Ray Chen is one of the most compelling young violinists today, and patrons at the Huntington Prelude will be among the first to hear him play in Mudgee this weekend.
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Over the past few years, Chen has been won the Queen Elizabeth and Yehudi Menuhin Competitions and been awarded the prestigious ECHO Klassik award for one of his albums.
Ray Chen was born in Taiwan but raised in Australia, studying at the Curtis Institute of Music at 15 with Aaron Rosand before making his break into the world of professional classical music.
Chen continues to win admiration amongst his fans and fellow musicians, and is always willing to pose for a photo and say hello after a concert.
In 2012, he was the youngest soloist to perform in the Nobel Prize Concert for the Nobel Laureates and the Swedish Royal Family.
His Carnegie Hall debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and his sold-out Musikverein concert were met with standing ovations.
His performances at Mudgee will probably garner him the same attention, with tickets to the main festival selling out months in advance.
“For Mudgee locals, the attraction is the quality of musicians who you will not see anywhere else in the world,” Huntington Estate manager Nicky Stevens said.
Followed by over 1.5 million people on SoundCloud, Chen is looking to expand the classical music audience by increasing its appeal to the younger generations via all available social media platforms. He is the first classical musician to be invited to write a blog about his life as a touring artists and in his unstinting efforts to break down barriers between classical music, fashion, and pop culture, has been featured in Vogue magazine.
Chen will perform at Huntington Estate as part of the Prelude and the main festival with three recitals featuring works from Part, Milstein, Paganini, and Beethoven.
For more information on the Huntington Music Festival, visit huntingtonestate.com.au
