Violinist Ray Chen to Release New Album 'PLAYER 1' in October

Decca Classics has announced award-winning violinist, entrepreneur, and pioneer Ray Chen's innovative new album, Player 1, to be released globally on October 18, 2024. The first single, Sadness & Sorrow (from Naruto) by Toshio Masuda (arr. Benjamin Rimmer) is out now.

Blending classical music with the immersive world of gaming, the album also comprises a thrilling array of themes from television, Anime, and film including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pokémon, and Squid Game.

Recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Cristian Mǎcelaru, these compositions gravitate around the sonic centerpiece of Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto. The Austrian composer was a pioneering 20th-century classical composer who became one of the first musicians of international stature to score films for Hollywood. Like Ray, Erich was a child prodigy. Like Ray, he was drawn to the dramatic and the cinematic. And like Ray, he understood the thrill of storytelling.

Nostalgia looms in surprising and uplifting ways on this album. Ray performs with the 1714 ‘Dolphin' Stradivarius, which is on loan from the Nippon Foundation. This violin was once owned by Jascha Heifetz, who has been hailed as the greatest violin virtuoso since Niccolò Paganini and who premiered the Korngold Concerto in 1947. Ray is the web that binds everything together. “Player 1 aims to create a meaningful connection between the past and the present,” he says.

Ray Chen's mission now is to challenge traditional perceptions of classical music, making it accessible and inspiring. Nintendo consoles, TV dramas, films, anime, soundtracks, and a near-century-old work by Korngold may at first seem like disparate cultural phenomena. But they have one thing in common. They weave fantasies. Player 1 is a contemporary journey into these fantastical realms.

Chen also reveals the links that bond classical music and gaming. Both involve interaction and multiplayer experiences. Both have their parameters set by a “games-master” or composer: one dictates the rules via code, the other via black squiggles on paper. Both bring delight and joy. And both conjure rich worlds in which players can roam, discover, and grow. He is ‘Player 1'. You, the listener, are ‘Player 2'.

By transforming simple 8-bit game tunes into lush symphonic masterpieces, Ray Chen taps into the nostalgia of Generation X and Millennials who grew up with video games, now sharing that joy with a new generation of gamers.

Chen remarks, “This album is for all the kids who grew up. Some of them are starting to have kids of their own, others are like me, still exploring all the side quests of this chapter before moving onto the next. We're all digital natives – those who grew up with and around technology. And while it's easy to get lost in the “digital” side, and with all the tech imagery that's associated with it, I'd also like to focus on shared feelings of personal growth, of reflection, and looking back to all the progress we've achieved and allowing ourselves to enjoy it.”

After graduating from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music and winning top competitions like the Queen Elisabeth Competition and Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, Chen is redefining what it means to be a classical musician in the 21st century. His social media presence, with 528K YouTube subscribers and 940K Instagram followers, along with his co-founded app Tonic, showcases his innovative spirit. On the album cover, Ray shows us his different guises: entrepreneur, musician, social media influencer, and games enthusiast.

Ray Chen's Tonic app aims to democratize music education, offering free practice sessions and a supportive community for violin students worldwide. By incorporating game-like elements and digital rewards, Chen ensures that learning music remains engaging and fun.

Last May, Chen did a guest performance at Taiwanese singer Jay Chou's Hong Kong concert, where his “electrifying” performance of Vittorio Monti's rhapsodical concert piece Csárdás (1904) and Chou's pop songs left audiences in awe, making Chen feel like a “rock star”.

Player 1 Track Listing:

1. Romantic Flight (from How to Train Your Dragon) – John Powell arr. Sally Herbert
2. Sadness & Sorrow (from Naruto) – Toshio Masuda arr. Benjamin Rimmer
3. Main Theme (from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) – Manaka Kataoka arr. Andrew Skeet
4. Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
5. I Remember My Name (from Squid Game) – Jung Jaeil arr. John Langley
6. Serenade – Eunike Tanzil
7. Pallet Town (from Pokémon Red) – Junichi Masuda arr. Andrews Skeet
8. Isabella's Lullaby (from The Promised Neverland) – Takahiro Obata arr. Benjamin Rimmer

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