[4] Chen left Kaohsiung to study music in Taipei, where she lived with her aunt and served as assistant conductor of her school's chorus.
[6] In 1989, Chen attended a concert in Taipei by the American Youth Orchestra,[2] a touring ensemble of Boston's New England Conservatory.
Chen's opportunity came the next morning when she played for conductor Benjamin Zander in a closed basement hotel bar and was offered a scholarship immediately.
[14] Speaker taught Chen, who also received violin instruction from James Buswell and Eric Rosenblith as well as conducting supervision from Frank Battisti and Richard Hoenich.
[8] Chen remained in Boston for nine years until she attended the University of Michigan to obtain a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting.
[11][15] There she studied with Kenneth Kiesler and Martin Katz, served as music director of the campus orchestras, and also became conductor for the Arbor Opera Theater.
[4] One of the organization's board member's recalled that during her audition Chen very quickly captured the rapport of the orchestra and displayed "wonderful communication skills and genuineness".
[4] During her five-year tenure with the organization, PYP debuted at Carnegie Hall,[18] received its third ASCAP award in 2004 for innovating programming, and began collaborating with the Oregon Symphony (Chen was the ensemble's assistant conductor from 2003 to 2005) and Chamber Music Northwest.
[17][20][21] She also won the Taki Concordia Fellowship in 2007, an award established by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop to support "promising" female conductors.
[4] One of the organization's board members praised Chen's attitude and felt that her lack of ego was a "rare quality in top symphony performers".
[4] Chen turned down a position with the Oregon Symphony to continue work at PYP, later recalling: They became my kids, they were no way [sic] for me to give them up.
[17][19] The Philharmonic offered a total of six performances between June 29 and July 17 in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taipei, Taiwan as well as in Seoul and Ulsan, South Korea.
[23] Though Chen initially thought she would remain with the Philharmonic for ten years, she left in 2007 to become assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony.
In February 2010, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra named Chen its music director, effective with the 2010-2011 season, the first woman to hold the post.