Start off your 2026 with the passionate, thrilling performance on Jan. 23 at the Center for the Arts by London-based Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and superstar violinist Ray Chen of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, a sparkling masterpiece which has played a huge role in Chen’s stratospheric career; the first violin concerto Chen ever performed with an orchestra—his hometown’s Queensland Youth Orchestra in Australia—at the age of 13, the Tchaikovsky is also the piece he performed to win first prize in the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels in 2009 which helped launch him to fame, and the piece that inspired an appreciative audience member in Munich to hurl their bra onstage at him in 2024.
Born in Taiwan in 1989 and raised in Australia, the inspiring Chen was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at just age 15, where he was supported by Young Concert Artists. Winner of the the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, he has been profiled as “one to watch” by The Strad and Gramophone magazines, and featured on the Forbes list of 30 most influential Asians under 30. He appeared in the TV series Mozart in the Jungle, and has performed at major media events such as France’s Bastille Day (live to 800,000 people), the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm (telecast across Europe), and the BBC Proms. Chen has also appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and more.
“Colors dance, moods swing, and Chen’s artistry blazes.”
—The Times
In Chen’s YouTube “beginner's guide to Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto first movement,” featuring the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with conductor Vasily Petrenko (who also conducts the Jan. 23 performance with the Royal Philharmonic), he notes in his self-described “mind commentary” captions that the concerto “has a lot of influence from ballet—think of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty. Much of the concerto is like a dance.”
In the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s program notes, writer Julian Haylock says that Tchaikovsky completed the work—his one and only violin concerto—in just two weeks, on a wave of inspiration provided by hearing Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole. He dedicated the piece to violinist Leopold Auer, without the artist’s permission. Upon playing the work, however, Auer deemed it awkward to perform and “quite unviolinistic” and eventually pulled out of the planned premiere in March 1879, forcing its cancellation. Two years later, violinist Adolf Brodsky approached Tchaikovsky about performing the work, and impressed with his mastery of the technical challenges, Tchaikovsky ended up rededicating the work to him: “To the recreator of the Concerto deemed impossible.”
Haylock notes that the 1881 premiere of the piece was “nothing short of a catastrophe. In the middle of the performance, a dispute broke out in the audience between rival conservative and modernist factions, the latter in support of the Concerto.” Unconventional in its layout compared to some other concertos of its day (like the Brahms), Tchaikovsky’s concerto has since become one of the most beloved in history.
Known for his use of modern technology to make music accessible and relatable, Chen has amassed a huge online following (including more than two million fans on SoundCloud) through quirky, self‐made videos and engaging social media posts. He has redefined what it means to be a classical musician in the 21st century, serving as an ambassador for SONY Electronics and a music consultant for Riot Games—the leading esports company best known for League of Legends. With a global reach inspiring a new classical audience, he has also contributed to educational technology; in 2020 as a pandemic passion project, Chen founded the interactive platform Tonic, revolutionizing digital practice. Strings magazine describes it as “an app that employs a gaming vibe to create a community around a traditionally solitary pursuit.” As a user, you can track your practice time, set a schedule, earn badges, “level up” when meeting goals, and share rooms live for real-time feedback. Users in over 130 countries have created more than one million live studios. Chen’s website says, “Focused on improving the detached experience of practice, Tonic motivates people on their musical journey and gives access to allow everyone to enjoy the best parts of being a musician: to play and share.”
Don’t miss this chance to share music live with Ray Chen and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and grab your tickets today.
Watch Ray Chen perform the electrifying finale of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
A recording of the London-based Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's live January 2024 performance at the Center for the Arts, featuring “phenom” (San Francisco Chronicle) British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, was available for limited release back in January 2025 on Mason Arts Amplified. The concert was described by an attendee as “one of the best concerts we ever experienced at the center.” Another audience member declared, “This performance has to rank among the 25 best I have ever seen.”
Also under the direction of Maestro Vasily Petrenko, the program featured Kanneh-Mason’s powerful performance of Prokofiev’s popular Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26, “a dazzling kaleidoscope of a piece” (The Times). Repertoire also included Debussy’s Danse (orch. by Ravel) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s beloved Scheherazade, Op. 35, culminating in a standing ovation from the crowd.
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