Verena Chen

In concert in Salon

Born into a Chinese-Japanese musician family 1993 in Hamburg, Verena Chen started to play the violin at the age of seven.

At the age of eleven, Verena entered into the pre-college of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and studied with Prof. Ina Kertscher .In October 2010 she was admitted into the class of Prof. Boris Garlitsky at the Hfmt Hamburg and since 2012 she is continuing her studies with him at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris (CNSM).

Verena has already won a vast array of first Prizes at the German National Competition for young musicians „Jugend Musiziert“ in the category solo and also chamber music; the Hans Sikorski Memorial Prize of the German Music Foundation „Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben“ the special prize of Erlangen for the best interpretation of contemporary music and is prizewinner at the International Competition for Violin of the “Culture foundation Hohenlohe” in Kloster Schöntal. Verena was awarded further prizes of the Philharmonic Orchestra Hamburg, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the German music Foundation and most recently in 2013 she was awarded with a special Prize at the International Heifetz Competition in Vilnius.

Her playing has since been influenced by internationally renowned artists such as Lewis Kaplan, Ana Chumachenco, Koichiro Harada, Midori, Donald Weilerstein, Yuzuko Horigome and Thomas Brandis.

The German Violinist has performed with orchestras such as the Ensemble Resonanz, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Germany. She has been invited regularly to music festivals as soloist and as chamber musician e.g. the Music Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Braunschweig Classix Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Villa Musica Festival etc.

Verena Chen currently holds scholarships by the German Music Foundation and the Villa Musica and is playing on a violin by Giovanni Grancino, Mailand 1690, loaned by the German Music Foundation .