MuChen Hsieh, from Taiwan, joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2024 after serving as principal second violin of the Houston Symphony since 2017. She regularly performs recitals, chamber music concerts, and in orchestras in the United States and Taiwan. She has appeared several times as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, most recently in a subscription concert with then-Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada in March 2022. In 2020 she shared the stage with guest conductor Nicholas McGegan as soloist in “Winter” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and in 2019 she performed Saint-Saëns’s Third Violin Concerto at the Miller Outdoor Theater with conductor Ruth Reinhardt.
An avid chamber musician, Ms. Hsieh has collaborated with James Dunham, Eric Halen, Jon Kimura Parker, Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham, and Kathleen Winkler. When visiting her hometown in Taiwan, she enjoys organizing chamber music concerts with friends.
Ms. Hsieh’s festival performances include the Grand Teton Music Festival, the New York String Orchestra, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. She studied with Ms. Winkler at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and with Malcolm Lowe and Masuko Ushioda at the New England Conservatory of Music. She served as concertmaster of the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions, including on the ensemble’s tour to Carnegie Hall.
Photo by Claire McAdams