Jessica Chen

Jessica Chen is a dynamic violinist, musician, and educator who loves sharing the joy of music with others. Jessica aims to cultivate an welcoming, holistic, and encouraging musical learning environment for her students. She celebrates the unique interests and background of each student, helping students to incorporate them in their musical journey. Jessica is a skilled educator who helps students define, work toward, and accomplish personalized musical goals. She facilitates the development of comfortable and fluid musical technique, a range of musicianship skills, and tools for artistic expression. Jessica believes that a musical education can be in service of character development, drawing inspiration from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s idea: “beautiful tone, beautiful heart”. Jessica founded Horizon Music Studio in 2024 with the dream of sharing the rich musical experiences she’s had with the next generation of students.

An experienced educator, Jessica has worked with a diverse range of students across the United States and internationally. She has held faculty positions teaching violin, viola, the Suzuki Method, and general music at Stamford American International School, Wolfgang Violin Studio, and Rocky Ridge Music Academy. She has also served as the director and lead teaching artist of First Notes, an El Sistema-inspired program in Vail, Colorado. Jessica has extensive training in the Suzuki Method, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and string pedagogy. As a dedicated musical educator, Jessica is committed to lifelong learning and practice in order to continually design innovative learning experiences and to stay connected to her students’ perspectives.

As a violinist, Jessica enjoys performing across a diverse range of musical genres, cultures, and multidisciplinary arts settings. She has performed with ensembles including the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra and Musician’s Initiative (Singapore), Steamboat Symphony Orchestra, Boulder Bach Festival, Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra (Colorado), and the Opera NEO Orchestra (California). A keen supporter of new music, Jessica has premiered original compositions on the itch New Music and Pendulum New Music concert series. Jessica has served as a performer and teaching artist for the renowned Very Young Composers program, helping bring to life and premiering dozens of students’ compositions. In addition, Jessica is a passionate worship musician and serves regularly with the worship music ministry Stream of Praise 讚美之泉.

Jessica holds degrees in violin performance and music education from the University of Colorado Boulder and Ithaca College. She has participated in music festivals including Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Round Top Festival Institute, Meadowmount School of Music, Scotia Festival of Music (Canada), and International Lyric Academy (Italy). Jessica has also attended the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies, the Richard Luby Violin Symposium, and the Karen Tuttle Viola Workshop. Jessica has performed in master classes for artists such as Charles Castleman, Giora Schmidt, the Ying Quartet, Violaine Melançon, and Katherine McLin. Her principal teachers include Nicholas DiEugenio, Bayla Keyes, and Harumi Rhodes. Drawing on a diverse musical background, Jessica also enjoys making music as a violist, singer, and pianist. In addition to musical endeavors, Jessica loves learning languages, reading, and nature.