Lucy Chen (b. 2005) is a freshman at Stanford University who studies music composition with Wang Lu and previously Yiming Wu. Music has always been a huge part of Lucy’s life, and she loves playing music as well as creating it. She started studying composition in 2020, and has since been recognized in many national and international awards such as BMI’s Student Composer Awards (2021 and 2022), YoungArts Classical Music (2022), Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2021 and 2023), and the National Young Composer Challenge (2021). Lucy was a Luna Lab Composition Fellow for the 2022-2023 season under mentor Nina Shekhar, and she was a composer apprentice for the 2023 season of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA) program under mentor Sean Shepherd. She premiered Memoir of Morocco with NYO musicians in Carnegie Hall, with subsequent performances in Joliette (QC), Nashville, Dallas, Jackson Hole, and Stanford.

Besides composition, Lucy has played piano since the age of 4 and has won competitions such as the MTNA Maryland Audition and Virginia State Audition, as well as performed at George Mason University. Additionally, she has played violin for 8 years and has been selected for the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras (MCYO) and MMEA’s All-State orchestras for multiple years. Lucy has commissioned 3 pieces for MCYO’s Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor and director Kristofer Sanz, including two interludes and one full-orchestra work.

In 2019, Lucy founded and runs a non-profit organization, the Young Artists Music Society (YAMS), which shares music performances and musical education with the community, and she frequently composes and arranges music for student volunteers in YAMS. Learn about YAMS here. In the future, Lucy hopes to explore film scoring.