Hamline Church is proud to present as the final and culminating event of this year’s  Music and Arts Series,  Ms. Chelsea Chen, internationally famous organist, recording artist and composer.
Ms. Chen will perform a very colorful and varied program on Hamline Church’s magnificent Casavant pipe organ on Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30 pm.

The concert is free and a freewill offering will be taken. A reception to meet the artist will follow the program.
 
As one can see from the following biographical information, Chelsea has performed all over the world to critical and popular acclaim. In addition to dazzling technique and musicianship, she programs a wide variety of music.  For our program at Hamline Church, she will play music by Mulet, Bach and Vierne, spectacular examples of standard organ repertoire.  Then, she will perform transcriptions of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, “The Swan,” from Carnival of the Animals and a rollicking arrangement of Gershwin’s classic “I Got Rhythm.”  She will turn also to original compositions of her own, based on Taiwanese folk tunes and rounds out her program with two blazing contemporary pieces which will use the full resources of our magnificent instrument.
 
Chelsea Chen’s program at Hamline Methodist will be one of the Twin Cities premier organ events of the year—so come early to get a good seat!
 
Chelsea Chen’s dynamic playing has taken her to the far corners of the world. Her solo concerts offer a unique mix of traditional organ repertoire along with piano/orchestral transcriptions and contemporary music. The Los Angeles Times has praised her “rare musicality” and “lovely lyrical grandeur,” and compositional style that is “charming” and “irresistible.”

Chelsea originally hails from San Diego. She studied under Paul Jacobs and John Weaver at The Julliard School in New York, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. After college she moved to Taiwan under a Fulbright scholarship, whereupon she collected folk songs and wrote organ solo and chamber music. She returned to the U.S. to study with Thomas Murray in the Artist Diploma program at Yale University. From 2013-2017 she served as Organist and Concert Series Director at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale. She is currently Artist-in-Residence at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in New York City. Learn more about her at chelseachen.com.