Yamaha Artist Jie Chen Performs Works of
Bach-Petri, Schubert, Mozart and Albeniza

New York's Alice Tully Hall thundered with applause on November 18 when more than 700 arts patrons offered four successive standing ovations to 20-year-old Jie Chen. The young artist's opportunity to perform a solo recital of works by Bach-Petri, Schubert, Mozart and Albeniz, sponsored by Yamaha, was part of her prize for winning the Second International Piano-e-Competition in 2004.

Jie Chen performing on a Yamaha Piano

This was by no means a debut for Yamaha artist Chen, who was admitted to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music at age 12, made her first orchestral appearance in that city in 2001 and has performed as a soloist in major concert venues in the U.S. and around the world. But the stage at Lincoln Center is a special place for any artist, and Chen rose to the occasion with aplomb.

"Ms. Chen is a remarkable young lady who had the stage presence of an artist far beyond her years," says concert attendee Camille Scheidemann, President of Frank & Camille's Fine Pianos on 57th in Manhattan "She played brilliantly, and especially showed the depth of her technical ability with the last piece, Schubert's Sonata in A major."

Among others in attendance at Chen's Alice Tully Hall recital, and at the reception held afterward in the venue's lobby, were Yamaha Corporation of America Senior Vice President Terry Lewis, International Piano-e-Competition President and Artistic Director Alex Braginsky, Yamaha Artist Services, Inc. Director Stan Zielinski and Yamaha Piano Division General Manager Paul Calvin. A number of students from Fordham University, The Juilliard School of Music, The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and the New York Conservatory of Music took an interest in the concert as well.

Stan Zielinski, Alex Braginski, Jie Chen, Paul Calvin, Sue Lewis and Terry Lewis

The Piano-e-Competition, held in Minneapolis in the early summer of 2004, saw contestants perform in the U.S. on a Yamaha Disklavier® reproducing piano, while their performances were captured digitally as computer data and sent via the Internet to an identical Disklavier in Hamamatsu, Japan.

There, note-for-note performances were recreated and synchronized with high-quality video for "e-judging" by a segment of the distinguished jury. In addition to a cash award of $25,000, Chen also received a Yamaha disklavier DC3A grand piano and a CD release issue on the Ten Thousand Lakes label.

"I think the Disklavier and the CFIIIS concert grand are instruments of endless possibilities," says Chen. "They are highly responsive, and free me to transform the music in my imagination into a reality."

When in New York, Chen practices at Yamaha Artist Services, Inc. on Fifth Avenue, where promising young artists have access to expertly maintained concert pianos and state-of-the-art performance, rehearsal and recording facilities. "YASI is like a family to me," she notes, using the facility's popular acronym. "They take sincere care of their artists. Its technical staff is like a group of magicians – they can service and tune the instruments in any way you want."

Born in Guang Dong, China, Chen is currently a scholarship student at the Curtis Institute of Music. She has performed with the Philadelphia, Richmond and Minnesota Symphony Orchestras and has performed recitals in Berkeley, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati and San Francisco. Chen was third-prize winner of the 2005 International Piano Competition in Santander, Spain, and has made her recital debut this year at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. Chen was the first prize winner of the Washington International Piano Competition and recently made her recital debut at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

"Jie's talent and her career continue to blossom in the wake of her victory at last year's International Piano-e-Competition," says Calvin. "Like our first winner Mei-Ting Sun, we know that Jie's artistic and professional successes will continue to make us proud in the coming years."