Music Director/Conductor
Taiwan-born conductor Shy-Luen Chen is currently the Music Director and conductor of the Washington Asian Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor of the
Hua Xia Chorus.
With an extensive conducting and performance resume, Chen has performed both in the States and abroad. Over the years, he worked with ensembles include Kuopio Symphony Orchestra (Finland), Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), Academic Philharmonic Orchestra of Kharkov (Ukraine), Capella Symphony Orchestra, Saint Petersburg (Russia), Estonian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, Pärnu City Orchestra (Estonia), Saint Petersburg Festival Orchestra (Russia), Orchestra of Colours (Greece), Slovak State Philharmonic, Košice (Slovakia), Richmond Philharmonic (VA), Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and Northern Neck Orchestra (VA), among many others. In association with his collaborators, he has performed with Santiago Rodriguez, Wolfgang David, Wolfgang Panhofer, Selvadore Rähni, Clara Abou, and Silja Fontan, Yahsin Wu, and many others.
The summers of 2007 and 2008, Shy-Luen participated in Järvi Academy of “David Oistrakh Festival” in Pärnu, Estonia. In 2006, Chen was invited and participated in the Dimitris Mitropoulos International Competition of Orchestral Conducting in Athens, Greece. He has also appeared in the International Prokofiev Competition in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2008. He was a co-founder of the Maryland Sinfonietta where he served as one of its music directors and conductors from 2004 to 2007. From 2013 to 2015, Chen was the conductor of Prelude: The String Orchestra of the Arlington Youth Orchestral Program, VA.
Shy-Luen Chen began his training on both the piano and the violin at an early age. He received his bachelor degree in violin performance from the National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. Later, he came to the United States to earn his master’s degree in violin performance from the University of Maryland studying under Daniel Heifetz, and a second master’s degree from the Pennsylvania State University in orchestral conducting studying under Pu-Qi Jiang and Geraldo Edelstein. Finally, he holds a doctoral degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Maryland, where he studied with one of renowned pedagogues, James Ross. In addition, he studied with his mentor, Jorma Panula, in Europe for many years as well as having participated in masterclasses and workshops with Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Otto-Werner Mueller, Osmo Vänskä, Leonard Slatkin, Emil de Cou, Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Michael Gilbert, Jorge Mester, and Juozas Domarkas.
Shy-Luen lives in Rockville, Maryland and still maintains a violin and viola studio at home. When he is not busy with music, he enjoys walking his dog, wandering through used bookstores and museums in DC, searching and collecting all forms of arts, reading memoirs, watching movies, and traveling to visit his family in Taiwan where he enjoys his favorite local cuisine.
Orchestra Manager
Kelly Hsu began her violin and piano studies at the age of six in Taiwan. Throughout her music career she has studied with many great violin teachers including Sylvia Shu-Tee Lee, Judith Silverman, Jody Gatwood, Eugene Phillips, Yong-Xin Fang, Burton Kaplan, and Adrian Semo. Kelly earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in violin performance from the National Sun Yat-Sen University after transferring from Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. She was a member of the Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra from 1994-2000. In the spring of 2000, Kelly relocated back to her hometown Rockville and started a private violin studio, where her students are active participants of AYPO, MCYO, PVYO, WAPO, Maryland All-State Orchestra, and Montgomery All-County Orchestra.