Catharina Chen
Violinist/Norway
iPalpiti Ambassador
“…beautiful tone, technically brilliant…charismatic and elegant…”
— Bergens Tidene
Born in Oslo, Norway in 1985, Catharina began studying violin at the age of 5 with her father. Since the age of 8, she has soloed with all major orchestras in Norway. Well known to Norwegians through television and radio broadcast programs, Catharina is the recipient of numerous awards, and the youngest musician in Norway ever to be awarded the highly respected and prestigious Oslo City Culture Prize (2004).
In 2011, Catharina was appointed and holds position of the concertmaster and soloist of the Norway National State Opera.
She has given solo and chamber concerts in international arts festivals in Norway, Italy, China, Malaysia, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, France, and South Africa, and has been a soloist with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky and Beethoven Violin Concertos in consecutive seasons 2008-09. A Graduate of Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, a leading institution in Norway, where she studied with Arve Tellefsen and Henning Kraggerud, she continued her music education in the USA with the renowned Professor Eduard Schmieder, earning an Artist Diploma from Temple University in Philadelphia. Catharina is a Grand Prize winner in the third International Gnessin Violin Competition in Moscow, Russia (2003), and the 2nd Prize winner at the Jeuness Musicale International Violin Competition in Bucharest, Romania (2007).
An iPalpiti artist since 2004, named iPALPITI AMBASSADOR in 2013, Catharina has performed on the stages of Mozarteum Grosse Hall Salzburg, Carnegie Hall in New York, was a featured soloist at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2008, Carnegie Zankel Hall in 2009, and in Israel in 2011. Catharina has been invited as solo recitalist to numerous concert series in California.
In her native Norway, Catharina continues to be an attraction for the important musical and government occasions: in May 2008, she was the only artist invited to perform at the opening of the prestigious Bergen International Arts Festival, with King and Queen of Norway in attendance. Winning the prestigious “Intro Classic” prize from State Concert Norway resulted in 2009-2011 engagements from solo recitals in New York, Washington, Milan to “Live Classical, Catharina with friends” in Tønsberg, Eurovision in Oslo, and tours with The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra” and Oslo Camerata in Spain and Brazil, recitals in Holland, four weeks of touring across Norway, tour across China, India, and world premiere of “the Moon” by Martin Romberg during Expo in Shanghai.