About Justine

The “propulsive, emotionally resonant” (NY Times) music of native New Yorker Justine F. Chen has been commissioned and presented by New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, The Juilliard School, American Lyric Theater, New York Festival of Song, Long Leaf Opera, Tapestry Opera, JACK Quartet, OPERA America, and Chicago Opera Theater.

A classically trained ballet dancer, violinist, and composer, Chen is drawn to collaboration and has created critically acclaimed works in dance, animation, theater, and opera. Her first collaboration was in theater, the incidental music for Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in high school. Chen’s first collaboration with a choreographer was at Juilliard, and was unprecedentedly featured later that year on the Juilliard Dance Division Summer tour. Chen’s first opera, The Maiden Tower, was presented at Juilliard, New York City Opera’s VOX 2006 Showcase, and by Montréal’s Chants Libres. Her second opera on the life of Joan of Arc Jeanne featured in New York City Opera’s VOX 2008 Showcase, was praised as “lyrical, atmospheric... striking… Throughout, Ms. Chen balances despair and humor.” (NY Times)

Among other projects, Chen is working on a full-length opera on the life of computer-scientist Alan Turing, a large choral work based on Jena Osman’s book of poetry Motion Studies for three-time Grammy Award winning group The Crossing, and a brand new chamber opera SEVEN SISTERS with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. Recent honors and activities include grants from the Jerome Fund for New Music, Frances Goelet Charitable Lead Trust, and the 2020 Female Discovery Grant from OPERA America. She has been interviewed on WNYC’s Studio 360, and WBAI.

Chen received her DMA in composition from Juilliard, where she also earned her Bachelors and Masters in violin and composition. Passionate about education and the sustainability of classical music in America, Chen is trained in Suzuki and Orff Pedagogy, created the composition-based curriculum and heads the music department at Pierrepont School in Connecticut, and teaches Theory and Composition at the Third Street Settlement in New York.