About
Who is Owen?
New York based Jazz, and Pop guitarist
Owen Chen is a New York based guitarist, violinist, and bandleader, is a versatile voice in the New York City music scene. He holds a Master's in Jazz Performance from NYU, where he studied under leading figures in jazz guitar including John Scofield, Peter Bernstein, and Adam Rogers, with additional studies alongside Chris Potter and Ari Hoenig. A classically trained violinist from the age of five, he also holds a degree from UC Berkeley. Owen is a recording artist with Origin Records. His debut album with Eternal Wind, The Ghibli Collection (OA2 Records, 2026), reimagines compositions by Joe Hisaishi through the language of post-bop and contemporary jazz. The album launch was supported by a DownBeat Magazine placement, and praised by Paris-Move as the work of "one of those understated artists whose work carries a profound poetry, immediately accessible while remaining remarkably complex." Jazz Weekly describes his playing as "Pat Metheny-esque... lyrical yet gently dancing."
Owen leads Eternal Wind, a contemporary jazz ensemble hailed by BroadwayWorld [REVIEW] for “creating a space where everyone reconnected with the stories and songs that shaped them,” with sold-out performances at The Red Pavilion and cross-genre appearances at Le Poisson Rouge, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, and 54 Below ("Broadway's living room"). His dual identity as guitarist and violinist brings distinctive color to his arrangements, which BroadwayWorld describes as "tender, almost aching... nostalgia that made the room go quiet." Eternal Wind has collaborated with partners including Uniqlo and Studio Ghibli.
His concert series The Lunar Frontier traces the journey of jazz from New Orleans to Tokyo, performing the music of Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, and Duke Ellington alongside compositions by Yoko Kanno — exploring the deep and often overlooked relationship between the American jazz tradition and the Japanese artists who carried it forward.
Owen is the acoustic guitarist on the soundtrack of the award‑winning short film Let’s Eat (IMDB), is a jazz semi‑finalist in The 2019 Wilson Center Guitar Fest, and has appeared as guitar soloist with the San Diego Young Artists Symphony Orchestra.
The Lunar Frontier: Cowboy Bebop & Jazz That Inspired It
This popular series at The Red Pavilion explores the lineage of bebop and hard-bop through the work of Yoko Kanno's Cowbow Bebop and Kids on the Slope series, tying the harmonic and rhythmic influences of the soundtracks of these shows to the historical roots of the 1940's and beyond.
Eternal Wind
A dual-guitar led contemporary jazz ensemble that reimagines popular film, anime, and video game music scores. Drawing from post-bop, and contemporary jazz and fusing influences from classical, world music, pop, and R&B, this cinematic jazz ensemble reshapes familiar melodies into immersive improvisational experiences.
“"Eternal Wind created a space where everyone got to reconnect with the stories and songs that shaped them.”” - BroadwayWorld
EternalWindMusic.com
Eternal Wind is continuously developing new theme concept shows:
Selected Press
“Albums of this caliber inevitably raise high expectations for what comes next. After a project as romantic and enigmatic as The Ghibli Collection, audiences will naturally expect more.”
“revealing Chen’s gift for storytelling through music. His work possesses a cinematic quality, painting landscapes and characters through melody and offering listeners not just music but immersive worlds. ”
“Owen Chen is, without a doubt, an artist who deserves to be discovered without delay.”
“Pat Metheny-esque landscape... lyrical yet gently dance”
“His guitar playing in particular is carefully crafted, expressive, and marked by great subtlety.”
“The originality of the musical arrangements in this project ensures that his future, through what we hope will be many personal creations to come, will be widely appreciated for both its poetic subtlety and technical mastery. ”
Pop, Musical Theater
Albums
ETERNAL WIND [eternalwindmusic.com]
The Ghibli Collection (2026)
Released under Origin Records (OA2 Records), March 2026.
Guitarist Owen Chen introduces Eternal Wind, a dual-guitar-led ensemble that reimagines the timeless stories of the Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli through the expressive lens of modern jazz. Developed over a year of performances at Brooklyn's Red Pavilion and shaped by Chen's long-standing collaboration with guitarist Andrew Cheng, the album channels the emotional gravity, tenderness, and wonder of Joe Hisaishi's iconic film scores into a deeply personal improvisational language. Reviewers praised the performances for their dramatic weight and aching nostalgia, moments where the room seemed to hold its breath as familiar melodies resurfaced with renewed urgency and vulnerability. Anchored by the conversational interplay of two guitars and supported by a collective of rising New York jazz musicians, the arrangements move fluidly between lyricism and risk, honoring the source material while allowing space for spontaneity and discovery. For Chen, the project reflects an Asian American experience of reconciling formative influences into a voice that feels wholly his own; for listeners, it offers a chance to reconnect with beloved stories in ways that feel both unexpected and profoundly familiar. The Ghibli Collection marks a compelling debut and the emergence of Eternal Wind's distinctive sound.
https://originarts.com/oa2/recordings/recording.php?TitleID=22250
Eternal (2022)
Debut (EP) "Eternal" of 4 original compositions was released on April 24th 2022. iTunes.
Each piece draws from different sources of personal musical inspiration in Owen's life experiences, from influences of cinematic soundtracks, progressive rock, and anime music, the contrasting themes and melodic improvisations paint a picture of the different melodies that contributed to his "eternal" musical journey. This music was brought to life by a phenomenal band of New York musicians - Sukyung Kim (piano), Sunhyun Yoo (saxophone), Sean Hannon (Bass), and Joshua Roberts (Drums)
