As a shy bespectacled child, Julia Chen learned to rely on music to express her personality and connect with others in ways she couldn’t with words. Raised in Brooklyn by parents from Poland and China, she grew up learning music by ear before getting her Bachelors in Jazz Piano Performance and a Bachelors in Psychology from the Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio. Her previous teachers include Marco Benevento, Roberta Piket, Billy Hart and Dan Wall. She now leads her own quartet, which performs her original compositions regularly in New York City venues such as Rockwood, the Bitter End, Nublu, and Kitano. Her music has been described as “if Jazz ate a full plate of Baroque Classical music sprinkled with Brazilian Choros and a bit of R&B and then washed it down with some Pop.” Her first EP, “Silver Spoons,” was released in October of 2018 and is named after one of the many beautiful houseplants that fills Julia’s apartment. In April 2020, her trio “Unspooling” released a self-titled album of their original compositions and collaborative works.