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Ray Chen

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For other people named Ray Chen, see Ray Chen (disambiguation).

Ray Chen
陳銳
Chen performing at the Sydney Opera House in 2022
Background information
Born (1989-03-06) 6 March 1989 (age 35)[1]
Taipei, Taiwan
GenresClassical
OccupationMusician
InstrumentViolin
Years active1997–present
Labels
Websiteraychenviolin.com
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese陳銳
Simplified Chinese陈锐
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChén Ruì

Ray Chen (Chinese: 陳銳; pinyin: Chén Ruì; born 6 March 1989) is a Taiwanese-Australian violinist. He was the winner of the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition.[2] Since then, he has regularly collaborated with the world’s foremost orchestras and appeared at renowned concert halls.[3]

Early life and education

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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 violin method 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]

Career

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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] Following this, he won the 2008/09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York and was subsequently loaned the 1721 Macmillan Stradivarius.[12]

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 embarked 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.[13] He was also given a three-year loan of the 1708 Huggins Stradivarius from the Nippon Music Foundation.

In 2010, Chen was signed by Sony Classical.[14] His first album with the label, Virtuoso, won him the Newcomer Award at the 2011 Echo Klassik Awards.[15]

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.[16]

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.[17]

In 2016, Chen founded the Made in Berlin string quartet along with three string players from the Berlin Philharmonic, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Amihai Grosz, and Stephan Koncz.[18] In April of that year, Chen was the youngest juror ever of the Menuhin Competition.[19]

In January 2017, Chen was signed by Decca Classics.[20] 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.[21] In 2018, he appeared on an episode of Amazon Prime’s television series, Mozart in the Jungle.[22]

In November 2020, Chen opened the Golden Horse Awards ceremony.[23]

Instruments

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Following short-term loans of both the Macmillan and Huggins Stradivarius violins, Chen was the recipient of the 1715 Joachim Stradivarius from the Nippon Music Foundation.[24] From 2019 to 2022, he played on the 1735 Samazeuilh Stradivarius from Nippon.[25]

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.

Non-classical collaborations

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On November 20, 2021, Sting’s song "What Could Have Been", featuring Chen, was featured in the third act of the League of Legends animated series Arcane; the single was released the same day.[26][27] Both Sting and Chen opened The Game Awards 2021 with the song.[28][29]

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.[30]

Other ventures

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Chen is frequently noted for his online presence, being one of the first classical musicians of his stature to embrace social media.[31][32] He began making comedy videos on his Facebook page in 2014,[33] 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.[34] 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.[35] He has also been featured in Vogue Magazine, written a blog for RCS Rizzoli, and designed a violin case for Gewa.[36][37]

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.[38] In 2022, Pocket rebranded as Tonic and continued to add users in preparation for a wider launch.[39]

Discography

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Albums

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Title Album details
Stravinsky: Diversions - Music for Violin & Piano
  • Released: 2010
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Melba Recordings
Virtuoso
Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos (with Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra)
  • Released: 2012
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Sony Classical
Mozart: Violin Concertos & Sonata (with Christoph Eschenbach and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra)
  • Released: 2014
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Sony Classical
Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works (with Lionel Bringuier and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich)
The Golden Age
The Song of Names (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
  • Released: 2019
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Decca Classics
Solace
  • Released: 2020
  • Format: Digital
  • Label: Decca Classics
Player 1 (with Cristian Măcelaru and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
  • Released: 2024
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Decca Classics

Awards and nominations

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ARIA Music Awards

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The ARIA Music Awards are presented annually from 1987 by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).

Year Nominee / work Award Result Ref.
2018 The Golden Age Best Classical Album Nominated [40]

ECHO Klassik Awards

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The ECHO Klassik Awards was presented annually from 1994 until 2017 by the Deutsche Phono-Akademie.

