Bobby Chen, born in Sandakan, Malaysia, burst on the scene in 1996 with a sensational season of concerts, which included a British tour with Lord Menuhin in a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto and a recital at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the South Bank Prokofiev Festival.

Since then, regular appearances in mainstream London and British venues such as Bridgewater Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall as well as venues in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Europe have contributed to Chen's remarkably fast rise as a household name in Britain and the Far East.

Ruth Nye, who nurtured his precocious talent in 1991 at the Yehudi Menuhin School, brought him to the Royal Academy of Music where Chen also worked with Hamish Milne. During his four-year spell there, Chen won no fewer than eight coveted awards, noticeably that for ‘Best Final Recital'. He was also awarded numerous scholarships including the prestigious ‘Yamaha European Foundation Scholarship' and ‘Royal Overseas League Prize', which enabled him to collaborate with artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Fanny Waterman, John Lill, Charles Rosen, Nikolai Demidenko and Krystian Zimerman.

His highly successful concerto début in 1998 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra playing Rachmaninov's Paganini Variations led to collaboration with conductors Maximiliano Valdes, Lan Shui, Sir Neville Marriner, Lord Menuhin and several orchestras including the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Warsaw Sinfonia and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has since travelled to Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Japan, the USA and most of Europe. In Kuala Lumpur, his performance at the Petronas Towers of Beethoven's first Piano Concerto with Sir Marriner was so warmly received, he was asked to return for a series of recitals in the country and concerto performances with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003.

Chen's commercial recordings include the acclaimed ‘Live at the Wigmore Hall' recording for the Jaques Samuel label with which he previously recorded a solo CD of works by Haydn, Liszt, Schubert and Stravinsky.  Chen also recorded for the ‘Cello Classics' label with cellist Leonid Gorokhov and broadcasted on Classic FM.

Recent highlights include Bobby Chen's return to Malaysia for performances of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra under Matthias Bamert, solo recitals in central London, appearances at the London Chamber Music Festival and in Sweden and broadcasting for the Radio Television Hong Kong. Forthcoming highlights include broadcasting for PianoForte Chicago (USA), concerto appearances in the USA and with London Sinfonietta at Cadogan Hall, chamber music tours in Ireland as well as recitals at Worcester Three Choirs Festivalm Malaysia and Singapore. Bobby will also be giving world premieres of a concerto and a solo piano work written especially for him.

As well as his busy solo career, Bobby is also a keen chamber musician. He has recently played with violinists Lee Huei Min, Ken Aiso and the soprano Matilda Paulsson and will with Elizabeth Cooney and Jane O'Hara as part of the Syrius Piano Trio in the coming months.

Bobby gratefully acknowledges the support of the Queen Anne's Gate Foundation.

Selected reviews

1) ‘International Piano'

...Chen is an armour-clad player of complete technique, a thinking musician, a natural Romantic. His Schubert positively glows; his boldly projected Haydn impresses for its Michelangeli-like clarity of execution. Petrushka, a marvel of exacting detail and precision attack, triumphs with the best - a powerfully coloured, authentically Russian journey. Nothing seems too difficult, yet nor is anything merely facile. The tension is perfectly gauged. It is so inevitably right that after a while you begin to wonder why everyone doesn't play like this.

Pianist-watchers out for youthful urge and freshness caught on the wing will not want to miss Liszt's Ballade or Franciscan Legends. Mega-high on the wow factor, they scale the awesome...Hearing Chen spur his Fazioli is to experience a distinctive cocktail of weight, balance and onward flow, the medium and its mechanics decisively understood and controlled from within. His arsenal of gran expressione phrases, thunderbolt octaves and basaltic chords quarried from the deep, Arrau/Russian-descended is imperial, his ability to suggest colour and image through touch, timing and dynamic voicing already masterly. Young bloods come no better.

Ateş Orga

2) The Edge - Malaysia

Sergei Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of
Paganini with Matthias Bamert and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra

....It's no secret though, that most of the audience was there for Bobby Chen, performing Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Anyone who
may have been dozing during the Prokofiev was sure to have been awakened by his captivating musical skill. His fingers seemed to dance across the keys gracefully, a masterful performance that gave rise to speculations during the interval as to his age. Perhaps that would explain the need for numerous encores and seemingly endless applause, watching poor Bobby repeatedly weave a path around chairs and musicians.

Christal Yeoh

3) Straits Times - Singapore

....Chen's touch was masterful, combining the solid, enviable technique of the Russian school with the assured elegance of his Claudio Arrau lineage...(the performance) demonstrated the amazing maturity he is capable of wielding....

4) Liverpool Daily Post

...(audiences) were treated to what must be the best recital - piano, certainly, they'll hear this season, with a recital by Bobby Chen...

This is a massive talent...At times, he was carefully thoughtful, at others skittishly lightweight. (Ichiyanagi's piece, written in 2003) demonstrating Chen's ability to master a modernist's harmonic language with little difficulty.

Glyn Mon Hughes

5) Leicester Mercury - New Walk Museuem and Art Gallery

....the highlight was a dazzling account of Movements from Sravinsky's Petrouchka...Chen truly has (formidable technique)..he gave a virtuoso performance, cleanly articulated, illuminating and dynamic.

....he gave the European premiere of a suite of short pieces by contemporary Chinese composer Zhang Zhao, (Zhao's) five pieces were played with obvious affection.

....a convincing account of the Haydn's Sonata in C Hob XVI:50, Chen brought out the humour and spirit in the inventive opening Allegro and the poetry in the surprisingly weighty Adagio.

Neil Crutchley

6) Daily Echo (Bournemouth)

Bobby Chen's pièce de résistance, Three movements from Petrushka, held a packed house in awe as he unleashed the full range of his formidable artistry...Here Chen's vivid virtuosity accomplished feats of brilliance with an innate sensibility to the underlying plot. His exceptional control and stunning articulation highlighted the composer's genius, garnering rapturous applause.

....Haydn's nimble wit and affectionate grace were infused in Chen's account of the Sonata in E flat, Hob.XVI/49...

Mike Marsh