Chen Pi-hsien was born in Taiwan in 1950. When she was four, she began to take piano lessons. At the early age of five Chen Pi-hsien gave her first public performance. The nine-year-old girl was sent to Germany to continue her studies at the Musikhochschule in Koeln with Hans Otto Schmidt, where she received her diploma as a concert pianist in 1970. In the following years she pursued her studies with Hans Leygraf and took part in piano courses given by Wilhelm Kempff, Tatjana Nikolajewa and Geza Anda. In 1972 she won international appreciation with a prize at the Concours Reine Elisabeth and the first prize in the competition of the Rundfunkanstalten in Munich. Since then she has given performances at important places such as London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Berlin, Munich and Tokyo as well as at the Festivals of Lucerne, Schwetzingen, Hong Kong and Osaka.

Chen Pi-hsien has played with famous orchestras and conductois, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra, the ORTF, the Sinfonie-orchester of the Bayerische, Hessische, Suedwestdeutsche und Norddeutsche Rundfunk and the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Berlin as well as the Zuercher Kammerorchester, Tonhalle Orchester and the Collegium Musicum Zurich, appearing with conductors Haitink, Davis, Martinon, Leitner, Neumann, Klee, Rieger, Janowski, Inbal, Sacher, de Stoutz, Bour, Stein, Eotvos and Foster.