Longwood Debut
Praised for her “rare musicality” and “lovely lyrical grandeur” (The New York Times), Chelsea Chen is one of America’s leading concert organists, offering programs that feature a unique mix of traditional organ repertoire along with piano/orchestral transcriptions and contemporary music. A Fulbright scholar and graduate of Juilliard and Yale University, Chen has performed to great acclaim throughout the world and currently serves as artist-in-residence at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.
Chen’s dynamic playing has taken her to the far corners of the world. She has performed to great acclaim at many important venues including Singapore’s Esplanade, Hong Kong’s Cultural Centre, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Los Angeles’ Disney Hall. Recent highlights include performing as soloist with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (a traditional Chinese instrument ensemble), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, and the Lou Harrison Festival Rutgers Orchestra at Trinity Wall Street. Recent and upcoming recital venues include the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, TX; St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York City; and Christ Cathedral, Garden Grove, CA. She will also present concerts in Taiwan and northern Europe.
Chen originally hails from San Diego, where her formative music teachers were organists Leslie Robb (St. Paul’s Lutheran, San Diego) and Monte Maxwell (U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis); and pianists Baruch Arnon (New York City), Jane Bastien, and Lori Bastien Vickers (San Diego). She studied under Paul Jacobs and John Weaver at The Juilliard School in New York, where she received her bachelor's and master's degrees. She also won the John Erskine Prize for academic and artistic achievement, awarded to one graduate per year.
After college she moved to Taiwan under a Fulbright scholarship, where she collected folk songs and wrote organ solo and chamber music. She returned to the US to study with Thomas Murray in the Artist Diploma program at Yale University. From 2013-2017 she served as Organist and Concert Series Director at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale.
Chen has recorded multiple CDs: Reveries (2011) at Bethel University, Live at Heinz Chapel at the 2005 Convention of the American Institute of Organ Builders, Eastern Treasures with violinist Lewis Wong in 2010, and Live at Coral Ridge in 2014. Her playing has been aired on CNN.com, Pipedreams from American Public Media, Hawaii Public Radio, and Taiwan’s Good News Radio.
Committed to new music, she has premiered works by composers throughout the world including Ola Gjeilo (Norway/US), Yui Kitamura (Japan/US), Paul Desenne (Venezuela), Roderick Gorby (US), Vincent Rone (US), and Viviane Waschbüsch (Germany). Her compositions are available exclusively from Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc. She performs regularly with cellist Joseph Lee. Together they released an album entitled Explorations for Cello and Organ in 2018.
