About Ivette

Selected from the top young musicians worldwide, cellist Ivette Chen, age 17, is one of the quarter finalists who will compete in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Spring of 2022 at Moscow, Russia. Ivette has performed at various venues, including Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium, Irvine’s Barclay Theatre, and UCLA’s Royce Hall for Lynn Harrell’s “In Remembrance” Concert as the youngest performer and his last student. Ivette has been a prize winner for many international competitions and has also gotten a full scholarship to the prestigious Chamber OC program. Ivette hopes to use her music to inspire people and help those in need.

Ivette is a cadet Senior Chief Petty Officer in her school’s NJROTC program. Since 2019, Ivette has been a part of the Marksmanship team where she competes in prone, offhand, and kneeling positions. She is currently the Admin Head for Marksmanship and helps manage logistics, paperwork, training schedules, and attendance as well as help teach the shooters. Ivette is also the program’s Intervention’s Officer, providing mental health relief and emotional help to those who need it and giving speeches on mental health.

Ivette is also active in community service. She founded and is the president of her own non-profit Giving Harmony, which hosts benefit concerts to raise money for women empowerment. Giving Harmony’s first concert sold more than 250 tickets and raised more than $6000 donations for Malala Funds, a non-profit for empowering women education. Her non-profit also provides free community tutoring service where the members help tutor in academics and music. In addition, Ivette is part of her school’s Care Mission Club as philanthropy. She prepared dinner and baked more than 2200 cookies for the homeless in Skid Row and other areas and also made more than 800 face shields for frontline workers during COVID. Ivette also has her own YouTube channel “Ivette’s Medical Channel” that is catered towards children and families to teach curriculum about different aspects of health and medicine.

Ivette was awarded Valedictorian in the 2021 UCI summer surgery program and wants to pursue a major in neuroscience and study in the field of medicine. In her free time, Ivette loves to go on camping and hiking trips with her twin sister Simone and her three poodles. She also loves to read and watch dystopian and scientific novels and movies.