Stella Chen, this month’s One to Watch, is a young violinist with a mature musical voice who has already earned praise for both her intellectual rigour and her spontaneity – a promising combination. Chen came to international attention in 2019, when she took First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. This capped an impressive run of competition appearances going back to 2008, when she was the youngest ever contestant to win an award in the Senior Category of the Menuhin International Violin Competition.

A diverse education has contributed to Chen’s broad musical outlook. She took a Dual Degree at Harvard and the New England Conservatory, leading to a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in music. She later received a doctorate in music from Juilliard, where she teaches today, as assistant to her former teacher, Li Lin.

Stella Chen introduces ‘Stella x Schubert’

Since the Elisabeth Competition win, Chen has received many invitations for concerto appearances, and the last few years have included debuts with major orchestras globally. But she also finds time for chamber music, and is particularly active as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Live highlights coming up include Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto with the North Carolina Symphony and Carlos Miguel Prieto in May, and the US premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Second Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra in September.

Chen’s debut recital album, ‘Stella x Schubert’, on the Platoon label, was reviewed by Charlotte Gardner in the April issue (read the review). CG commended Chen’s performance of Schubert’s Fantasie in C as ‘a poetic reading couched in a sweetly gleaming tone’. High emotion characterises these readings, but always finely gauged, her Rondo brilliant ‘striking for the elegance of the profound switches of colour and mood’.

Stella Chen performs Schubert's Fantasie in C major at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Competition