A “thoughtful musician well beyond his years” (The Republic), praised for his “alluring, colorfully shaded renditions” (New York Times) and “genuinely sensitive” (LA Times) performances, pianist Sean Chen won the 2013 American Piano Awards, placed third at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and was named an Annenberg Fellow in 2015. Chen is the Jack Strandberg/Missouri Endowed Professor of Piano at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory. He has performed with many prominent orchestras, including the Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Kansas City, San Diego, Knoxville, Hartford, Louisiana Philharmonic, Milwaukee, North Carolina, Pasadena, Phoenix, Santa Fe, and New West Symphony orchestras, as well as the chamber orchestras of Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and South Bay. He has collaborated with such esteemed conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Gerard Schwarz, Nicholas McGegan, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marcelo Lehninger, and James Judd. Solo recitals have brought him to major venues worldwide, including Jordan Hall in Boston, Subculture in New York City, the American Art Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Salle Cortot in Paris.
His CD releases include a 2021 all-Ravel digital album on the Steinway & Sons label, featuring “Sonatine” and Le Tombeau de Couperin; La Valse, another solo recording on the Steinway label featuring Chen’s own arrangement of Ravel’s “La Valse” and hailed for “penetrating artistic intellect” (Audiophile Audition); a live recording from the Cliburn Competition released by harmonia mundi, praised for his “ravishing tone and cogently contoured lines” (Gramophone); an album of Michael Williams’s solo piano works on the Parma label; and an album of flute, oboe, and piano repertoire titled KaleidosCoping with colleagues Michael Gordon and Celeste Johnson. Chen has also contributed to the catalog of Steinway’s new Spirio system.
A multifaceted musician, Chen also transcribes, composes, and improvises. He has completed a transcription of Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata No. 3 for two pianos, commissioned by 88Squared duo. His composition Daydream No. 1—Steps (2021) was commissioned as a gift for the retirement of American Piano Award’s former president/CEO. His transcriptions of such orchestral works as Ravel’s “La Valse,” Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro, and the adagio from Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, have been received with glowing acclaim and enthusiasm, and his encore improvisations are lauded as “genuinely brilliant” (Dallas Morning News). An advocate of new music, Chen also has collaborated with composers including Lisa Bielawa, Jennifer Higdon, Michael Williams, Nicco Athens, Michael Gilbertson, and Reinaldo Moya.
Born in Florida, Chen grew up in the Los Angeles area of Oak Park, California. He earned his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Juilliard and received his Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music. His teachers include Hung-Kuan Chen, Edward Francis, Jerome Lowenthal, and Matti Raekallio. He resides in Kansas City with his wife, Betty, a violinist in the Kansas City Symphony, and their two daughters. When not at the piano, Chen enjoys tinkering with computers, and exploring math, science, and programming. He is a Steinway Artist and is managed by Jonathan Wentworth Associates.
