Olivia Chen joined the San Francisco Symphony as acting assistant principal second violin at the beginning of the 2023–24 season. Born in Houston and a longtime resident of Maryland, she began her violin studies at the age of four. She was a Tanglewood fellow for two summers, serving as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. She has also performed with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and with the Baltimore Symphony. Ms. Chen pursued her undergraduate studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where she won the Marbury Violin Competition, the Melissa Tiller Violin Prize, and the Sidney Friedberg Prize in chamber music. Her teachers include Herbert Greenberg and Victor Danchenko.