Theresa Chen

Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Kingsville, Texas

Theresa Chen, D.M.A., is an active, well-rounded musician. She is an improvising keyboardist, accompanist, composer/arranger, pedagogue, and Catholic music minister.

Dr. Chen is an instructor of applied jazz piano, jazz/funk combo, Orange Juice jazz combo, songwriting, and history of jazz course at Syracuse University. She is the first Taiwanese-American who teaches jazz at the college of music in the United States. She has previously taught Functional Jazz Piano courses and secondary jazz piano lessons from 2013-2018 when she was assigned as a teaching assistant at Eastman School of Music. She also has given a diverse series of clinics, lectures, and masterclasses around Taiwan and America. She is planning to release her first jazz album, Whispering to God, by the end of 2021 and prepare her future research on sacred jazz (including jazz masses) and its placement in Catholic liturgy.

Dr. Chen has shared the stage with famous jazz artists such as Gary Smulyan, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Liebmann, Bria Skonberg, Boris Kozlov, Victor Provost, and Scott Wendholt. She also performed at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, WGMC-Jazz90.1 Radio Station, and many other prominent jazz venues in Taiwan. Her research interests include women jazz instrumentalists, historical improvisations, jazz in Asia, pedagogical methods of jazz theory/history, and performance practice of the stride piano.

In the midst of COVID-19, Dr. Chen has participated many online collaborations and presentations. In July 2020, she hosted two online in-depth panel discussions for Taiwanese jazz educators on teaching jazz history and jazz education in Taiwan and in the US. In June 2021, invited by Taiwan Digs Jazz, she hosted a workshop on the music and spirituality of the mid-late Mary Lou Williams. In August 2021, Dr. Chen was invited to virtually present her solo piano performance Summer Great Jazz Series hosted by National Taiwan Concert Halls.

Born in Buffalo, New York, and raised in Chiayi, Taiwan, Dr. Chen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in classical piano at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in 2013 with the Certificate of Digital Visual and Sound Arts and minors in flute and voice. In 2015 and 2018, she earned Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in jazz piano performance at Eastman School Music, with minor in Music Theory and the Certificate of Advanced Achievement in the Art of Improvisation. She has studied jazz and historical improvisations/composition with the legendary jazz pianist Harold Danko, Gary Versace, Bill Dobbins, Dave Rivello, Dr. Dariusz Terefenko, Vincent Lenti, and organist/harpsichordist Dr. Edoardo Bellotti.

Disclosure information not submitted.

Presentation(s):

• Texas A&M University-Kingsville-Javelina Jaht 7

  Friday, January 9, 2026
  9:00 AM - 9:50 AM CST