Born in Taichung, Taiwan, Ann Chen (she/her) is starting her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Choral Music at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in the fall of 2023. Ann is a pianist, a vocalist, and a conductor. Ann sang in Vancouver Cantata Singers from 2013 to 2016. While she was the artistic director of Essonance Chamber Choir from 2013 to 2014, the choir received the runner-up Honourable Barbara A. Hagerman Award at Performing Arts BC provincial festival. Ann taught in Vancouver public schools as a choral specialist for five years while serving as Choirmaster of St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church for eight years. During her teaching career, Ann’s choirs have received scholarships and gold rank in multiple music festivals. In 2022, she was selected to conduct in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choral Conductors’ Symposium as well as the Norfolk Chamber Music Choral Festival. Since 2021, she has been the assistant conductor and section leader at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood, LA. At USC, she was the associate conductor of Apollo Chorus and she co-founded a new a cappella octet, Exilio, in 2022. In this coming fall, she will be the Graduate Teaching Assistant and the lead conductor of the University Chorus. She has taken conducting masterclasses with Dr. Graeme Langager, Jon Washburn, Fred Sjoberg, Dr. Jean-Sebastian Vallée, Simon Carrington, and Dr. Geoffrey Boers. During her study in USC, she studied with Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe, Dr. Nick Strimple, Dr. Cristian Grases, Dr. Tram Sparks, Dr. Larry Livingston, and Dr. Troy Quinn. 

Degrees: 
Master of Music in Choral Music, University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA), 2023
Bachelor of Education, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), 2014
Bachelor of Music, University of British Columbia, 2013