Pei-Fen Chen (Beth) is currently undertaking a PhD course at the
University of Manchester with Professor Barry Cooper. She holds ORS and URS awards
this year and is working on a project aiming to identify the implication of
Mozart’s slurring for modern performances.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan,
Pei-Fen began her music courses at about the age of five, formal piano lessons
at seven, first public performance in an ensemble at eight, and she received
her first violin lesson at around eleven. She went on to read music until she
received her Master degree from Taipei National University of the Arts.
Her research interests since then has focused on 18th-century
composers and she has been an in demand programme-notes writer.
Later, she won sponsorship from the Taiwan Government for her
further studies and research.
As a pianist, she has taken part in master classes, summer courses
and has enjoyed playing with really gifted musicians.
As a music enthusiast, she
keeps exploring music by studying, playing and even composing music. Besides
her main research on Mozart, she carries on her piano lessons with Martin
Roscoe and in 2003 she started to play the organ.
She came especially to Tockington as one of the students of Alexander Trostiansky Master class to “explore” the violin.