United States (her U.S. debut took place in April 2002), Canada, Asia (including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tokyo), in Tel Aviv, and at Sydney Opera House in Australia. Among her many festival credits are the Duszniki Chopin Festival, Louisiana Museum, the Lockenhaus Chamber Festival, and Le Musiques festival. In China, she appeared at the Beijing Music Festival, the Steinway Piano Competition Festival, and the Gulangyu Piano Festival.