Carnegie Hall

Innovation, imagination, passion, and dynamism are hallmarks of Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen. Music director of the MacArthur Award–winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, Ms. Chen is the first conductor to serve as principal guest conductor of Austria’s recreation–Grosses Orchester Graz and artistic partner of Houston, Texas’s River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO), posts she has held since 2019. Since 2016, she has served as artistic director and conductor for the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival. She is also conductor laureate of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. A sought-after guest conductor acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm, and high-level music making, and for galvanizing audiences and communities alike, Ms. Chen’s reputation as a compelling communicator has resulted in growing popularity with orchestras worldwide.

Highlights from the 2020–2021 season include debuts with Tonkünstler Orchester at Vienna’s Musikverein (performed as a television broadcast due to the national lockdown), Mannheim National Theater Orchestra, and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; a return to the Norwegian Radio Orchestra; and a turn on the jury for the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors. Engagements postponed due to COVID-19 include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Basque National Orchestra, Staatsorchester Darmstadt, and Würth Philharmonic Orchestra; and return engagements with the San Francisco Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Malmö Opera, Norrlandsoperan, Taiwan Philharmonic, and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, for whom Ms. Chen was scheduled to conduct the season’s opening concert at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Ms. Chen’s recent guest engagements include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Filharmonia, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Ulster Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, and the Atlanta, Detroit, Toledo, and Tucson symphony orchestras.

Ms. Chen was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Influencers of 2015. She has received the Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras (2012), Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (2007), and first prize at the prestigious Malko Competition (2005).