{{Short description|American composer (born 1978)}} {{Use American English|date=May 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox biography | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1978}} | occupation = {{flatlist| * Composer * sound artist * pianist }} | employer = State University of New York at New Paltz | awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (2022) | alma_mater = {{ublist| * Oberlin Conservatory of Music * Northwestern University * Jacobs School of Music }} | module = {{Infobox academic | embed = yes | thesis_title = Inventions on the Keyboard | thesis_year = 2015 | thesis_url = https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/213844183.pdf | doctoral_advisor = André Watts }} | module2 = {{Infobox musical artist | embed = yes | genre = Contemporary classical | instrument = Toy piano | past_member_of = International Contemporary Ensemble }} }} '''Phyllis Chen''' (born 1978) is an American composer, sound artist, and pianist. A member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, she co-composed their 2016 album ''On The Nature Of Thingness'' and is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow. After suffering from tendinopathy, she began doing work on the toy piano, including an album and music festival both named UnCaged Toy Piano. ==Biography== Chen, a native of Blacksburg, Virginia,<ref name="Roanoke 2000" /> was born in 1978,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.newpaltz.edu/media/music/programs/CS-prgm-2.pdf |title=Phyllis Chen: A Mini-Portrait |date=2022 |pages=2 |access-date=May 8, 2025}}</ref> daughter of Dan and Jenny Chen.<ref name="Dickenson 1995">{{Cite news |last=Dickenson |first=Kathie |date=May 23, 1995 |title=Communicating with music |work=The Roanoke Times |page=[https://www.newspapers.com/image/919590294/ NRV1], [https://www.newspapers.com/image/919590634/ NRV10] |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She started learning piano as a young child.<ref name="Brown 2024" /> After attending the Eastern Music Festival summer camp,<ref name="Dickenson 1995" /> she graduated from Blacksburg High School in 1995,<ref name="Roanoke 2000">{{Cite news |date=June 10, 2000 |title=Norton woman honored for her aid to senior citizens |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/920998591/ |work=The Roanoke Times |page=NRV3 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> one year earlier than her class.<ref name="Dickenson 1995" />
Despite receiving acceptance offers from other prestigious music schools, she ultimately chose Oberlin Conservatory of Music,<ref name="Dickenson 1995" /> where she then obtained her BM.<ref name="suny 2015" /> She then got a MM at Northwestern University and DMA at Jacobs School of Music;<ref name="Chen 2015" /><ref name="suny 2015">{{Cite web |title=2015 Davenport Resident Phyllis Chen |url=https://www.newpaltz.edu/fpa/music/davenport-residency-for-new-american-music/2015 |access-date=May 8, 2025 |website=SUNY New Paltz}}</ref> her doctoral dissertation ''Inventions on the Keyboard'' was supervised by André Watts.<ref name="Chen 2015">{{Cite thesis |last=Chen |first=Phyllis |title=Inventions on the Keyboard |date=2015 |degree=DM |publisher=Jacobs School of Music |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/213844183.pdf}}</ref>
In 2001, she joined the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) as one of their founding members.<ref name="Brown 2024" /> In 2011, she played the piano for several pieces she composed for ICE at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Delacoma |first=Wynne |date=November 17, 2011 |title=Phyllis Chen and ICE team up for strange and compelling evening |url=https://chicagoclassicalreview.com/2011/11/phyllis-chen-and-ice-team-up-for-strange-and-compelling-evening/ |access-date=May 8, 2025 |work=Chicago Classical Review}}</ref> In 2016, she and Nathan Davis composed the ICE's album ''On The Nature Of Thingness''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=On The Nature Of Thingness: ICE Performs Chen And Davis |url=https://starkland.org/catalog/st223/ |access-date=May 8, 2025 |website=Starkland}}</ref> She eventually became Artist Emeritus at ICE.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Staff & Artists |url=https://iceorg.org/staff-artists |access-date=May 9, 2025 |website=International Contemporary Ensemble}}</ref>
As she once recalled, she "never found [the piano] to be entirely fulfilling [and] always thought there was something missing".<ref name="Brown 2024" /> After both of her arms became sore from tendinopathy, she started playing the smaller toy piano, which she had discovered during her studies at Indiana.<ref name="Brown 2024" /> She started the UnCaged Toy Piano festival in 2007 to promote the instrument,<ref name="Brown 2024">{{Cite news |last=Brown |first=Jeffrey Arlo |date=February 4, 2024 |title=These Keyboard Musicians Are Thinking Beyond the Piano |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2921717119 |work=New York Times|id={{ProQuest|292171119}}}}</ref> and she also composed a toy piano album of the same name.