Stringing Worlds Together

Stringing Worlds Together

Written by Kloe Phelan

International concert violinist and Old Boy, Ray Chen ‘06 was born for the stage.

His illustrious career to date is comprised of countless international tours and lauded collaborations, a multi-year partnership with Giorgio Armani, and the loan of the 1714 ‘dolphin’ Stradivarius violin once played by Jascha Heifetz - just to name a few.

At four years old, Ray picked up his first violin.

Realising he had taken to it with incredible speed, his parents enrolled him in lessons at Suzuki Music and it wasn’t long before he was recognised as a child prodigy.

By age 13, Ray had accrued a phenomenal number of significant national and international awards and was proving well beyond his years having already received the Licentiate Diploma of Music and the Sydney May Memorial Scholarship.

At 19 Chen had graduated with a degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and began debuting with major international orchestras, and at 20 he was both the youngest participant and the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. This led to his first record deal with Sony.

Today, the virtuoso is maintaining his fast tempo, recording several critically acclaimed albums, collaborating with pop icons like Sting, and featuring in the Forbes’ 30 Under 30.

He has yielded performances at prodigious events like France’s Bastille Day (garnering over 800,000 people) and Stockholm’s Nobel Prize Concert and has shared the stage with the Berlin Radio Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra.

The one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that no matter how hard you try you cannot conquer the world by yourself.

While clearly born to perform, Chen has also harnessed the digital world. Often ascribed as the first classical musician to fully embrace social media, Ray is determined to break the cliché of the classical musician and has built a sizeable online community in which he is known for entertaining, mentoring, and making music acquisition magical again.

“The one thing I’ve learned over the years is that no matter how hard you try you cannot conquer the world by yourself.”

Amassing over 2.5 million listeners on Spotify and with similar engagement across Instagram, Weibo and YouTube, Chen does not take the opportunity to engage online lightly, rather lightheartedly.

Starting with comedy and now offering a broad array of candid insights into the life of a professional musician, he says “Community building has become one of the most important skills to have in today’s day and age… It takes a lot of caretaking and time, but the result is a fanatically loyal group of supporters who will support you to the ends of the Earth.”

Chen co-founded the popular music tuition app Tonic in 2016 with an aim to combat the loneliness and difficulty of practicing. Budding musicians have access to pre-recorded and live sessions with some of the world’s most revered classical musicians.

“Tonic has been a fascinating learning experience for me, about psychology and design… At a start-up, the challenge and opportunity for growth is to test things until you have something that you really believe is going to change the world, and then to convince people they’re going to need it - even if they think they won’t,” he said.

To sustain his touring schedule, start-up, and an engaging online presence, Chen has learned to rewire his brain into perceiving challenges as opportunities and acknowledges he couldn’t have done any of it without his formative experiences.

“My parents were all about providing me with the opportunities they didn’t have growing up… A great education and all the extracurricular activities, including music, were significant and successful milestones in their parenting journey.”

To this day Chen still shares this journey with his peers.

“I have many fond memories of my time at BGS: pizza Tuesdays, trying to get my friends to help me with maths homework, and I’m still in touch with many Grammar boys... We’ve helped each other out as we’ve each honed and developed our skills.”

On appreciating how far he has come, he says “One of the greatest joys I’ve experienced recently is the evolution in the relationship between myself and my parents where we’ve become friends. It’s not a common or easy thing to achieve, especially with immigrant families… But the rewards make it a journey well worth taking.”

In October 2024, Chen released his eleventh album, ‘Player One’, which is his fourth studio release with Decca Classics. He is now on the last leg of a USA tour and is looking forward to enjoying pickleball and long conversations with family and friends.

A great education and all the extracurricular activities, including music, were significant and successful milestones in their parenting journey.