Mei-Ann Chen

The Taiwanese-born conductor Mei-Ann Chen has risen to leadership positions with several important American orchestras. She is one of just a few women to reach this level in the U.S., and virtually the only one of Asian descent. Chen was born in 1973 and grew up in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. As a child she studied violin and piano, and became a self-taught trumpeter. From the age of ten she had the desire to become a conductor, although her parents, seeing no career path for a woman in the field, discouraged her. Chen moved to the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, studying violin but also ...