Ray Chen

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen began learning the violin at the age of four. Within five years he completed all 10 levels of the Suzuki Music Education in Brisbane, where he grew up. At the age of eight, Chen performed as a soloist with the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also invited to perform at the opening celebration concert of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.[4] Early on, his violin teachers included Kerry Smith and Peter Zhang.[5]

In 1999, Chen was chosen as the 4MBS’s Young Space Musician of the Year in Brisbane. He also received the Australian Music Examinations Board’s Sydney May Memorial Scholarship and was awarded his Licentiate Diploma of Music with distinction at age eleven. In 2002, he won the Australian National Youth Concerto Competition and in 2005, the Kendall National Violin Competition.[6] In 2004, he received the Third Prize at the junior division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition.

In 2010, Chen graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Music, where he studied with Aaron Rosand.[7] He also undertook summer studies at the Encore School for Strings with David Cerone and Robert Lipsett, and at the Aspen Music Festival with Cho-Liang Lin and Paul Kantor on a full tuition fellowship.[8]

In 2008, Chen won the First Prize in the senior division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in Cardiff, Wales.[9] At the competition, he came to the attention of jury member Maxim Vengerov, who engaged him for debuts with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra[10] and the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra at the International Rostropovich Festival in Baku.[11]

In 2009, Chen won the First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, where he was the youngest participant. Following the competition, he immediately launched on a concert tour, performing with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden, the National Orchestra of Belgium under Rumon Gamba, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under Emmanuel Krivine, as well as in recitals throughout Belgium.[12] He was also given a three-year loan of the Huggins Stradivarius from the Nippon Music Foundation.

In 2010, Chen was signed by Sony Classical.[13] His first album with the label, Virtuoso, won him the Newcomer Award at the 2011 Echo Klassik Awards.[14]

Chen performing at Apple Fifth Avenue in 2012

In 2012, Chen was invited to perform at the annual Nobel Prize Concert, playing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach.[15]

On Bastille Day in 2015, Chen performed live for an audience of 800,000 people at Champ de Mars. He was accompanied by the Orchestre National de France and Daniele Gatti.[16]

In April 2016, Chen was the youngest juror ever of the Menuhin Competition.[17]

In January 2017, Chen was signed by Decca Classics.[18] His first album with the label, The Golden Age, was nominated for an ARIA Music Award for Best Classical Album.

In the 2017/18 season, Chen was an “Artist Focus” for the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.[19]

In 2018, Chen appeared on an episode of Amazon Prime’s television series, Mozart in the Jungle.[20]

In November 2020, Chen opened the Golden Horse Awards ceremony.[21]

As a winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions, Chen was loaned the 1721 Macmillan Stradivarius.[22]

Following the short-term loan of the Huggins Stradivarius, Chen was the recipient of the 1715 Joachim Stradivarius from the Nippon Music Foundation. From 2019 to 2022, he played on the 1735 Samazeuilh Stradivarius from Nippon.[23]

On 12 September 2022, Chen announced that he had received the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, which was loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation for a year. The violin was formerly played by Jascha Heifetz.

On November 20, 2021, Sting’s song "What Could Have Been", featuring Chen, was the third act of the League of Legends animated series Arcane; the single was released the same day.[24][25] Both Sting and Chen opened The Game Awards 2021 with the song.[26][27]

In 2022, Ray was one of the collaborators on Jay Chou's song and video, "Greatest Works of Art," which rose to number one in China and garnered over 500 million views on Weibo and other Chinese streaming services within 48 hours of release.[28]

Chen is frequently noted for his online presence, being one of the first classical musicians of his stature to embrace social media.[29][30] He began making comedy videos on his Facebook page in 2014,[31] and soon began creating humorous content for his YouTube channel relating to violin playing and classical music. The YouTube classical music comedy duo TwoSetViolin cite Chen as an influence in their decision to start doing comedy on their channel and Chen has appeared on their channel numerous times.[32] He continues to create content for Instagram and other social media platforms, and hosts both a Discord and Reddit community as well.

An ambassador for Sony Electronics, Chen is a music consultant at Riot Games and is in a multi-year marketing partnership with the Italian fashion house, Armani.[33] He has also been featured in Vogue Magazine, written a blog for RCS Rizzoli, and designed a violin case for Gewa.[34][35]

In 2021, Chen launched an app with developer Rose Xi under the title Pocket Conservatory. Conceived as a community-building and practice motivation app for musicians, Pocket attracted 3,500 users immediately (with another 4,000 on the waitlist) in 117 countries.[36] In 2022, Pocket rebranded as Tonic and continued to add users in preparation for a wider launch.[37]

• Official website
• Ray Chen - Columbia Artists Music