Evie Chen is an accomplished violinist from Palo Alto, California. She made her solo debut with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra at age 8 after being the youngest to win the Nafisa Taghioff Award in their Young Artists Competition. Since then, she has received recognition performing concertos with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, California Youth Symphony, Eastman Philharmonia, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. 

In addition to having an active performing career, Evie is a passionate and engaging educator with years of experience teaching at the collegiate and studio setting. Her pedagogical philosophy prioritizes awareness of ergonomic techniques that provide students an unrestricted ability in developing their unique musical voice. As a result, her students graduate from her studio with confidence in their musical independence.  

Evie is also deeply interested in exploring new ways of bringing diverse music to new audiences, advocating for inclusive and holistic musical programming. She has inspired interest in contemporary and folk-based compositions, performing works like Einojuani Rautavaara’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1977) and premiering Erberk Erylmaz’s Violin Concerto No. 2, a piece which was written for her.

Evie received her MM at Rice University with Paul Kantor and is working towards her DMA. She also earned a BA in psychology at the University of Rochester and a BM in violin performance at the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the Performer’s Certificate under the tutelage of Mikhail Kopelman.