Gwhyneth Chen 陳毓襄, Pianist

陳毓襄_1

Gwhyneth Chen (陳毓襄) is a Taiwanese-American pianist who in 1993, won the biggest cash prize in the history of piano competitions, ($100,000.00.) Ms. Chen, then a young lady of 23, was the youngest contestant at the Ivo Pogorelich International Piano Competition. Subsequent to the award, Mr. Pogorelich himself said of her talent, “She is too good to be true.” Immediately recognized as one of the foremost pianists of her generation, the victory was broadcast internationally on CNN television. In recent years she has played joint concerts with Ivo Pogorelich in Switzerland and in Taiwan.

Born in Taiwan, Ms Chen emigrated to the United States with her family in 1980, where she continued her musical studies with Eduardo Delgado, Robert Turner, and Aube Tzerko. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School. While in New York, her teachers were Martin Canin, Byron Janis and Yin Cheng-Zong.

At the age of 12, she was the first prize winner of the 50-state National Piano Competition, sponsored by the Music Teacher’s National Association. Three years later she won the National Competition again, setting a record by winning in both Junior High and the Senior High Competitions.

At the age of nineteen, she was a laureate in the 1990 Tschaikovsky International Piano Competition. In 1992, she was once again a laureate, this time in the Prokofieff International Piano Competition. She was the grand prize winner of the International Web Concert Audition Competition in 1999.

A leading Chinese musical figure, Gwhyneth Chen was included in the 1995 edition of the One Hundred Most Successful Chinese People and appeared in a nationally televised gala concert at the Presidential Palace in the presence of President Lee of Taiwan. In 2002, she was invited to perform and speak in Washington DC during the First Lady Wu Shu-chen’s, Peace Journey to the United States. In 2008 she performed at the inaugural festivities for the newly elected President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou.

Ms. Chen represented her country with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Lu Shao-chia, as “the Pride of Taiwan” in the opening concert in the National Grand Theatre (“Steel Egg”) in Beijing, China, to celebrate the 2008 Olympics.

Ms. Chen’s CD on the Chimei label, “Gwhyneth Chen: Chopin Favorites,” celebrating Chopin’s 200th anniversary, won “Best Performance” in the Golden Melody Awards in 2011.

Ms Chen has appeared as a soloist with a number of orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Moscow Radio Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Kyushu Symphony of Japan, Taiwan National Orchestra, Shanghai Symphonic, Moscow State Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, Pacific Symphonic, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Taipei City Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Orchestre Fresnes, Zagreb Philharmonic, and Lake Placid Symphonietta. She was engaged to play with the Miami Symphony for six consecutive seasons. Ms Chen has collaborated with David Atherton and the Hong Kong Philharmonic on a tour of the United States and Canada, with Vladmir Fedoseyev and the Moscow Radio Symphony throughout North America and Mexico, and completed a tour of Taiwan with the Russian Philharmonic under Vladimir Ponkin. For the extravagant debut of the New Colorado Symphony, she was chosen as the first soloist performing the Tschaikovsky First Piano Concerto before a crowd of 15,000 at the McNichols Stadium.

In 1994, Gwhyneth Chen made her recital debut in Munich at Herkulessal, followed by a recital tour of Croatia and Spain. That same year, she played the opening concert of the season in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev performing the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. In 1999, she made her New York debut at Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center.

A popular figure at international festivals, Ms Chen has frequented the Aspen Music Festival, Montreal Music Festival, Pogorelich Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Chopin Festival in Majorca, Chopin Festival in Poland, Chopin Festival in Hanover, Chopin Festival in Vienna, and the Lake Placid Music Festival. In 2010, she performed the complete Chopin Nocturnes at the Chopin Festival in Taiwan, commemorating Chopin’s 200th Anniversary. In 2011 she performed the twelve Transcendental Etudes of Liszt, for Liszt’s 200th anniversary.

Her extensive concertizing career has thrilled audiences in halls such as the Kennedy Center, San Francisco’s Davies Hall, the Los Angeles Music Center, Vancouver’s Royal Theater, Victoria’s Orpheum Theatre, the National Concert Hall in Taiwan, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Arts In Mexico City, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tschaikovsky Hall of Moscow, and Debussy Hall in Cannes. She conducted a solo recital tour of Estonia in the Eduard Tubin Music Festival.

A frequent benefactor of charitable events, Ms. Chen performed a successful benefit concert for the 2011 Japan Disaster Relief in collaboration with Buddhist Tzu Chi Organization of Northern California. She has donated her talents to concerts for the Fountain Project of Northern California, the American Cancer Society and the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association’s branches.

