Candace Marie Chien is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in piano performance at the Manhattan of School of Music under the guidance of Jeffery Cohen, protege of Menahem Pressler. She received her undergraduate in piano performance at Temple University under Professor Harvey Wedeen, and also completed an undergraduate there in Music Education, cum laude. She was subsequently certified to teach K-12 music in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Ms. Chien has appeared in recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as the First Prize in the Concert Festival of New York. While at Temple University, she was awarded the four-year Boyer Scholarship for musicians with strong academic achievement and also won the Westminster’s Choir College’s Scholarship Competition. Just this summer, she studied with the Prague-based pianist and conductor Stanislav Bogunia in the Czech Republic and was invited to perform in a master class for the famed Czech pianist, Ivan Klansky.

 Ms. Chien is also an accomplished vocal coach. In addition to coaching and directing multiple choirs in the Philadelphia area, in 2009 she was asked to be the pianist and vocal coach for the International Opera Festival in Citta della Pieve, Italy. She is increasingly in demand as a freelance vocal coach for Broadway vocalists and performing on keyboard with the Independent Music Award-winning Vienna Teng in NYC appearances is one way she relaxes from rigors of classical performance.

Ms. Chien has held music teaching positions in the public schools of Westfield, New Jersey and Queens, New York while she also currently maintains Sunshine Piano Studio in Astoria, Queens, New York. Ms. Chien’s teaching skills are enhanced by being fluent in Mandarin Chinese and conversational in Italian and Japanese, while one of her favorite pastimes is gourmet cooking and baking.

Ms. Candace Chien has joined the faculty of the Piano School of NYC in 2011.