Hung-Kuan Chen is one of the great personalities of the music world: enigmatic, brilliant and versatile. He is a pianist of uncompromising individuality and a remarkably inspiring pedagogue. Born in Taipei and raised in Germany, his early studies fostered strong roots in Germanic Classicism which he tempered with the sensibility of Chinese philosophy: The result is a dynamic and imaginative artistry. Furthermore, he is regarded as an extraordinary interpreter of Beethoven’s music.

One of the most decorated pianists of his generation, Hung-Kuan Chen won the Gold Medal in the Arthur Rubinstein competition, and was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1991. He also won top prizes in the the Busoni and the Geza Anda International Piano Competitions, along with prizes in the Queen Elisabeth, Montreal, Van Cliburn, and Chopin International Competitions, and toured under the auspices of Young Concert Artists.

Hung-Kuan Chen has appeared in the music capitals of Asia, Europe and the Americas and collaborated with many major orchestras including Houston, Baltimore, Israel, Montréal, Pittsburgh, the Tonhalle, San Francisco and Shanghai. He has performed with highly esteemed conductors: Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, George Cleve, Josef Silverstein, Andrew Parrett and Sui Lan; and colleagues including Yo-Yo Ma, Cho-Liang Lin, Roman Totenberg, Denes Zsigmondy, Bion Tsang, Anthony Gigliotti, David Shifrin, and Laurence Lesser and pianists Tema Blackstone and Pi-hsien Chen.

Hung-Kuan Chen is Chair of the Piano Department of the Shanghai Conservatory and is the Director of the International Piano Academy in Shanghai. Prior to this he joined the faculty of Boston University, New England Conservatory Preparatory and was a Distinguished Artist in Residence at Mount Royal Conservatory in Canada. He has adjudicated international piano competitions and has taught and performed in the annual music festival for the Foundation of Chinese Performing Arts in Boston since 1993.

In 1992 Hung-Kuan Chen suffered an injury to his hand which caused neurological damage and eventually resulted in Focal Dystonia. Through Qi Gong meditation and his own unique research he was able to heal and return to his life as a concert artist. His first post-accident solo recital in March of 1998 received rave reviews and he was described as a transformed artist: “Back in the '80’s, Apollo and Dionysus, Florestan and Eusebius, were at war in Chen’s pianistic personality. He could play with poetic insight-he could also erupt into an almost terrifying overdrive. Now there is the repose and the forces have been brought into complimentary harmony.” Richard Dyer, Boston Globe.