Beatrice Chen is an award-winning violist who hails from Chicago. Appointed by Riccardo Muti, she served as a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's viola section during the 2022–23 season. Chen has been awarded first prize in competitions including the Johansen International Competition for Young String Players and Albert M. Greenfield Competition. In 2019, she was named a finalist and Silver Medalist in Classical Music from the National YoungArts Foundation. Chen was a member of the Grant Park Orchestra in 2022 and is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in viola performance at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Ed Gazouleas.
Chen was featured on the Philadelphia Orchestra's 2020 HearNOW Gala. During the 2022–23 season, she made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra on a family concert conducted by Lina González-Granados in Paganini’s Sonata per la Gran Viola. As a soloist, Chen has also performed on NPR’s From the Top, WFMT and on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series.
As a member of the Chen String Quartet (along with her parents, violinists Robert and Laura Chen, and her brother, cellist Noah Chen), she has been featured in more than 100 virtual concerts since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. As a baroque violinist, Chen has performed with the Curtis Collegium and Choral Arts Philadelphia and is pursuing a certificate in historical performance, studying with Cynthia Roberts, Leon Schelhase and Matthew Glandorf.
Chen has participated in Music@Menlo and the Aspen Music Festival and School, studying with Victoria Chiang. She served as principal viola of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. She plays on a 2015 viola by Keisuke Hori.
