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The Australian violinist, Anna Da Silva Chen, began violin studies at the age of 8 with Sarah Hindson, soon followed by Dr Robin Wilson in the Open Academy Rising Stars program. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (2015-2018), studying under Associate Professor Alice Waten, and was awarded University of Sydney Academic Merit Prizes in 2017 & 2018, the Corrina Taylor Memorial Prize, and the Miss Ada Thompson Scholarship for Postgraduate Students. She is currently a Master's student at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Germany, studying with Professor Mihaela Martin. She was a prize-winner at the 2019 Vienna International Music Competition, multiple prize-winner in the Gisborne International Music Competition and was selected as a junior semi-finalist in the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. She was the winner of the 2011 Kendall National Violin Competition, 2011 National Fine Music Young Virtuoso Award and 2010 Australian National Youth Concerto Competition. She was selected as an active participant at the 2017 Kronberg Academy Violin Masterclasses, studying with Professor Boris Kuschnir. She has also played in classes for Maxim Vengerov, Barnabás Kelemen, Johannes Meissl, Arabella Steinbacher and Pinchas Zukerman.
Anna Da Silva Chen is considered one of Australia's finest emerging violinists, enjoying an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. She has appeared as soloist with many of Australia’s orchestras including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Canberra Symphony and Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, performing concertos of L.v. Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Edward Elgar, Felix Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Dmitri Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and more. As a string and grand finalist in the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, she performed Camille Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at the age of 14 and E. Elgar's Violin Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra the following year. Other concert highlights include L.v. Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Steel City Strings in 2019, J. Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the North Sydney Symphony Orchestra and D. Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Ensemble Apex in 2017, Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2013, Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Queensland Youth Orchestra in 2010, and several performances of Sibelius’ and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concertos with the Adelaide Symphony, Metropolitan Orchestra, SCM Symphony, and NSWYO. In January 2020, she made her German solo debut with the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester at the invitation of Nicholas Milton AM. In 2019 she was invited by John P. Lynch to tour Spain as a soloist with the SCM Wind Symphony Orchestra, culminating in a performance at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.
Anna Da Silva Chen is also a devoted chamber music performer. She appears regularly with Australia’s Omega Ensemble, toured with Selby & Friends, and worked with the Australia Piano Quartet as their Artist-in-Residence throughout 2018 and 2019. During this time, she performed a large variety of chamber works, collaborating with artists such as Andrew Haveron, Daniel de Borah and Kristian Winther. In her final concert with the APQ she performed Chausson’s Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet. Other highlights include D. Shostakovich’s Sonata and Béla Bartók’s Contrasts in Omega Ensemble’s opening tour of the 2020 season and L.v. Beethovenn's Triple Concerto with the NSWYO conducted by Fabian Russell in 2017. As an undergraduate, Anna founded the Pietra Quartet, travelling to Italy to study with Eberhard Feltz, Johannes Meissl and Niklas Schmidt at the Estivo European Chamber Music Summer School. They won the 2017 Gerald Westheimer String Quartet Fellowship, inaugural Sydney Conservatorium Association Chamber Music Competition, and the 2018 Ernest V. Llewellyn Memorial Fund scholarship, supporting further studies in Europe with members of the Wiener Philharmoniker, Borodin, Takács, Artis, Maggini and Doric Quartets. Anna also enjoys performing tango and Latin American music, performing with guitarist Sako Dermenjian in 2019 and winning the Sydney Eisteddfod's Instrumental Duets competition, and more recently, collaborating with pianist Daniel Rojas and Ensemble Apex. As a concertmaster, Anna appears regularly with Ensemble Apex, and has also led the Australian Youth Orchestra's Alexander Orchestra, the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute, and the Sydney Conservatorium's Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. She currently lives in Cologne, Germany. |
