Debora
Chen (multi-instrumentalist*/composer/educator) minored in music composition at MIT where she studied with Peter Child and MacArthur Fellow/Pulitzer Prize Winner John Harbison. She has been on the faculty of the Mandolin Symposium at UC-- Santa Cruz from 2005-2008. She has provided extensive music
transcription/editing for world-renowned acoustic musician Mike Marshall on his innovative series of mandolin method books, and overnight/rush transcriptions for a variety of clients, including the Mandolin Symposium, and the studio of Grammy-nominated composer Ed Bogas. One of her compositions caught Mike Marshall's attention at the first Mandolin Symposium in 2004, and he selected it for inclusion in materials for the "Reader's Digest" session at the Mandolin Symposium the following year. Three of
her orchestral compositions have premiered in the San Francisco Bay
Area.
Outside of her compositional interests, she has also played in wide ranging ensembles: as a fiddler/mandolinist in trad groups such as the contra-dance band Modal Citizens (with Kerry Parker, Pam Swan, Mariel Vandersteel, et al), providing the foot-stomping backdrop for a variety of BACDS dances, and San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers under the direction of Alasdair Fraser; and as a violinist in various orchestras, one of which performed at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
Her 2007 book, Standard Notation for the Tab-Addicted Mandolinist, features a uniquely focused approach to mandolin technique/standard notation fluency praised by mandolin enthusiasts around the globe, as well as by some of the world's finest professional mandolinists**, for being both fun and highly instructive. She is currently working on a new music book with Mike Marshall. She is also collaborating with Tony Williamson on a book highlighting music from his album, Across the Grain. If you would like notice of future publications, send an email here.
*piano, mandolin, violin/fiddle, guitar
**Don Stiernberg, Mike Marshall, Tony Williamson