Born in Tainan City, Taiwan (R.O.C.), Eric (Kwan-Yu) Chen is a full-time professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Taipei and also an adjunct professor at National Taiwan Normal University. He also serves as the music director of the Eric Chen Chamber Orchestra. He has studied with many prominent teachers, including Gao Jin-Hua, Chen Yu-Shiu, Wei Le-Fu, Chang Se-Se, Arkady Aronov, Abbey Simon, Oxana Yablonskaya, Boris Slutsky, Dmitry Rachmanov, Peter Basquin, and Bernard Ringeissen. He received a Bachelor’s degree from the Department of Music at the National Taiwan Normal University; a Master’s degree in piano performance, a professional study diploma, and a diploma in piano pedagogy from Manhattan School of Music in New York City, U.S.; and a DMA in piano performance from The City University of New York, U.S.

Eric Chen won prizes in various piano competitions including Third Place in the 13th Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, First Prize of the Five Town Music and Arts Competition, and the Young Artist Award from New York Artists International. He has performed in concert halls including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Bosendorfer Hall in Vienna, the Gotanda Cultural Center Hall in Tokyo, Muramatsu Hall in Osaka, the Concert Hall of Xiamen Art School, and the Concert Hall in Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China. His performances are highly acclaimed by international music critics. 

Mr. Chen maintains a busy performing schedule in Taiwan and is a sought-after recitalist and soloist. In addition to recitals and concerto performances, he can also be found playing piano duos, piano four-hands, and chamber music, across classical and pops music genres. He has performed with the BBC Concert Symphony Orchestra UK, Cincinnati Pops, Symphony Orchestra of Manhattan School of Music, National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, and the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan, among others. Prominent conductors he has worked with include Erich Kunzel, Keith Lockhart, and Henry Mazer, among others.

Eric Chen has recorded and released 25 piano albums, both classical and popular, and has performed throughout Europe, the U.S., mainland China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam. He has been on the faculty of the International Piano Music Camp, National DongHua University in Taiwan; the 2nd Trossingen International Music Festival in Germany; and the University of Wyoming International Music Festival. 

In May 2020, Eric launched a recital project titled “Absolute Beethoven: Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of L. van Beethoven,” where he set out to perform all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. The project was an eight-part series that was designed to be spread over five years, with performances spanning from 2020 to 2024.