Ray Chen (Chinese: 陳銳; pinyin: Chén Ruì; born 6 March 1989) is a Taiwanese-Australian violinist and Youtuber. He was the winner of the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Since then, he has regularly collaborated with the world’s foremost orchestras and appeared at renowned concert halls.

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. Early on, his violin teachers included Kerry Smith and Peter Zhang.

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. In 2004, he received the Third Prize at the junior division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition.

In 2010, Chen graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Music, where he studied with Aaron Rosand. He also undertook summer studies at the Encore School for Strings with David Cerone and Robert Lipsett, and at the Aspen Music Festival with Cho-Liang Lin and Paul Kantor on a full tuition fellowship.

In 2008, Chen won the First Prize in the senior division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in Cardiff, Wales. At the competition, he came to the attention of jury member Maxim Vengerov, who engaged him for debuts with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra at the International Rostropovich Festival in Baku. Following this, he won the 2008/09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York and was subsequently loaned the 1721 Macmillan Stradivarius.

In 2009, Chen won the First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, where he was the youngest participant. Following the competition, he immediately embarked on a concert tour, performing with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden, the National Orchestra of Belgium under Rumon Gamba, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under Emmanuel Krivine, as well as in recitals throughout Belgium. He was also given a three-year loan of the 1708 Huggins Stradivarius from the Nippon Music Foundation.

In 2010, Chen was signed by Sony Classical. His first album with the label, Virtuoso, won him the Newcomer Award at the 2011 Echo Klassik Awards.

In 2012, Chen was invited to perform at the annual Nobel Prize Concert, playing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach.