Gloria Chien  - B.M., M.M.  New England Conservatory of Music Gloria Chien is remarkable. Born in Taipei, she began playing piano at age five. Her father wanted her and her brother to have a better life, and he believed music was the road to that dream. At age 14 Gloria showed signs of the greatness to come by winning both divisions of the National Piano Competition in her native Taiwan. But school in Taiwan lasted ten hours a day and covered nine separate subjects. Gloria knew that if she had any chance of becoming a great pianist she needed more time to practice. It was then that she asked her father to send her to America where she could study with distinguished professors and practice for as long as she needed. Gloria arrived at the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Natick, Massachusetts before her fifteenth birthday. Her instructor, Wha-Kyung Byun, was exacting and frugal with her praise. “When she said ‘good’ you knew that you had done something great,” Gloria remembers. “You could finally relax when you heard that word.” She was accepted to the New England Conservatory of Music where she earned her undergraduate degree and her Masters degree under the instruction of the celebrated virtuoso, Russell Sherman. “He is an amazing instructor,” she says. “He would bring poetry, literature and others types of art to the studio and show how it is all a part of music. He connected all of life to music. He still inspires me.” Chien herself has become something of an inspiration in the world of performing arts. The Boston Globe hailed her playing as “"a wondrously rich palette of colors, which she mixes with dashing bravado and with an uncanny precision of calibration…Chien's performance had it all, and it was fabulous." She has appeared as a featured soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory Honors Orchestra. Among her awards are the Harvard Musical Association Achievement Award and winner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition. With the work for her DMA behind her Gloria accepted a position on the Lee faculty as an Assistant Professor. “Ning [her husband] and I are so blessed to be here. It’s so unique and special to be in this kind of environment where everybody has the same focus – to be something great for God. We couldn’t pass on that. It’s almost too good to be true.” You can meet the remarkable Gloria Chien for yourself at the Curtsinger Music Building on the Lee University campus. When you go to her second-floor studio she will likely be sitting behind her Steinway, practicing. Her petite frame will rise from the bench; she will greet you with a disarming smile; and with three small words begin a journey with you . . . “Ready to work?”