SIFM Welcomes Sirena Huang and Chih-Yi Chen

Shelter Island Friends of Music hosts its second concert of the 2025 season on Saturday, March 15, at 3 p.m. featuring award-winning violinist Sirena Huang and pianist Chih-Yi Chen. In this free concert at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church, the virtuosos will perform the identical program they will be presenting for their Carnegie Hall debut in April. It features works of Beethoven, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Chen Gang, Coleridge-Taylor, and others.

Huang is one of her generation’s most celebrated violinists. She first appeared at the Shelter Island Friends of Music in 2023, after she won one of the most celebrated awards for violinists — the 2022 Gold Medalist of the 11th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, where she also earned eight of the 11 special prizes.

Huang made her solo debut with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra in 2004 at the age of nine. When she was 11, she gave a TED talk that garnered more than 2.5 million views. Among the reasons she chose the violin over the piano, she said, was that the violin “is small and lightweight. I can play from standing, sitting or walking. And, you know what? The best of all is that if I don’t want to practice,” she whispered, “I can hide it.”

Practice she did. Huang has since performed in 20 countries across three continents with numerous prestigious ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Shanghai, Russian, Evergreen and Singapore symphony orchestras, and the Staatskapelle Weimar in Germany, among others. And she has won First Prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, the New York Concert Artist Worldwide Debut Audition, and First Prize Gold Medalist of the 6th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians.

Pianist Chih-Yi Chen’s versatile qualities as a collaborative partner, chamber musician and teacher have contributed to a distinguished international career. Chen has been on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2003 and is the Associate Chair of the Chamber and Collaborative Music Department. She was a recipient of the 2023 Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award.

Chen has been performing with International Violin Competition of Indianapolis Laureates since 2003. She has served as an official pianist for the competition since the 9th Quadrennial in 2014 and was awarded special recognition at the 2018 Competition for “Best Performances” of the Beethoven and Mozart sonatas. She has also served as an official pianist for the China International Music Competition in Beijing.

There is no admission fee for the concert, but donations are always appreciated. A reception with the musicians will follow. Shelter Island Presbyterian Church is at 32 North Ferry Road (Route 114), Shelter Island. Visit shelterislandfriendsofmusic.org for more information.