Taiwanese conductor and educator Dr. Chun-Ming Chen will join the University of South Dakota Music Department faculty as the Director of Orchestra in the Fall of 2024. Chen's conducting experience bridges the professional and academic worlds. Over his career, he has worked with orchestras ranging from high school orchestras to college orchestras and youth orchestras to professional orchestras. He has performed with musicians such as the Grammy-winning vocal ensemble New York Voices, pianists André Watts and Ching-Yun Hu, and violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Musicians credited Chen's rehearsal as highly efficient and the audience described his performance as extremely passionate.
Previously, Dr. Chen has served as Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Evansville Music Conservatory, Conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Music Director of the Heartland Symphony Orchestra in Little Falls, MN, and Interim Conductor of the Grinnell College Symphony Orchestra in Grinnell, IA and Coe College Symphony Orchestra in Cedar Rapids, IA. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Hsinchu Philharmonic Orchestra, Miaoli Wind Ensemble in Taiwan, and Indiana ASTA All-Region Honor Orchestra.
Dr. Chen received his bachelor's degree in saxophone performance from Tunghai University, master's degrees in orchestral conducting from Boston Conservatory and Ithaca College, and a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Iowa. His primary teachers include Dr. Annie Chung, Bruce Hangen, Dr. Jeffery Meyer, and Dr. William LaRue Jones.

Orchestral Literature
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