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.
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.
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
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]
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