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Haskins |first=Rob |year=2010 |title=UnCaged Toy Piano |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/223335046 |magazine=American Record Guide |page=183 |volume=73 |issue=3|id={{ProQuest|223335046}} }}</ref> She was the toy pianist for the 2009 musical ''Coraline'' at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lemon |first=Brendan |date=June 2, 2009 |title=Coraline, Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/229183258 |work=FT.com |id={{ProQuest|229183258}}}}</ref> She also performed the toy piano at the 2012 Ringling International Arts Festival, where Gayle Williams of ''Sarasota Herald-Tribune'' said that Chen "has enough imagination for all of us".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Gayle |date=October 14, 2012 |title=Where toys and joys are aligned |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1111843635 |work=Sarasota Herald Tribune |page=BS7 |id={{ProQuest| 1111843635}}}}</ref> During a review of her April 2013 performance at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, Stephen Brookes of ''The Washington Post'' called Chen "a virtuoso of the toy piano".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brookes |first=Stephen |date=April 13, 2013 |title=Phyllis Chen and Carla Kihlstedt put 'play' back into playing contemporary classical music |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1326568102 |newspaper=The Washington Post|id={{ProQuest| 1326568102}}}}</ref> Steve Smith of ''The New York Times'' called her a "leading proponent of the toy piano as a vehicle for serious music",<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Steve |date=December 14, 2013 |title=Invention and Whimsy, Inspired by a Toy |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1467830461 |work=The New York Times |page=C1|id={{ProQuest|1467830461}}}}</ref> while Xenia Pestova Bennett called her one of the pioneers of the Schoenhut 372 and its open-lid counterpart 379.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pestova |first=Xenia |date=2017 |title=Toy Pianos, Poor Tools: Virtuosity and Imagination in a Limited Context |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0040298217000456/type/journal_article |journal=Tempo |volume=71 |issue=281 |pages=27–38 |doi=10.1017/S0040298217000456 |issn=0040-2982 |via=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>
She originally composed with pseudonyms before a friend approached her about talking with a composer who was actually Chen herself.<ref name="Brown 2024" /> Her Baryshnikov Arts Center commission ''Lighting the Dark'' premiered in December 2014; Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim of ''The New York Times'' said that it "offered a slyly subversive take on issues relating to femininity, technology and power".<ref>{{Cite news |last=da Fonseca-Wollheim |first=Corrina |date=December 16, 2014 |title=Move Over, Schroeder. Make Room for Tiny Dancers |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1636381455 |work=New York Times |page=C3 |id={{ProQuest|1636381455}}}}</ref> In 2015, she composed ''Curios'' for the Singapore International Festival of Arts, performed by Margaret Leng Tan; Marcus Cheng Chye Tan called it an "important work to evaluate Tan's theatrimusicality".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tan |first=Marcus Cheng Chye |date=2022 |title=The Curios Carnival: Margaret Leng Tan's Theatrimusicality |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1054204322000296/type/journal_article |journal=TDR: The Drama Review |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=52–63 |doi=10.1017/S1054204322000296 |issn=1054-2043 |via=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> In 2022, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition.<ref name="GF">{{Cite web |title=Phyllis Chen |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/phyllis-chen/ |access-date=May 8, 2025 |website=Guggenheim Fellowship}}</ref> Her piece "Sumitones" was performed at the 2024 Schubert Club International Artist Series in Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hubbard |first=Rob |date=October 15, 2024 |title=Denk shows off versatility and eloquence: review: Female composers in spotlight |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/3116730621 |work=Star Tribune |page=E6 |id={{ProQuest|3116730621}}}}</ref>
She has also worked at State University of New York at New Paltz as assistant professor of music composition.<ref name="GF" />
She lives in Astoria, Queens.<ref name="suny 2015" /> ==References== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
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Category:1978 births Category:21st-century American classical composers Category:21st-century American women composers Category:21st-century American women pianists Category:American arts administrators Category:American sound artists Category:American women classical pianists Category:Classical musicians from New York (state) Category:Classical musicians from Virginia Category:Composers from New York City Category:International Contemporary Ensemble members Category:Jacobs School of Music alumni Category:Living people Category:Music festival founders Category:Musicians from Queens, New York Category:Northwestern University alumni Category:Oberlin Conservatory of Music alumni Category:People from Astoria, Queens Category:People from Blacksburg, Virginia Category:State University of New York at New Paltz faculty Category:American women arts administrators Category:Women sound artists