BIOGRAPHY

Washington native and cellist Audrey Chen is forging a dynamic solo and chamber music career with a mission to expand the reach of classical music and inspire future generations of chamber musicians. She has performed at chamber music festivals across the United States, including at Yellowbarn, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Tanglewood Music Center, Four Seasons Chamber Music, Grace Note Farm Festival, Taos School of Music, and Sarasota Music Festival. As a soloist, she has concertized with the Seattle Symphony and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and appeared on NPR’s From the Top Radio Show. Audrey is highly sought after as a guest artist and frequently collaborates with groups including Cantori NYC, Jupiter Chamber Players, Boston Chamber Music Society, Parker Quartet, Borromeo Quartet, Aeolus Quartet, Argus Quartet, and the Boston-based A Far Cry. She is the current cellist of the Terra String Quartet.

 

Beyond her performing career, Audrey is committed to educating and promoting music through an interdisciplinary lens. She is currently on faculty at CUNY Hunter College, where she has taught A Thousand Years of Listening, an introduction course to music history, and currently coaches chamber music. As a Doctoral candidate in Musical Arts at the CUNY Graduate Center, she is exploring the social structures underlying classical music and the question of who gets to inherit and define the tradition in years to come. On account of her studies, Audrey was recently named a 2022 recipient of the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and a 2021 recipient of the Baisley Powell Elebash Performance Grant Award.

 

A graduate of the Harvard/NEC dual degree program, Audrey received her B.A. from Harvard
University in Molecular and Cellular Biology and her M.M. in cello performance from the New
England Conservatory. Her main teachers include Laurence Lesser, Lluis Claret, and Marcy Rosen.
In her spare time, she enjoys making greeting cards, watching films, and puzzling.

​

Updated Nov 2022