RAY CHEN

The return of the HUGGINS…

Ray Chen, violin: Concert of February 19 plays the Huggins Stradivarius at Al Bustan Hotel beirt mery, leant to him by The Nippon Music Foundation for three years.

This will be the second time The Huggins is played during the Festival.

The HUGGINS violin was made by Antonio Stradivari in 1708. The violin was owned by the well-known English astronomer William Huggins in the 1880s.

Since 1997, this violin is loaned to the first-prize winner of The Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. The winner can use the violin for three to four years until the next violin competition takes place. The Huggins has already been played at the Al Bustan Festival by Sergey Khachatryan in 2006. The violin is now in the hands of Ray Chen of Australia, who is the winner of the 2009 Queen Elizabeth violin Competition.

Ray Chen will interpret the wonderful Mendelssohn violin concerto in E minor (Op. 64), one of the most popular violin concerti in the world.

With Giovanni Battista Rigon, conducting the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra

Click on the link to get a feel of what CHEN will play:

Discover the 17th Al-Bustan Festival