Sacramento State students will have the chance to watch world-renowned pianist Evelyn Chen perform Saturday as part of the music department’s 2010-11 piano series.

Chen, who has been playing the piano since she was 6 years old, has received several prestigious awards and won international competitions for her performances. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School in 1998.

Sac State professor and piano series director Richard Cionco also studied at Juilliard and was a fellow student of Chen’s.

“She was a stunning pianist then, and now she has an international career,” Cionco said.

Chen’s love for music began while she was living in Taiwan as a young girl. She said her parents picked up on her musical inclination when she was a baby. They have told her stories about her singing songs like “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” when she was just a toddler in Taipei.

When she was 5, Chen joined the Yamaha music program overseas that teaches kids to play and read music, as well as to sing. Her instructor suggested that Chen’s parents enroll her in piano lessons, which she continued after moving to the United States when she was 12 years old.

While she has won many competitions, Chen said her most meaningful first prize was from the 1981 Bach International Competition.

“I was 14, and it was my first major competition at the international level,” Chen said. “It was very special to me.”

Each year, Juilliard recognizes one emerging pianist with exceptional potential for a performing career and honors that pianist with the Petschek Award. The recipient is also awarded with a fully sponsored recital at Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

In 1995, Juilliard selected Chen for the award. She said she credits this recital as her debut – a milestone in her professional career.

Since then, she has traveled the world to play with symphony orchestras at famous venues, such as the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. Chen’s recent performances have spanned five different continents, including North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe.

Chen now lives in Houston with her husband, professional cellist Brinton Smith, and their 9-year-old daughter. As an adjunct professor of piano for Columbia University, she travels to New York City five times each semester to teach graduate students.

The program for her concert at Sac State is the kind crowds love, Cionco said.

She will be performing Francis Schubert’s “Sonata in A Major,” better known to some as the theme song to the “90s TV show “Wings.”

“Schubert’s “Sonata’ is so interesting to the ear because of its character style. Listeners are drawn to its complexity and depth,” Chen said.

Perhaps the most recognizable piece Chen will play is Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2,” which was popularized after a Warner Brothers cartoon featured Bugs Bunny playing the song.

The piano series, which began in November and runs through April, is in its 17th season and features five solo piano recitals. Cionco said the concerts generate a lot of attention from local media and are attended by musicians and music lovers alike.

“There is a demand for these concerts here. We have a big, wonderful audience who comes out religiously” Cionco said. “Sacramento has a lot of cultured people.”

Although Chen has not performed at Sac State before, she said she is especially looking forward to this concert because of the personal ties she has to Sacramento. Aside from having friends in the area, Sac State music professor Kirsten Smith is her sister-in-law. Chen also has family traveling from Los Angeles and Phoenix to watch her upcoming concert.

“I’m excited to play in Sacramento,” Chen said. “It’s not just another city to perform. It’s performing for my friends and family.”

April Kenyon can be reached at [email protected]