Chinese violinist Yimiao "Iris" Chen is the Gold Prize winner in the 6th Jaen-Torres International violin competition in Spain and the Second Prize in the Zhejiang Province Violin Competition. As an active performer, Iris played many solo recitals, including the Carnegie Hall, Allice Tully Hall, Paul Hall, Morse Recital Hall, Jilin Grand Theater, Shanghai Grand Theater, Glass Box Theater, Ernst C. Stifel Hall, etc. In addition to solo playing, Iris works with many Symphony Orchestras, including Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Lyric Opera(First Violin Third Chair), the Princeton Symphony Orchestra(Associate Principal Second), the Washington National Opera(Concertmaster), Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Symphony in C(Associate Concertmaster), Montclair Orchestra, etc.

Besides, Iris is also devoted to her teaching career. She has taught over 50 students in China and the United States as a violin teacher/ instructor and has taught all levels of students from the beginner to music pre-college and college applicants since 2015. She brought many young students to ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) and helped them pass the exam, including violin performance, music theory, and ear-training tests. Her previous student got accepted by the M.M. Program including Manhattan School of Music, Bard College Conservatory of Music, Mannes School of music, University of Cincinnati, Boston Conservatory, and the Doctoral Program at the University of Minnesota. All of them got accepted with very high scholarship. Iris has comprehensive experience teaching violin techniques, including textbooks of Carl Flesch Scale System, Kreutzer 42 Studies of Caprices, Pierre Rode, Jacob Dont and Niccolò Paganini. Her music theory teaching experience included Figured Bass, Roman Numeral Analysis, Chord Progression and Form Analysis throughout the Eighteenth Century to Twentieth Century Music.

She holds the teaching assistant of the violin associate professor Enxiao Chen at Zhejiang Conservatory of Music. She also taught at the Artists' Music Center at White Marsh, Maryland. In 2024, Iris taught at Maryland University as an Artist teacher. Content includes teaching masterclasses for B.M. and M.M. students, Chamber music and string ensemble coaching and sitting on the jury list. Iris recently joined the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Association as the Music Advisory Panel for the upper string division.

Iris is also committed to promoting international cooperation. She has represented the Shanghai Conservatory of Music doing an international music exchange concert at Shanghai Grand Theatre with the Vienna Philharmonic using Mozart's violin. Simultaneous, she was the interpreter in the International Masterclass of Juilliard Vocal Professor Robert White. Iris maintains a good relationship with Peter Shi-Xiang Zhang, the violin professor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Australian Institute of Music, who visits and arranges for students to exchange performances. In 2019, Iris invited Steven Laitz, the Chair of the Music Theory Department at The Juilliard School to China to give lectures and master classes. In 2022, Iris contributed to the International Student Exchange Program of Peabody Institute and Zhejiang Conservatory of Music.

Moreover, Iris is deeply committed to chamber music. She performed over 30 duets, piano trios, string quartets and string quintets, including repertories from Baroque to Contemporary composers. Iris is committed to making chamber music a part of violin teaching. She actively played duets with students during the lesson, encouraging students to build ensemble groups to improve students’ musical criteria of cooperation ability, team communication skills and acoustic adjustments.

Iris was born in Hangzhou, China. She began violin lessons with her father at age 3. At age seven, she commenced study with Chenxing Huang, and at age 13, she enrolled in the Music School affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Iris earned her Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School in New York City, studying with Lewis Kaplan. In May 2020, she earned a Master of Music degree at Mannes School of Music/The New School. Currently, she studies at Peabody Institute as a candidate for the Doctoral program of Musical Arts with Vadim Gluzman. Iris is a full scholarship recipient of Aspen Music Festival, Summit Music Festival, and Mozarteum International Summer Academy. Iris also received awards from Peabody Institute Artistic Excellence Award, H. & E. Kivekas Scholarship, the C.V. Starr Scholarship, George Atlas Music Scholarship, Mannes Supplemental Award GR, and Mannes President's Scholarship.