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Stella Chen: a bright future

2025-12-19T10:11:00

01-STELLA-6621-

The American violinist chats with Rebecca Franks about her philosophy of playing and teaching, studying at Harvard, her experience of winning the Queen Elisabeth Competition and her new album, which marks a fresh chapter in her career

Sometimes it’s the light-hearted questions that give the most unexpected insights, so after an hour or so of talking to the American violinist Stella Chen over Zoom, I challenge her to a quick-fire round. She confesses that the last music she listened to is ‘embarrassing… top 40 gym pump-up music’, her dream venue is the Vienna Musikverein (‘I want to go back and enjoy it, because I was so nervous’), and (this one she adds without my asking) her superpower is still playing in heels even though she once broke her foot so badly that she had to be in a wheelchair for three months…

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