Shu Xi Chen Chen, Shu Xi

Shu Xi Chen holds a BA in Foreign Languages and Literatures from National Taiwan University and diplomas in composition and conducting from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Chen studied composition with 游昌發 and Professor Burt, and conducting with Professors Robert Scholz and Oestereicher. One of the most active and versatile musicians in Taiwan today, Chen is widely known and highly active as a conductor, composer, author, translator, teacher and arts administrator, and as a host and producer of radio and television programs.

Chen has served as assistant conductor of the National Concert Hall Symphony Orchestra; associate conductor and deputy director of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (formerly the Taiwan Provincial Symphony Orchestra); director of the Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra from August 1999 to June 2007; and, from March 2008, deputy director of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Chen has also conducted the Soochow University Orchestra, the Kaohsiung City Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Pingtung County Youth Orchestra, and has appeared as guest conductor with the Shandong Symphony Orchestra, the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Opera House Orchestra, the Hebei Symphony Orchestra and the Voronezh orchestra in Russia, among others.

As a composer, Chen works in a wide range of styles; in recent years Chen has sought to blend contemporary techniques with Taiwanese traditional colours and elements of Chinese culture, aiming to create works that are both traditional and innovative. Chen’s honours include First Prize in the Tcherepnin Composition Competition (1985), Second Prize in the Taiwan Provincial Symphony Orchestra’s second composition competition (1993), and several annual selection awards from the Council for Cultural Affairs, and Chen’s works are frequently performed in Taiwan and abroad.