Gloria Chien

Pianist Gloria Chien has been picked by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the year, "... who appears to excel in everything." Richard Dyer praises her for "a wondrously rich palette of colors, which she mixes with dashing bravado and with an uncanny precision of calibration...Chien's performance had it all, and it was fabulous."

Ms. Chien made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist under the batons of Sergiu Comissiona, Keith Lockhart, Thomas Dausgaard, Irwin Hoffman, Benjamin Zander, Robert Bernhardt and Felix Chen. She is a prize winner of the World Piano Competition, Harvard Musical Association Award, as well as the San Antonio International Piano Competition, where she also received the prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work. Ms. Chien has presented solo recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard Musical Association, Sanibel Musical Festival, Caramoor Musical Festival, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Chien has been the resident pianist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston since 2000, a group known for its versatility and commitment to new music. Boston Herald praises her for " [playing] phenomenally." Her recent CD with violinist, Joanna Kurkowicz, featuring music of Grazyna Bacewicz was released on Chandos Records. The International Record Review writes, "[the violinist] could ask for no more sensitive or supportive an accompanist than Gloria Chien." Harmonie Magazine writes, "...but it would be unfair not to mention the pianist, who is accompanying the soloist in an absolutely responsive, impressive and confident way. She is more than an accompanist --- rather, she is an equivalent partner to the soloist." The Strad praises her for "super performances...accompanied with great character." She also received fantastic reviews in Gramophone, American Record Guide, and Muzyka 21. Ms. Chien has participated in such festivals as Music Academy of the West, Verbier Music Festival and Music@Menlo, where she was invited back to be a chamber coach from 2007 to present.

Her recent performances include collaborations with the Daedalus String Quartet, Jupiter String Quartet, Marc Johnson, Wu Han, Paul Neubauer, Andres Diaz, David Shifrin, Ani Kafavian, Ida Kafavian, Catherine Cho, Soovin Kim, Carolin Widmann, Edward Aaron and Anthony McGill. Duo recitals with pianist, Ning An, and the Beethoven Violin Sonatas Cycle with violinist, James Buswell, which has been featured live on Boston's WGBH. In the fall of 2004, Ms. Chien was named Assistant Professor of Music at the Lee University in Cleveland, TN.

In fall of 2009, Gloria will launch String Theory at the Hunter, a chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga, as its founder and artistic director.

Gloria began playing the piano at the age of five in her native Taiwan. She has a doctor of musical arts, a master's and an undergraduate degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Her teachers have included Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun.

"Gloria Chien, who appears to excel in everything." --- Boston Globe

"...a wondrously rich palette of colors, which she mixes with dashing bravado and with an uncanny precision of calibration...Chien's performance had it all, and it was fabulous." --- Boston Globe

"It was, in my view, one of the best performances of anything I have heard around Boston during the entire 2008-09 concert season."
- The Boston Musical Intelligencer

"... ably supported by the exquisitely attentive playing of Gloria Chien on piano." --- The Hub Review

"Gloria Chien is the attentive pianist."--- Gramophone

"[the violinist] could ask for no more sensitive or supportive an accompanist than Gloria Chien." --- International Record Review

"...but it would be unfair not to mention the pianist, who is accompanying the soloist in an absolutely responsive, impressive and confident way. She is more than an accompanist --- rather, she is an equivalent partner to the soloist, even if the score does not allow enough space for her to expand." --- Harmonie Magazine

"...pianist Gloria Chien play with flair, precision and sensitivity." --- American Record Guide

"...These are super performances... Accompanied with great character by Taiwanese fellow-Bostonian Gloria Chien,." --- Strad

"...Chien gave us its elaborate, beautifully worked cosmic gloom intact, uncompromised, and altogether convincing." ---Boston Globe

"Much of the electricity and spark came from the superior and live-wire pianist Gloria Chien." --- San Francisco Classical Voice

"...Gloria Chien brought outstanding technique and fluid musicality to the work... Chien's bravura piano kept up with the work's high demands." --- San Francisco Classical Voice

"On the pi ano, Gloria Chien brilliantly sustained the wild changes, lasting one half hour." --- The Boston Musical Intelligencer

"Chien played phenomenally." --- Boston Herald