Trustee
Justine F. Chen
The “propulsive, emotionally resonant” (NYTimes) music of New York composer JUSTINE F. CHEN has been commissioned and presented by The Crossing, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, The Juilliard School, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Opera Theater, American Lyric Theater, Banff Music Centre, Bowdoin, New York Festival of Song, OPERA America, American Composers Orchestra, Merola Opera, WQXR, Tapestry Opera, and Maryland Opera Studio. Her first opera, THE MAIDEN TOWER, was presented by Juilliard, NYCO’s VOX 2006 Showcasing American Composers, and Chants Libres. When featured in VOX 2008, her second opera, JEANNE, was praised as “lyrical, atmospheric... striking… balances despair and humor.” (NYTimes). Chen’s opera with librettist David Simpatico THE LIFE AND DEATH(S) OF ALAN TURING was named “Best World Premiere of 2023” (Chicago Tribune).
With a vibrant performance background as a new music violinist and dancer (ballet and Bharatanatyam), she thrives in multidisciplinary constructs. She has collaborated as composer in numerous critically-acclaimed productions for dance, theater, and animation. Dedicated to early education, she is a certified Suzuki violin teacher and has created an unique composition-based music curriculum for Pierrepont School, in Westport, CT, where she has taught since 2004. She also teaches theory and composition at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York.
She received her doctorate in composition from Juilliard, where she also earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin and composition–the first violin and composition double major to be accepted in the history of Juilliard. She was the first Asian-American female composer to have work performed at New York City Opera. She studied computer music at IRCAM in Paris and is an alumna of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program. She is the recipient of numerous honors including grants from the Jerome Fund for New Music, the Frances Goelet Charitable Lead Trust, and Opera America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.