Peiwen Chen

Biography

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Ms. Chen graduated from the National Academy of Art with highest honors in 1990.Shortly after her graduation from Mannes with a special piano award.Ms. Chen made her Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall as a winner of the 1995 New York Concert Artists Competition. Frequently performing as a piano duo with her husband Alexander Paley, Ms. Chen performs annually as part of the Alexander Paley Music Festival in Richmond, Virginia and in Moulin d’Ande, France.Ms.Chen has appeared as a soloist with orchestras both in US and internationally.In March 2026,she will perform Beethoven No.5 piano concerto “Emperor “ with the Centre Symphony in NYC.
In December 2001, Ms. Chen made her Paris debut playing Liszt’s Concerto
Pathétique for Two Pianos in the Salle Olivier Messiaen, Maison de Radio France. In 2003, she performed Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade in the composer’s own version for one piano, four hands , which was broadcast live worldwide from Seattle, USA on kings.org. In March 2004, Ms. Chen performed both the Mozart and Mendelssohn Concertos for two pianos with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in Vilnius,Lithuania.In the summer of 2009, Ms. Chen returned to Taiwan and gave a gala concert in the National Concert Hall in Taipei to benefit young musicians.In 2011, she performed the Mozart concertos for two and three pianos in Klaipeda, Lithuania.
As a collaborative artist, Ms. Chen has worked with artists including Licia Abanese, Elly Ameling, Regina Resnik, Jon Vickers, Evelyn Lear, Diane Soviero,Deborah Voigt, Ruth Falcon, Mignon Dunn, Sherril Milnes, and Olga Peretyako, among others. In 1998, she joined the production of Fedora for Washington Opera. In addition,Ms. Chen has served as a pianist for the Metropolitan Opera Guild as well as Amato Opera,New York Lyric Opera Theatre and Regina Opera in NYC for many seasons.She has been a member of the music faculty for IVAI in both Virginia and NYC, CVAI in Canada, as well as a faculty member for VOICExperience in Florida, CoOperative at Rider University ,and the Savannah Voice Festival .Additionally, she has served as coach and conductor for operas including Der Schauspieldirektor by Mozart, The Telephone by Menotti, Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi, and Alcina and Ariodante by Handel in a concert version with New York Lyric Opera . In the spring of 2017, Ms. Chen was the official pianist of the Classical Singers Magazine Competition in Shanghai.In 2020,Ms.Chen served as a jury member for many international online voice
competitions in Russia,China, and the US.Since 2021,Ms.Chen has joined New Camerata Opera in New York City for their productions including Ravel’s “L’Heure Espangnole” ,Lili Boulanger’s”Faust et Helene”and many concerts.In spring,2022,Ms Chen played a series of concerts in a project of the complete Brahms chamber music for piano duets,including Brahms Liebeslieder waltzes and Neue Liebeslieder waltzes with the soloists from the Lithuanian State Opera in Vilnius where she also gave a series of master classes.In August 2022,Ms.Chen joined the Savannah Voice Festival in a production of Menotti’s The Medium and Mozart “Don Giovanni” in the following year.In 2024,she performed Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with City Light Opera and served as a rehearsal pianist for a production of R.Strauss’s Salome with the Heartbeat Opera and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Amore Opera ,all in New York City.

Ms.Chen recorded the complete Saint-Saen symphonies in the version for piano duo in 2023 and which was subsequently released on Spotify. Her recent activities include performing the complete works for piano duet by Mozart; a project of performing the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin in Lithuania;served as the music director for numerous scenes concerts and vocal recitals in various universities and in April ,2025,Ms.Chen served as a member of the jury in the “Concours International de Piano” in Lille,France.
In season 2025-26,Ms.Chen will serve as the music director for Mozart “La Finta Giardiniera “ and Bizet “Les pêcheurs de perles” in NYC and join the productions of Mozart “Die Zauberflöte” and Massenet “Manon”as well as in recitals in US and in Europe.
Ms.Chen is a member of the faculty at the Mannes College of Music and the Cali School at Montclair State University.