Guest Artist Lecture Recital and Master Class: Joyce Chen, harpsichord

"Cherchez la femme? Found: Baroque Women at the Keyboard" 

Guest Artist Lecture Recital and Master Class: Joyce Chen, harpsichord

Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665 – 1729) 

From Pièces de clavecin, Livre 2 (1707) 

Suite no.1 in D 

Elisabetta de Gambarini (1731 – 1765) 

From Lessons and Songs, Op.2 (1748) 

Variations on 'Lover Go and Calm Thy Sighs' 

Elisabeth Turner (1730 -1756) 

From Six Lessons for the Harpsichord (1756) 

Lesson I in G 

Marianna Martines (1744 – 1812) 

Sonata da Cimbalo 

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Joyce Wei-Jo Chen 陳瑋若 is Assistant Professor of Historical Keyboards at the University of Oregon. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Music (Historical Musicology) and the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Humanities at Princeton University. Under the guidance of Wendy Heller, Dr. Chen is currently working on her dissertation, “Musica Experientia/Experimentum: Embodied Acoustics and Keyboard Knowledge in Europe, China, and America, 1600–present,” which explores the intersection between science, music, and aesthetics involving instrument-making, sensory experience, and the development of acoustical theory. For this project, Dr. Chen spent four months working as an apprentice at Zuckermann Harpsichords International—the last harpsichord manufacturing factory in the United States—in Stonington, Connecticut. In addition, she just finished building her first harpsichord from a Troubadour Virginal Kit.

As a solo harpsichordist, Dr. Chen has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Taiwan. Dr. Chen received the 2018 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts and was a featured soloist in the 2019 Emerging Artist Showcase by Early Music America. She has performed as a soloist in the Musica Antica Festival in Belgium (2018), the International Normandy Baroque Competition in France (2018), and the Prix Annelie de Man in Amsterdam (2023). Dr. Chen holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Harpsichord Performance from Stony Brook University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Outside academia, Dr. Chen is a dedicated church musician with over 15 years of experience. As an organist specializing in the baroque repertoire, Dr. Chen recently received the Colleague certification from the American Guild of Organists. Since August 2024, she has been serving as Music Director at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Mt. Angel.