Mei-Ann Chen named new Memphis Symphony music director

Mei-Ann Chen

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, seeking a rising star as its new conductor, this morning named Mei-Ann Chen to be its fourth music director.

Her three-year contract with the MSO starts with the 2010-2011 season.

Mei-Ann Chen

Members of the search committee said last year they were looking for an "up-and-comer" to be the musical leader of the symphony. Chen's impressive resume, which includes jobs in Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Baltimore, has led to her being labeled a rising star in the conducting world.

The dozen members of the search committee included MSO musicians, board members and community leaders. Chen’s appointment to replace retiring maestro David Loebel was unanimously approved by the Memphis Orchestral Society Board of Directors.

In her first season, Chen will conduct ten weeks of concerts in all of the MSO series — the First Tennessee Masterworks Series, the Memphis Symphony Pops, and the Paul & Linnea Bert Chamber Series. She will conduct 12 weeks in each of the remaining two years of her initial contract.

Chen, 36, will come to Memphis on Feb. 22 to meet the community and discuss the upcoming season.

At the announcement, several people who had gotten to know her talked about her energy and passion. In an interview afterward, she said, "I do come with a lot of energy because I've worked with a lot of young people and they feed you with what you've given them. I hope to generate excitement and energy from the concert stage, and I hope that will be contagious."

Chen's work with young people was highlighted during her tenure as leader of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. When she left the job in 2007 to become assistant conductor at the Atlanta Symphony, Diane Syrcle, PYP’s executive director, was quoted in the Portland Tribune as saying, "For a music director to come out of the youth orchestra field and move to a major United States symphony orchestra is groundbreaking. It really speaks to her level of talent."

Chen impressed the search committee not only with the rapport she had with the musicians and her energy, but also with a plan that outlined some ideas she had to develop the MSO organization.

One element of her vision is doing some adventurous programming.

"The MSO is already tapping into a lot of potential other orchestras have not dared to try. I'd love to see more collaborations through programming. There are so many possibilities through combining different art forms — visual, literary, dance — the potential hasn't been tapped into fully. I plan to get to know lots of organizations and see what we come up with."

While musical leadership was an essential quality the search committee was looking for, it also wanted the new person to actively participate in community and education outreach, and its working relationship with The Soulsville Charter School and FedEx.

Ryan Fleur, President and CEO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, said in the announcement released today that, “Mei-Ann Chen’s artistry, her relentless pursuit of excellence, and her understanding of how an orchestra needs to be truly relevant on and off the concert stage are all reasons she was the search committee’s selection.”

Paul Bert, head of the MSO Music Director Selection Committee, said that there are three areas of the community that she and the orchestra would be cultivating. "There are the patrons and sponsors who we want to bring together and work with her, the education base is exciting and we need to put together the best plan to do that, and then to take the story to the businesses in Memphis on the importance of the arts in the city."

Bert says she will be a strong public face of the MSO. "She has an infectious way of getting people excited about the art scene and the symphony scene."

Her salary and benefits have not been finalized, but according to the 2006 Internal Revenue Service Form 990 required to be filed by nonprofit groups, Loebel received $117,500 in compensation, along with $12,678 in benefits and deferred compensation. Chen's specific duties will be somewhat different from those of Loebel who handled 18-20 weeks of concerts a year, but Fleur said that her compensation would be comparable.

Chen was selected from among four finalists, all of whom had conducted the symphony and met with musicians, the search committee and the public. The other finalists were Alastair Willis, former associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony, Thomas Wilkins, music director of the Omaha Symphony and Robert Moody, music director of the Portland (Maine) Symphony and the Winston-Salem Symphony.

Mei-Ann Chen

Born in Taiwan, Chen has lived in the United States since 1989. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of Michigan. Prior to that, she was the first student in New England Conservatory’s history to receive double master’s degrees simultaneously in violin and conducting.

She is assistant conductor with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and a former assistant conductor for the Atlanta Symphony. In 2005, she became the first woman to win the Malko International Conductors Competition. She served as assistant conductor of the Oregon Symphony from 2003 to 2005, and in 2002 was named music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic in Oregon.

During her five-year tenure with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, she led its sold-out debut in Carnegie Hall, received an ASCAP award for innovative programming, and developed new musicianship programs for the orchestra’s members.

She has guest conducted all the principal Danish orchestras, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Rochester Philharmonic, the symphonies of Atlanta, Bournemouth, Fort Worth, Honolulu, National, Oregon, Princeton, Seattle, Toledo, Toronto and Trondheim. Upcoming debuts include the Alabama Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Phoenix Symphony and the Grand Teton, Houston and Wintergreen festivals.

She is single, but, she says, is married to her work.

She will be the fourth music director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, following Vincent de Frank (1953 to 1983), Alan Balter (1984 to 1998) and David Loebel (1999 to 2010).

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