Sean Chen THE CLIBURN WINNERS. ROOTS AND RIBS FESTIVAL of music and food. at OSPAC.

PIANIST SEAN CHEN. VAN CLIBURN WINNERS.

Pianist
Sean Chen is being hailed as a rising star with a "million-volt smile"
and a "formidable set of fingers" (Dallas Morning News).

In 2013
Chen won the American Pianists Association's DeHaan Classical
Fellowship, one of the most lucrative and significant prizes available
to an American pianist; he also won Third Prize at the 14th Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition, becoming the first American to reach
the finals since 1997. He received Second Prize at the 2011 Seoul
International Music Competition, Third Prize at the 2013 Morocco
Philharmony International Piano Competition, Best Performance of an
American Work at the 2009 Cleveland International Piano Competition, and
he was a semifinalist at the 2012 Leeds International Piano
Competition.

The 25-year-old American pianist has appeared as
soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz,
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, Indianapolis
Chamber Orchestra, Suwon City Philharmonic, New West Symphony, and the
Juilliard Orchestra. He has performed solo recitals under the auspices
of the McGraw-Hill Company, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, New West
Symphony, National Chopin Foundation, Scriabin Society, Ventura Music
Festival, and the Young Artist Guild of the Music Teachers Association
of California. He has performed new works by Lisa Bielawa, Michael
Williams, Nicco Athens, Michael Gilbertson, and Reinaldo Moya, among
others. Upcoming CD releases include an album of Michael Williams's solo
piano works on the Parma label, live recordings from the Cliburn
competition, and a solo recording on the Steinway label as part of his
American Pianists Association prize.

Born in 1988 in Margate, FL,
Chen grew up in the Los Angeles area of Oak Park, CA. His impressive
achievements before college included receiving an NFAA ARTSweek award, a
prize at the California International Young Artist Competition, the Los
Angeles Music Center's Spotlight Award, the Evelyn Bonar Storrs
Scholarship, and the Glenn Miller Scholarship. These honors combined
with his extraordinary intellect facilitated offers of acceptance by
MIT, Harvard, and the Juilliard School; choosing to study music, Chen
earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Juilliard, where he won
the 2010 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition, the 2010 Munz Scholarship, and
first prize at the 2008 Juilliard Concerto Competition. While attending
Juilliard, Chen was the recipient of a notable third-party scholarship:
the 2010 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

Chen
is currently pursuing his Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music as a
George W. Miles Fellowship recipient. He is studying with Hung-Kuan
Chen and Tema Blackstone, and his former teachers include Jerome
Lowenthal, Matti Raekallio, and Edward Francis. Chen's performances have
been broadcast live on From the Top, American Public Media's
Performance Today, WQXR (New York), WGBH (Boston), and WFYI
(Indianapolis). The webcast of his April 2013 performance of Bartók's
Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Indianapolis Symphony – which, according
to International Piano, "blazed with color and excitement" – can be
viewed at americanpianists.org.
When not at the piano, Chen enjoys tinkering with computers and
composing. In the coming seasons, he will be performing under the
management of the American Pianists Association, touring the U.S. and
presenting recitals worldwide.