He is a violinist born in Taipei, Taiwan who started to study the violin when he was 7 years old. He moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 10 where he continued his studies. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School.
By the time he was 12 years old he was taking part in masterclasses with Jascha Heifetz and since then he has carved out a successful career as an orchestral and chamber musician and soloist. He is a founding member of the Johannes Quartet.
In 1984 he won an award at the National Young Musicians Foundation Debut Competition with the following year receiving an award at the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition. In 1986 he won an award at the Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition and two years later won awards at the Taipei International Violin Competition in 1988. In 1994 he was the winner of the Hanover International Violin Competition. He has also been presented with the Arts and Science Achievement Award from the Taiwanese-American Foundation and the American Heritage Award from the American Immigration Law Foundation.
He became the concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1999 and has give the orchestra’s premieres of Elliott Carter’s Violin Concerto, Witold Lutowski’s Chain Two and Gyorgy Ligeti’s Violin Concerto as well as the world premiere of Astral Canticle by Augusta Read Thomas.
He has worked with several orchestras and ensembles during his career that include the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. He has also been a guest musician at many music festivals and toured with the Musicians from Marlboro.
In the recording studio he has been heard on many albums that include Bruckner: Symphony No. 7, Mahler: Symphony No. 1, Prokofive: Suite from Romeo and Juliet and John Williams: Lincoln (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Peter Tschaikowsky – Die Schonsten Werke and Chen Plays Tchaikovsky with the Radio-Philharmonic Hannover Des NDR and Internationaler Violin-Wettbewerb Hannover Joseph Joachim Gewidment 1994 Vo. 1 by various artists.
In the field of musical education he has been a faculty member of Chicago’s Roosevelt University and given several master classes.
Sources:
- https://cso.org/about/performers/chicago-symphony-orchestra/violins/robert-chen/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Chen
- http://www.aspenmusicfestival.com/events/performers/robert-chen/
- https://www.ovationpress.com/c-44-chen-robert.aspx#[PageNumber(0)|PageSize(99999)|PageSort(Composer,name)|DisplayType(Grid)]
- https://music.utexas.edu/events/4468-violin-master-class-robert-chen
- http://www.helicon.org/musicians/robert-chen/
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/3162770-Robert-Chen
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-chen-mn0001788287/credits