Robert Chen celebrates his twenty-fifth season as concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure as the CSO concertmaster, he has been featured as soloist with many world-renowned conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink. He gave the CSO premiere of György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, Elliott Carter’s Violin Concerto and Witold Lutoslawski’s Chain Two, as well as the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Astral Canticle. In addition to his duties as concertmaster, Chen enjoys a solo career that takes him around the world. Most recently, he toured Europe as soloist-conductor with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, Chen has been an artistic partner of the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra since 2019.
An avid chamber musician, Chen has partnered with many of the most important musicians of our time. He is a past participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and a member of the Chen Quartet. Prior to joining the CSO, Robert Chen won first prize in the Hannover International Violin Competition. He consequently recorded Tchaikovsky’s complete violin works with NDR Orchestra of Hannover for the Berlin Klassics label.
Robert Chen began his violin studies in Taiwan at age seven. He continued his studies with Robert Lipsett when his family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1979. While in Los Angeles, he participated in Jascha Heifetz’s master classes. Chen received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki.
The Chen Quartet, comprised of the Chen family, is an integral part of his musical activity outside the CSO. They serve many of the Chicago area’s retirement communities as well as casual and formal performance venues. The Chen Quartet is featured regularly on Live from WFMT and at Bargemusic.
