Violist Che-Yen Chen is a founding member of the Formosa Quartet and a professor of viola at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. He won first prize at the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition and the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition, and The San Diego Union-Tribune has praised “his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music.”
Mr. Chen served as principal viola of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and he appeared as guest principal viola with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Toronto symphony orchestras. An active chamber musician, he’s a founding member of Camera Lucida and The Myriad Trio, a former member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a former participant at Marlboro Music, and a frequent guest at festivals across North America and Asia. His combined passion for chamber music and education led him to co-found the Formosa Chamber Music Festival, the first intensive chamber music training program of its kind in Taiwan.
Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, Mr. Chen served on the faculties of the University of Southern California, the University of California San Diego, San Diego State University, and California State University, Fullerton, and he gave master classes across North America and Asia. Mr. Chen’s recordings with the Formosa Quartet can be found on the EMI, Delos, Bridge Records, and New World record labels.
