Pianist Gloria Chien has been picked by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the year, "… who appears to excel in everything." Richard Dyer praised her for "a wondrously rich palette of colors, which she mixes with dashing bravado and with an uncanny precision of calibration…Chien's performance had it all, and it was fabulous."

Ms. Chien made her orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist under the batons of Sergiu Comissiona, Keith Lockhart, Thomas Dausgaard, Irwin Hoffman, Benjamin Zander, Robert Bernhardt and Felix Chen. She received a Harvard Musical Association Award and was a prize winner at the World Piano Competition and the San Antonio International Piano Competition, where she also received the prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work. Ms. Chien has presented solo recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard Musical Association, Sanibel Music Festival, Caramoor Music Festival, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. Ms. Chien has participated in such festivals as Music Academy of the West, Verbier Music Festival and Music@Menlo, where she has been a chamber music coach since 2007.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Chien has been the resident pianist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston since 2000, a group known for its versatility and commitment to new music. The Boston Herald praised her for "[playing] phenomenally." Her recent CD with violinist Joanna Kurkowicz, featuring music of Grazyna Bacewicz, was released on Chandos Records. The International Record Review wrote, "[the violinist] could ask for no more sensitive or supportive an accompanist than Gloria Chien." Harmonie Magazine wrote, "…but it would be unfair not to mention the pianist, who is accompanying the soloist in an absolutely responsive, impressive and confident way. She is more than an accompanist - rather, she is an equivalent partner to the soloist." The Strad praises her for "super performances…accompanied with great character." She also received fantastic reviews in Gramophone,American Record Guide, and Muzyka 21.

Recent engagements include collaborations with the Daedalus, Jupiter and Formosa String Quartets, Wu Han, Paul Neubauer, Andres Diaz, David Shifrin, Ani and Ida Kafavian, Catherine Cho, Soovin Kim, Carolin Widmann, Edward Aaron and Anthony McGill. She has presented numerous duo recitals with pianist Ning An, and the cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas with James Buswell, featured live on Boston’s WGBH Radio.

Gloria began playing the piano at the age of five in her native Taiwan. She has a doctor of musical arts, a master’s and an undergraduate degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Her teachers have included Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. In the fall of 2004, Ms. Chien was named Assistant Professor of Music at the Lee University in Cleveland, TN. During the 2009-2010 season, Gloria is launching String Theory at the Hunter, a new chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga.

Photo Credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco