Conductor Mei-Ann Chen Guests on BBC’s The Conversation Monday, December 10

Conductor Mei-Ann Chen Guests on BBC’s The Conversation

Monday, December 10

The Women Opening Up Classical Music episode

December 7, 2018 – Taiwanese-American conductor Mei-Ann Chen, Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, joins host Kim Chakanetsa and Chi-Chi Nwanoku, founder of the UK’s Chineke! Orchestra, on BBC World Service’s The Conversation Monday, December 10, 2018 for an insightful talk about challenging the status quo and opening up orchestras to more women and people of color.

BBC World Service, The Conversation

9:00am GMT

Audio of interview (sans music extracts) will be available on website shortly after airing at:

https://bbc.in/2ProsIe

The radio program will include extracts from Dances in the Canebrakes by Florence Price, performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta conducted by Ms. Chen, which will be included on a new CD released in March 2019 on Cedille Records, and the second movement of Dvorak's Ninth Symphony in E Minor "From the New World" performed by the Chineke! Orchestra, conducted by Kevin John Edusei, available on Hyperion Records.

Innovation, imagination, passion and dynamism are the hallmarks of Taiwanese-American conductor Mei-Ann Chen. Music Director of the MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, and Artistic Director & Conductor for the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival since 2016, Ms. Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm, high-level music-making, and galvanizing audiences and communities alike. A sought-after guest conductor, Ms. Chen’s reputation as a compelling communicator has resulted in growing popularity with orchestras globally. She has appeared with distinguished orchestras throughout the United States, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Ms. Chen’s 2018-19 season includes debuts and returns with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Gala program with Lang Lang), San Francisco Symphony, Vienna’s Tonkünstler-Orchester at Grafenegg Festival, multiple programs with Austria’s Grosses Orchester Graz & Sweden’s Malmö, Denmark’s Copenhagen Philharmonic on a 7-city tour, National Taiwan’s debut at Disney Hall in LA, Norway’s Oslo Philharmonic, Switzerland’s Basel, Turkey’s Bilkent, Canada’s Nova Scotia & Quebec, River Oaks Chamber, Asheville & Knoxville.

Honors and awards include being named one of Musical America’s 2015 Top 30 Influencers, a 2012 Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras, First Prize Winner of Copenhagen’s 2005 Malko Competition and several ASCAP awards for innovative programming. Ms. Chen also holds the title of Conductor Laureate of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.  

Press Contact:

Laura Grant, Publicist

Grant Communications

Massachusetts - New York

917.359.7319; Laura@grant-communications.com