Violinist Catharina Chen

 Catharina’s status as one of Norway’s most promising classical musicians and her appearances through Norwegian television and radio broadcast programs has made her well known in her home country.

In 2012, Catharina was appointed as the youngest female 1.Concertmaster of The Norwegian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. 

She is the recipient of numerous awards, winning 1st prize in consecutive national violin competitions and the youngest musician in Norway ever to be awarded the highly respected and prestigious Oslo City Artist Prize in 2004.

Norwegian-born Catharina Chen has soloed with many major orchestras since the age of 8. Highlights among her engagements include performances with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Tromso Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Camerata, ZKO-Zuricher Chamber Orchestra, I Palpiti Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Beverly Hills Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Slovenska Filharmonia.

As a soloist and recitalist, Catharina has appeared at concert venues such as Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Mozarteum Grosse Hall in Salzburg, Carnegie Hall in New York, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and performed at international festivals in Norway, Italy, China, Israel, Malaysia, USA, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Mexico, Brazil, Slovenia, Slovakia, New Mexico and South Africa. She is often invited as solo recitalist to concert series in Pennsylvania, New York and Los Angeles and becoming a highly attractive chambermusician and leader of chamber orchestras such as Oslo Camerata and The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. 

In September 2014, she was featured in OperaPOP on Ice Show sponsored by Intimissimi in Arena di Verona, Italy performing with Olympic medalists in figure skatering such as Carolina Costner, Stéphane Lambiel and Jeffrey Buttle under director Francisco Negrin. 

Born in 1985, Catharina began to play the violin at the age of 5 with her father. She later studied with Alf Richard Kraggerud and Stephan Barratt-Due at the renowned Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo and Professor Eduard Schmieder at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Temple University in Philadelphia where she finished her Artist Diploma and Master Degree.  

Catharina Chen plays her own Jean Baptiste Vuilaumme (built in France in 1859) and a Antonio Stradivari (Cremona, 1723), kindly lent by the Hoegh Foundation.

Bergens Tidende 3/11/2003:

- "... gjorde seg umiddelbart bemerket med en vakker tone, høyt utviklet teknikk og smakfullt foredrag."