Chih-Yu Chen was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She started playing piano at the age of four and later attended the Austrian National University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna where she was awarded master’s degrees in Piano Performance and Piano Chamber Music. In addition, Chen also specialises in academic fields and earned her PhD in Musicology at the same school. After graduating, Chen decided to follow and learn from Romanian pianist Meira Farkas to broaden her piano profession.

While in her earlier studies, Chen constantly won student competitions such as Austria Korneuburg International Piano Competition runner-up (1997), and after winning the First Prize of Germany Saarbrücken Fifth Bach International Piano Competition (2004), Chen has been invited as a regularly jury member since 2007. Additionally, she also held her recitals in Austria and Germany regularly during the time in Europe, which led her to become an experienced soloist on many occasions, including Brahms-Marathon in Vienna Concert Hall (Wiener Konzerthaus) in 1996, J.S. Bach’s 250th year anniversary of the death series at the Karajan Center, and Austrian National Radio (ORF) Performing Hall in 2000.

Being a genial chamber pianist, Chen has made musical collaborations with domestic and international musicians. She got the Excellence Award at the Brahms International Chamber Music Competition in Pörtschach in Austria. Chen had also worked in the private Prayner Konservatorium and Schubert Konsevatorium as a vocal accompaniment between 2002 and 2004. In 2005, she was the accompanist of the Vienna Children's Choir touring performances in Kaohsiung, working with numerous musicians: violinist Oleh Krysa, Christophe Boulier, Efim Zoubritski and Zhang Qun, cellists Dai Leewen and Zeng Jiayi, violist Lin Meiru, and flautist player Sun Li. Since 2016, she has also been invited to perform on tour with the Muen Chamber Orchestra abroad throughout the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore as well as participating in the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra abroad. In 2018, Chen received an invitation from pianist Dr. Lei Minhong to perform as “The Pleasant Piano Duo” in Guangzhou.

Returning from overseas in 2005, Chen gives her passions and devotions to music teaching among several universities and music schools. Chen was awarded the “New Star” from the National Performing Arts Center and held her recital at the National Theatre and Concert Hall. In March 2009, she performed Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 with the Kaohsiung City Youth Orchestra in the Cultural Center of Kaohsiung City. In November 2010, she published the Taiwanese composer Huang Futong’s piano works in Tainan. In 2017, she was invited to record a double gramophone record for Kaohsiung Audio Show, “We, Vienna,” with J.S. Bach’s masterpiece, full version of Goldberg Variations. In 2019, Chen, as the artistic director, founded the Kaohsiung International Piano Festival.