Jade Duo, Duo

Biography

Hailed by The Fanfare Magazine for its “perfect balance” of “sheer beauty of tone, fluent and fluid playing, and emotional refinement,” the Jade Duo has risen as a high-caliber partnership dedicated to interpreting violin and piano sonatas. It is the first prize winner of the 2013 Artur Balsam Competition for Duos in New York and the second prize winner of the 2013 J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition in Connecticut. The duo’s debut recording Fauré Schumann Bartók: Sonatas for Violin and Piano was released by American record label MSR Classicsin 2014 and has received plaudits from listeners and critics of The American Record Guide, Fanfare Magazine, The Audiophile Audition and The ClassicalNet. 

Violinist Shuai Shi is a top-prize winner of the 12th Jeunesses Musicales International Violin Competition, the 12th Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, the 12th Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition. She has appeared on stages around the globe, such as the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall of Singapore, the Athens Concert Hall of Romania, the National Art Center of Canada, the National Center for the Performing Arts of China, and the Shanghai Concert Hall.

She earned her Bachelor's degree with a full scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music in the UK. While in London, she won the Music Education Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund and Her Royal Highness Princess Alice's Prize. Subsequently, she graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in New York with a Master’s, earned under the guidance of Pinchas Zukerman.

Pianist Zhen Chen has performed in leading music venues in the United States and China, including the Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center, and the Concert Hall of China National Center for Performing Artsas a solo pianist and chamber music artist. Mr. Chen won the first prize of the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, New York in 2009 as well as the second prize at the Hong Kong-Asia Piano Open Competition in 2007. In 2012, he was invited to the Castleman Quartet Program and presented violin and piano duo recitals with Charles Castleman. He is the recipient of the Helen Cohen Award for outstanding pianist in chamber music.

Mr. Chen received a Bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Central Conservatory of Music in China and a Master’s degree in piano performance under Dr. Arkady Aronov at the Manhattan School of Music, where he also earned a Master’s degree in instrumental accompanying and chamber music, as a full scholarship recipient.