Ray Chen

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Ray Chen (2012)

Ray Chen (born March 6, 1989 in Taipei ) is an Australian - Taiwanese violinist . He was 1st prize winner at the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in Brussels in 2009.

Life

Ray Chen began playing the violin using the Suzuki method at the age of four . His parents moved to Queensland , Australia, where he gave his first public concert at the age of eight, accompanied by the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a student of Peter Zhang at the Sydney Conservatory. In 1998 he received an invitation to appear at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Nagano.

At the age of 15 he was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to study with Aaron Rosand . Other teachers in the United States included David Cerone , Pamela Frank, and Joseph Silverstein . He also took part in master classes with well-known violinists such as Midori Gotō , Cho-Liang Lin , Maxim Vengerov , Antje Weithaas and Rudolf Koelman .

Since winning several competitions in 2008 and 2009, he has performed with large orchestras in various countries. Among other things, he made his Russian debut with the violin concerto by Peter Tchaikovsky under the baton of Maxim Vengerov.

From the 2012/13 to 2014/15 season Ray Chen was an artist in the “Junge Wilde” series at the Dortmund Konzerthaus .

Instruments

Ray Chen has played four different Antonio Stradivari violins . Following his success at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2009, the Stradivarius “Macmillan” (1721) was available to him for three years, until April 2012. The first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in the same year brought him the Stradivarius “Huggins” (1708) on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation , also for a period of three years, so that he now constantly between could choose two Stradivaris. Chen's attitude, however, was that "nobody needs two Stradivaris". After long deliberations, he decided on the “Macmillan” and voluntarily returned the “Huggins” to the lender in September 2010. Shortly before the return, he recorded his first CD entitled Virtuoso on the “Huggins” , which was released in January 2011.

From April 2012 to June 2014 he played the Stradivarius "Lord Newlands" (1702), made available by the Nippon Music Foundation. Since then he has played the Stradivarius "Joachim" (1715), again on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

Awards

  • 2008: Winner of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists
  • In 2009, Chen was one of the winners of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York
  • 2009: first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, endowed with 20,000 euros; In addition, he won the audience award of the station VRT endowed with 2,500 euros

Trivia

In May 2018 he gave an impromptu concert after an emergency landing in Portugal.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Work Now, Play Now: Violinist Ray Chen scena.org, February 1, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c d Nippon Music Foundation: Instruments nmf.or.jp
  3. ↑ a b Ray Chen wins Queen Elisabeth Competition vrt.be, May 31, 2009
  4. ↑ Ray Chen, violinist biography on an older website of Young Concert Artists, as of 2009. Quotation: Mr. Chen plays the "Huggins" Stradivarius, on loan from The Nippon Music Foundation, and the 1721 Stradivarius known as "The Macmillan" [... ]
  5. ^ Violinist makes a virtue of musical ambition The Sydney Morning Herald, February 7, 2011.
  6. ↑ Young Concert Artists Alumni yca.org, see under 2008-09
  7. ↑ Ray Chen cmireb.be (English)
  8. ↑ Ray Chen krijgt ook Klara-Canvasprijs tvvisie.nl, June 2, 2009 (Dutch)
  9. ↑ Spontaneous concert in the event of an emergency landing. In: FAZ.net . May 28, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Chen, Ray
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian-Taiwanese violinist
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1989
PLACE OF BIRTH Taipei