She has been a jury member in the Taiwan Chopin Piano Competition in 2005 and 1999, the 2003 First Taiwan International Piano Competition, the 2003 Asian Division of the 6th Monopoli International Piano Competition, and the 1998 Taiwan Young Artists International Competition. She was on the faculty for the Perugia Music Festival in Italy in 2010.

Ms. Chen currently resides in both Los Angeles and Taipei.

1970年生的陳毓襄自幼赴美留學，10歲移民美國，11歲即公開演奏，在茱莉亞音樂院就學期間，先後師承俄裔鋼琴家雷汶(Josef Lhevinne)、堅尼斯(Byron Janis)，曾寫下連奪美國50州鋼琴比賽冠軍的輝煌紀錄，至今已與超過上百個國際知名樂團合作經驗。1993年以最年輕的參賽者之姿勇奪第一屆「波哥雷里奇鋼琴大賽」桂冠，並成為鋼琴家波哥雷里奇(Ivo Pogorelich)及其夫人的得意門生，自此以獨奏家的身分活躍於國際樂壇。
享譽國際的新一代鋼琴演奏家陳毓襄，於國小時代即赴美求學，隨即師承著名俄裔鋼琴家JOSEF LHEVINNE琴藝系統鋼琴教育家ROBERT TURNER並得其真傳，因而得以擁有聞名於世的鍵盤技巧，接著與貝多芬琴藝系統鋼琴名家ARTUR SCHNABEL的嫡傳高足AUBE TZERKO學習，至此已建立自己獨樹一格之音樂詮釋理念，進入茱麗亞音樂院後再追隨MARTIN CANIN教授至碩士畢業，同時也師承最被推崇的世界著名鋼琴家VLADIMIR HOROWITZ唯一傳人BYRON JANIS。有比賽常勝軍美譽的旅美知名國際鋼琴演奏家陳毓襄曾歷經多次大小比賽，且均獲獎，曾連掄全美國五十州鋼琴比賽少年組及青年組首獎，並在1990年莫斯科柴可夫斯基國際音樂比賽中獲獎，1999年國際網路音樂演奏鑑定大賽首獎，也擔任1998年首屆「台灣樂壇新秀」國際選拔賽評審，1999年台北國際青少年蕭邦鋼琴大賽評審，2002年義大利摩洛波利國際鋼琴大賽亞洲區甄試會評審委員，2003年台灣第一屆國際鋼琴大賽評審。1993年在全球矚目無最高年齡限制的波哥雷里奇國際鋼琴大賽中，他是剛好達到大會規定最年輕的參賽者，經過四個回合的激烈競爭，而這連她在內的八位決賽者都是擁有三項以上世界大型音樂國際大賽最後決賽頭銜，而且身經百戰，經驗豐富且有輝煌音樂經歷的演奏家，最後她以卓越的琴藝，終於擊敗其他一些超過四十五歲的決賽者而獲得首獎，榮獲拾萬美元的獎金，這項打破以往歷屆音樂比賽獎項的國際鋼琴大賽諾貝爾獎，使她成為世界樂壇盡知的鋼琴新銳。陳毓襄曾經當選1995年美國百位頂尖成就的華人代表，十三歲時與洛杉磯愛樂交響樂團登台演出後即展開其輝煌燦爛的演奏生涯，接著陸續與蘇維埃聯邦國家交響樂團、列寧格勒交響樂團、俄羅斯國家交響樂團、新莫斯科交響樂團、莫斯科電台交響樂團、美國邁阿密交響樂團、科羅拉多交響樂團、香港管絃樂團、亞斯本節日交響樂團、日本九州交響樂團、台北國家交響樂團、台北市立交響樂團等等上百個以上的樂團聯合演出，演奏會遍佈世界各地，如世界著名的紐約林肯中心、卡內基音樂廳、洛杉磯音樂中心、華盛頓的甘迺迪演藝中心、莫斯科音樂院的大音樂廳等等，均有其足跡，頗受國際樂壇高度肯定；也在著名的亞斯本音樂節、加拿大蒙特利爾音樂節、波哥雷里奇音樂節、波蘭蕭邦音樂節等，以客席音樂家的身分擔綱演出。她具有超特的琴藝以及天才般的音樂詮釋力，音色優美、格調高貴，每個音符均注入靈魂與生命力，產生感人肺腑的共鳴。

http://www.gwhynethchen.net