18 Belvidere St, Boston Friday, June 27, 2:30 PM
Chelsea Chen
Organist and composer Chelsea Chen (b. 1983) is internationally renowned for her concerts of “rare musicality” and “lovely lyrical grandeur,” and a compositional style that is “charming” and “irresistible” (Los Angeles Times). She has delighted audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia in venues such as Singapore’s Esplanade, Hong Kong’s Cultural Centre, Kishinev’s National Organ Hall, and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. As a composer she is broadening the classical organ repertoire with her works based on Asian folksongs. Her solo organ works have been featured at multiple conventions of the American Guild of Organists and her chamber music has been performed by orchestras in the United States, China, and Indonesia.
The recipient of the 2009 Lili Boulanger Memorial Award, Ms. Chen is a graduate of Juilliard and Yale, where she received her bachelor’s, master’s and Artist Diploma degrees. Her major organ teachers were Thomas Murray, John Weaver, Paul Jacobs, Monte Maxwell, and Leslie Robb, and her piano teachers were Baruch Arnon, Jane Bastien, and Lori Bastien Vickers. She has recorded multiple CDs: Reveries (2011) at Bethel University, Live at Heinz Chapel (2005) in Pittsburgh, and Treasures from the East with violinist Lewis Wong (2010). Her playing has been aired on CNN.com, Pipedreams, Hawaii Public Radio, and Taiwan’s Good News Radio.She is both artist-in-residence at the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and visiting artist at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida.
Ms. Chen currently collaborates with German violinist and composer Viviane Waschbüsch as the VivaChe Duo.
Viviane Waschbüsch
Composer, violinist, and musicologist Viviane Waschbüsch is internationally renowned for her compositions, which integrate elements including quarter-tones, jazz, and flamenco. She writes chamber music, orchestral music, solo pieces, and film music. One of the most promising German musicians of her generation, she has played and interpreted her own works in concert halls in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Russia. She actively promotes a new style of violin playing while continuing the traditions of violinists and composers such as Fritz Kreisler and George Enescu. Since age thirteen, she has soloed with German orchestras and worked in contemporary music ensembles directed by major European composers including Tilo Medek, Hans-Jürgen von Bose, and Wolfgang Rihm.
Ms. Waschbüsch is assistant professor in the Department of Musicology at the University of Saarland, where she teaches history of composition, analysis of tonal music, and analysis of contemporary music. She plays an Antonio Guadagnini from 1852.