Sa Chen

The only pianist to have been awarded prizes in the Leeds, Chopin and Van Cliburn competitions, Sa Chen is widely acclaimed as one of the most gifted and thoughtful pianists to emerge from China in recent years.

Orchestral engagements in recent seasons include her debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras (both with Edo de Waart), the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (under Manfred Honeck), the WDR Sinfonieorchester (with Semyon Bychkov), the Orchestre du Capitole du Toulouse (with Tugan Sokhiev) and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y Léon (with Vasily Petrenko). She has also performed with the orchestras in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou and performed in recital in Istanbul, Hannover, Shenzhen, Beijing, Atlanta, Luzern and Lisbon.

The 2010/11 season includes her debuts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the Basel Sinfonietta (for the world premiere of Wang Xilin’s new Piano Concerto) as well as returning to the Gulbenkian Orchestra (with whom she will record the Grieg and Rachmaninov Second Concerto) and most of the main Chinese orchestras. Recital performances include Paris (Louvre), Milan (Serate Musicali), Montreal (Lanaudiere Festival), the Chopin Festival in Duzniki Zdroj.

An exclusive PentaTone artist, Sa Chen’s recording of Chopin’s Piano Concertos for the label was praised for “her always-wonderful singing phrasing and rhythmic elán”. (Marius Dawn, Pianist, March 2009)