Sheet Music Live

Virginia Chen

Virginia Chen received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in North Carolina and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where her teachers included Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and Laurie Carney and Daniel Avshalomov of the American String Quartet. Her orchestral experience includes four years as Associate Concertmaster of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (Canada) and Concertmaster and Principal Second positions with the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra, the International House Chamber Orchestra, the Augusta Symphony Orchestra (Georgia), and the Round Top Festival Orchestra (Texas).

Virginia has enjoyed traveling and performing with many ensembles in different parts of the world. She has toured South America as a member of the Canadian Chamber Ensemble and has also been to Europe with the Toronto Symphony. In 1991, her string trio was in residence at the Pacific Rim Festival in the Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia, and in 1993, she participated in the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland as a member of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. One of her most inspiring musical experiences was in 1987 at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, where she worked under legendary conductors, Leonard Bernstein and Sergiu Celibidache, music director of the Munich Philharmonic.

Ginny has been a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and is active in other groups such as the Pro Arte Orchestra, New Music Concerts and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society Piano Quartet. She also teaches, works in several Toronto recording studios, and has played for the Toronto productions of Phantom of the Opera and Show Boat.

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