Carnegie Hall

Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen has been music director of the MacArthur Award–winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011 and artistic director and conductor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival since 2016. In September 2019, Ms. Chen became principal guest conductor of Austria’s recreation–Grosses Orchester Graz and first-ever artistic partner of Houston’s River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO). Acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm, and high-level music-making, and galvanizing audiences and communities alike, Ms. Chen is a sought-after guest conductor whose reputation as a compelling communicator has resulted in global popularity.

Engagements in the first half of the 2019–2020 season included debuts with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Oslo Philharmonic, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Residentie Orkest, as well as return engagements with the Pacific Symphony, Tampere Filharmonia, NorrlandsOperan, and Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester. Upcoming performances include return engagements with the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Detroit, Tuscon, and Gävle and Malmö in Sweden, and debuts with the Staatsorchester Darmstadt, Basque National Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts, and a subscription series debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

North American guest credits include the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver, to name a few. Overseas, Ms. Chen has guest-conducted the Tonkünstler Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and Bilkent Symphony Orchestra.

With the Chicago Sinfonietta, Ms. Chen has recorded Project W: Works by Diverse Women Composers (world premiere recordings of newly commissioned American works by Jennifer Higdon, Clarice Assad, Reena Esmail, and Jessie Montgomery) and Delights and Dances (world premieres by Michael Abels, An-Lun Huang, and Benjamin Lee), both for Cedille Records. She recorded ROCO’s debut album, ROCO: Visions Take Flight, for Innova Recordings.

Ms. Chen was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Influencers of 2015 and has received the Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras (2012) and first prize at the prestigious Malko Competition (2005). She is also conductor laureate of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.