BIOGRAPHY
Praised for her "lyricism of dramatic intensity" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and "longevity of phrasing" (Boston Musical Intelligencer), cellist Audrey Chen has performed at leading venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Sumitomolife Izumi Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, Royal Albert Hall, and Wigmore Hall. Through performance, education, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Audrey seeks to create musical experiences that move audiences deeply, spark wonder, and invite a lifelong journey of listening, learning, and discovery.
Audrey performs most actively as the cellist of the Terra String Quartet, first prize winners of the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and the most recent Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music. As a soloist, she has performed with the Seattle Symphony and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and has been featured on NPR's From the Top. She is also a frequent guest artist with the Jupiter Chamber Players and Boston Chamber Music Society. Audrey has appeared at chamber music festivals across the United States, including Yellow Barn, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the Perlman Music Program, Tanglewood Music Center, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, and Sarasota Music Festival.
Alongside her performing career, Audrey is deeply committed to music education and interdisciplinary scholarship. She serves on the faculty of Hunter College, where she coaches chamber music and has taught A Thousand Years of Listening, an introductory course on music history. While pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the CUNY Graduate Center, she examined the intersections of Asianness and musical identity in her research, reflecting her broader interest in the cultural and social dimensions of classical music. Her work has been recognized with the 2022 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and the 2021 Baisley Powell Elebash Performance Grant Award.
Audrey earned a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University and a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory through the Harvard/NEC dual-degree program before completing her Doctor of Musical Arts at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her principal teachers include Laurence Lesser, Lluís Claret, and Marcy Rosen.
When she's away from the cello, Audrey enjoys watching films and working on jigsaw puzzles.
Updated July 2026