Year Nominee / work Award Result Ref.
2011 Virtuoso Newcomer Award Won [41]

Forbes 30 Under 30

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In 2017, Chen was selected to be included in Forbes 30 Under 30 under the Entertainment and Sports category for Asia.[42]

References

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  1. ^ Channel, The Violin (6 March 2020). "Today is Australian VC Artist Ray Chen's 31st Birthday! [ON-THIS-DAY]". The World's Leading Classical Music News Source. Est 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Ray Chen". Forbes.
  3. ^ "Ray Chen". LA Phil.
  4. ^ "Ray Chen". Tatler Asia. Edipresse Media Asia. 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  5. ^ "Artist Profile: Ray Chen". String Ovation.
  6. ^ "Australia National Kendall Violin Competition". Archived from the original on 20 April 2008.
  7. ^ "Ray Chen on Practicing and His Musical Journey". Simply for Strings. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Ray Chen (Violin)". Bach Cantatas Website.
  9. ^ Laureates Archive – Prizewinners since 1983, Menuhin Competition
  10. ^ "Orchestra - Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia". www.mariinsky-theatre.com. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  11. ^ "На VIII Международном фестивале Мстислава Ростроповича выступил Максим Венгеров (in Russian". ClassicalMusicNews.Ru (in Russian). 4 April 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  12. ^ "Ray Chen Signs Exclusive Contract With Sony Classical". PR Newswire. 22 March 2010. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  13. ^ "Ray Chen wins Queen Elisabeth Competition". Flanders News. VRT NEWS. 31 May 2009. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  14. ^ "New Sony signing: Ray Chen". Gramophone. 29 March 2010. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
  15. ^ "Artist Biography" (PDF). Echo Klassik.
  16. ^ "Ray Chen plays Bruch Violin Concerto 1st Mvt at Nobel Prize Concert in 2012". YouTube.com. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  17. ^ "Violinist Ray Chen to play with Queensland Symphony Orchestra". Courier Mail.
  18. ^ Philharmoniker, Berliner. "Made in Berlin | Berliner Philharmoniker". www.berliner-philharmoniker.de. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
  19. ^ 2016 Jury, Menuhin Competition
  20. ^ "Ray Chen Signs with Decca Classics". VIOLINIST.COM. 12 January 2017. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  21. ^ "Ray Chen - RSB". RSB.
  22. ^ "Ray Chen - Mozart in the Jungle". IMDb.
  23. ^ "2020 GOLDEN HORSE/The 2020 Golden Horse Awards". Focus Taiwan. 21 November 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  24. ^ "Concert review: Young Aussie violinist Ray Chen shows why he's the darling of the concert halls". Daily Telegraph.
  25. ^ "Recipients of Instruments". Nippon Music Foundation (in Japanese). Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  26. ^ Esguerra, Tyler (26 October 2021). "Riot's Arcane soundtrack features Imagine Dragons, Sting, Denzel Curry, Pusha T, Bea Miller, and more". Dot Esports. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  27. ^ "Arcane: League of Legends - Every Song, Ranked". ScreenRant. 3 February 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  28. ^ "The DeanBeat: The Game Awards and the game industry are back". VentureBeat. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  29. ^ THE GAME AWARDS 2021: Sting Performs "What Could Have Been" from Netflix's "Arcane" (YouTube). The Game Awards. 9 December 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  30. ^ "Superstar Jay Chou breaks records with new music".
  31. ^ "Ray Chen, The Armani-Sponsored Virtuoso Who is a Social Media Star". 27 October 2017.
  32. ^ "Meet the Violinist... Who's Also Created an App and Viral Video". 2 November 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  33. ^ The daily Ray Chen wake up ritual #mornings #birthdayboy #pisces (Facebook). 9 March 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  34. ^ "10 ways the 2010s changed classical music forever". Classic FM. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  35. ^ "How to Cope with Insecurity as An Artist Thanks to Ray Chen's IGTV Series". 31 May 2023.
  36. ^ "GEWA Music".
  37. ^ "The Vogue Violinist from the Small Town Town Down Under makes his CSO Debut". 24 July 2017.
  38. ^ "Meet the Violinist... Who's Also Created an App and Viral Video". 2 November 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  39. ^ "The contest between harmony and re-invention". 25 April 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  40. ^ "2018 ARIA Awards Winners". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  41. ^ "Ray Chen, ECHO Classic, 2011". ECHO Klassik.
  42. ^ "Forbes 30 Under 30". Forbes. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
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