Violinist Stella Chen has been praised by the Wall Street Journal as a “rising star to watch” and by Strad magazine as having a “warm sound and long musical lines.” Ms. Chen has performed as a soloist on tour in Israel and Jordan with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín in Colombia, to critical acclaim. Other recent performances include concertos with the London Chamber Orchestra, the Welsh National Symphony Orchestra, and Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra.

Mostly recently, Ms. Chen was awarded the top prize at the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition Sion Valais, as well as the prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work by Lera Auerbach and the Audience Prize. Her other achievements include being the first recipient of the Robert Levin Award, youngest ever prizewinner at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, and 1st Prize at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Bronislaw Kaper Awards.  She has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Robert Levin, Roger Tapping, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Merry Peckham, members of St. Martin in the Fields, and the Silk Road Ensemble. In addition, she has performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series, and on the radio show From the Top.

She was invited by Itzhak Perlman to be a guest soloist for “An Evening with Itzhak Perlman” in Napa Valley, and by the Silk Road Ensemble to be a guest soloist in performances in Farkas Hall.

For ten years, Ms. Chen studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Li Lin. At Harvard, she served as the concertmaster of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the Dunster House Opera, and president of the Brattle Street Chamber Players. Other noteworthy projects include performances in the capital of Bhutan as well as a tour of Cuba with Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. She has participated in many festivals, including Music@Menlo, the Perlman Music Program, the Sarasota Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and YellowBarn.

Ms. Chen is a graduate of the Harvard / New England Conservatory Dual Degree Program under the tutelage of Miriam Fried and Donald Weilerstein. Stella graduated with honors from Harvard in 2015 with a degree in Psychology, and served as the 2015-2016 Artist-In-Residence at Harvard University’s Lowell House. Currently, Ms. Chen is a C.V. Starr doctoral fellow at the Juilliard School, studying with Donald Weilerstein, Catherine Cho, and Li Lin.