May-Tchi Chen received a DMA degree in Composition from CCM, University of Cincinnati. Her main teachers were Ma Shuei-Long and Jonathan Kramer. As an International Nadia and Lili Boulanger Fellow, Chen's music was performed at Radio FRANCE and Centre George POMPIDOU. She once led the Program-Planning Division of the National Theater/Concert Hall in Taipei. Chen was a nominee for the 1997 Music Composition Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Chen's works incorporate Oriental aesthetics and sonorities. She often draws inspiration from classical Chinese literature and pursues expression of spirituality. Chen collaborates with excellent musicians such as Cho-Liang Lin, Pierre-Yves Artaud and Wu Man and has performances in major cities and venues of Asia, America, and Europe. The conductors who have performed her music are Bernard Rands, Gerhard Samuel, Aldo Brizzi. Groups that have performed her works include the University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble, Shanghai Silk and Bamboo Ensemble, Darmstadt Ferienkurs Ensemble, Taipei Municipal Chinese Classical Ensemble, Cincinnati Philharmonic Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra 2001, Pulse Percussion Group, Relâche Ensemble, and the French Ensemble 2e2m. Her works are in the collection of the Contemporary Music Documentation Center in Paris and the music libraries of CCM, University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University.

Chen's most prominent work is the opera The Firmiana Rain, which was showcased by the New York City Opera. The premiere was held at National Theater, Taipei, and then followed by a performance in Beijing and then appear in the great hall of Minato-Mirai in Yokohama, Japan.

The opera, having been performed by the best singers and musicians on the state-of-the-arts stages, stirred the enthusiasm of audiences and the major press such as Asashi, Yumiuri News and Peoples' Newspaper. She also composes for unusual ensembles, such as La Sonorité de la Sphère written for 30 flautists of Orchestre Français de Flûtes premiered at Salle Alfred Cortot in Paris. Her music according to the New York Times is 'compelling – the metrically complex structure exhibits an aggressive edge that gives it both drama and drive.' The Cincinnati Enquirer summed up appropriately 'Chen displayed an ingenuous use of timbres and virtuoso writing.'

Lately she is devoted to cultural exchange and researches in musical aesthetics alongside her musical creation.