Copious Notes

Mei-Ann Chen conducted the Lexington Philharmonic in a rehearsal Tuesday night in the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall. Photo by Rich Copley.

Click the play button to hear Mei-Ann Chen chat about how she got into music to entertain her parents and when she realized her dream of conducting an orchestra:

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

As a student violinist in Taiwan, Mei-Ann Chen always memorized her music so she could watch the conductor.

It was not just a desire to be responsive to the conductor’s every direction. She wanted to watch what the conductor did so she could someday be one herself.

“When I played in an orchestra for the first time, when I was 10, I was fascinated with this person who didn’t make any sound but connected with so many people to inspire them to make the biggest sound in the room,” Chen says. “That, for me, was the ‘aha’ moment.”

Conducting, she discovered, was her form of musical communication.

The next couple of decades presented a mountainous, curvy road to the podium for the musician, who holds the distinction of being the first student at the New England Conservatory of Music to simultaneously earn master’s degrees in conducting and violin. Chen has since held posts as the music director of the Portland (Ore.) Youth Philharmonic and, currently, assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

This week, she is in Lexington in search of her first music directorship of a professional orchestra. She is the 10th and final candidate to succeed George Zack as music director of the Lexington Philharmonic.

“This is a city with a quality of life that’s hard to find sometimes,” Chen says, looking out the window of the restaurant at the Downtown Lexington Hotel and Conference Center on Tuesday morning. “When you could have a nice place to live and do what you love, that’s wonderful.

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