Ray Chen is only 21 and already he\u2019s global. Born in Taiwan (he left with his parents when six months old) and raised in Brisbane, Australia, he moved to Philadelphia at 16, this time alone. He is now, or is about to be, familiar with France, Austria and Southern California. Chen is a concert violinist who plays the 1721 Macmillan Stradivarius, keeps in touch through Skype and Twitter, and talks with strangers as if they are old friends. Chen, whose Sony classical CD titled “Virtuoso” was recently released, plays a recital at 3 p.m. on March 6 at The Neurosciences Institute. Before that, he is spending a week doing educational outreach for the La Jolla Music Society. The opening number on the recital is composer\/violinist Giuseppe Tartini\u2019s “Devil\u2019s Trill” Sonata. Tartini, it is said, played the devilishly demanding work easily because he had six fingers on his left hand. Chen, who laughingly admits he has only five, also plays music by Henryk Wieniawski, Johann Sebastian Bach and Cesar Franck. Chen won two prestigious competitions \u2014 the Queen Elisabeth in 2009 and the Young Concert Artists in 2008 \u2014 before his recent graduation from Philadelphia\u2019s Curtis Institute. Upon hearing him in recital, Washington Post critic Anne Midgette wrote, “Ray Chen can do pretty much anything he wants on the violin.” When Chen was 8 and people asked what he wanted to be, he replied, “a famous violinist, traveling the world.” Though he admits he\u2019s still working on the first part, touring feels “pretty awesome. I\u2019m not going to lie.” But does playing the same recital numerous times seem tiring? How does he keep it fresh? “I\u2019m glad to have something constant. Last week I was in Sydney, Australia. I played four performances of Brahms\u2019 Violin Concerto (Feb. 10-13). On Feb. 15, I flew to France. By the time I got to my hotel (in Lille) it was 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 16. Australia is 10 hours ahead, and I\u2019d been traveling more than 24 hours. I had a conductor\u2019s meeting and orchestra rehearsal at 5 p.m. and played the Paganini Concerto the next three days. “So I\u2019m glad my recital program has the same repertoire. I\u2019ve played it only once since recording it six months ago. Between now (Feb. 23) and La Jolla, I play it again. That\u2019ll be a warm-up, and you guys get the real deal.” Working in schools with the La Jolla Music Society, Chen said he thinks it\u2019s important to nurture future audiences. “Classical music is a way for kids to have a broader experience. Pop and rock music are in their faces all the time. That\u2019s what we\u2019re competing with. Someone needs to be out there inspiring these kids. You don\u2019t want them to grow up with the idea that classical music is snobbish, for old people and not cool.” A cool guy, Chen keeps in touch with family, friends and fans through Skype and the Internet. On his website are a plethora of social-media icons, an arsenal against loneliness. “I feel great traveling by myself,” he said. “Touring 30 years ago would have been so much different.” Ray Chen\u2019s La Jolla Music Society Discovery Series recital takes place at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6, at The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Dr. Information and tickets are available at www.ljms.org or by calling (858) 459-3728.<\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ray Chen is only 21 and already he\u2019s global. Born in Taiwan (he left with his parents when six months old) and raised in Brisbane, Australia, he moved to Philadelphia at 16, this time alone. He is now, or is about to be, familiar with France, Austria and Southern California. Chen is a concert violinist […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":272147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Tireless travels and international fame","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11560,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}