Christopher Chen, a distinguished Thousand Talents Plan of China awardee, earned his doctoral degree in Orchestra Conducting from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in the USA. His extensive conducting career, which began with his winning of the Karajan Fellowship Prize has taken him to major orchestras in Europe, the USA, Australia, Russia and Asia.

Christopher Chen is Artistic Director of the largest performing arts facility in Asia, the 8000-seat Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts in Nanjing, and Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Innovation in Music Research, Production and Performance, at the Communication University of Zhejiang in Hangzhou.

As Artistic Director of the Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts, Christopher Chen masterminded one of the most impressive theatre launches in China history, introducing to Nanjing such distinguished artists and ensembles as Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Andris Nelsons, Anna Netrebko (in her Chinese debut), Xavier de Maistre, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alexander Sladkovsky, Krystian Zimerman, Leonidas Kavakos, Alexander Toradze, the Vienna Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra (London) and the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan, among many others.

Chen was invited to represent Russia and China conducting in South Africa for the 2018 BRICS Summit Festivities. His most recent activities in Russia include concerts in February 2019 with the Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra, featuring Denis Matsuev as a soloist.

Chen now divides his extremely busy schedule between homes in China, Finland and Australia, with conducting engagements in cities all over the world.
Information for February 2019