[1] Chen was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Si Ji (Four Seasons), and has received awards from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation[2] and American Academy of Arts and Letters (Lieberson Award),[3] as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
[5] Chen Yi and her siblings began studying classical music at age three as their parents were lovers of the genre.
[8] In 1978, Chen was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music where she received a bachelor's and master's degree.
[9] Chen lived in New York City for many years and studied composition at Columbia University, earning a DMA with distinction.
[10] Her teachers included Wu Zu-qiang in Beijing as well as Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky in New York.