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Cindy Chen

violin

　　Ms. Chen’s performing career began while a student in the Pre-College division of the Xin-Hai Conservatory of Music in Canton (1979). In 1985, she was admitted to the Central Conservatory in Beijing. The following year she went to the United States where she was accepted to study at the prestigious Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music in New York. She was offered a full-tuition scholarship to study at the Manhattan School of Music where she earned her Bachelors Degree in Performance. While at Manhattan her teachers included Mr. Glenn Dicterow (Concertmaster, New York Philharmonic) and Mr. Raphael Bronstein (a famous master of the Russian-school and student of Auers). As a student in the Masters degree program at Manhattan, she won her first professional position as a first-violinist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (1993). After seven years in the Jacksonville Symphony, Ms. Chen moved to San Francisco and won the audition for principal second violin with the Oakland Symphony (2002). During this time Ms. Chen also appeared regularly with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera San Jose. In addition, she was invited to play with the Malaysian Philharmonic. Her orchestral experiences have taken her around the globe from the United States to Europe and Southeast Asia.

　　As a chamber musician, Ms. Chen has been and avid performer throughout her career. She has appeared in concerts at the Bay View Chamber Music Festival (Michigan), the Waterloo Music Festival (Princeton University), the Los Angeles Summer Music Institute and the Santa Barbara Music Festival. Currently she is the violinist in the Oakland Piano Trio.

　　Ms. Chen began her career as a violin teacher since 1988. Besides many of her students winning competitions, Ms. Chen was the coach of the Fremont Youth Symphony, San Jose Youth Symphony, Oakland Youth Symphony. Ms. Chen also spent two summers teaching at the summer music institute at the Idaho State. Currently, she is teaching at the Yip’s Music Center in Hong Kong, as well as the Hong Kong Chinese University. Ms Chen also is the orchestra coach of the Macau Youth Symphony and the guest conductor.

　　While in the United States, Ms. Chen was invited by the Pacific Audio and Video Company to record eight CD project as a violin soloist. The repertoire was Chinese, folk-inspired modern arrangements for solo-violin, orchestra and chorus. The album Poetry of the Violin (volumes 1 and 2) was the most acclaimed of this series. The series was successful in China, Southeast-Asia and within the Chinese-American media. This led to interview appearances on radio stations and internet in the United States. In China, the CD series was featured on television and radio broadcasts throughout the Peoples Republic. This series was celebrated in China for being in the forefront of modern interpretations of Chinese folk music. You may listen to her CD’s through her website: www.cindychenviolin.com