Although he was born in Taiwan and now travels the world as an international superstar, violinist Ray Chen still calls Australia home.

He was raised here and he carries a musical memento around in his self-designed fiddle case in the form of a set of variations he has written on our favourite folk song, Waltzing Matilda. This is his go-to encore, guaranteed to bring the house down at the end of one of his high-octane performances.

So when he comes back to Australia on one of his regular concert tours it is always going to be a special occasion, peppered with that showbiz magic that the dashing Armani-clad 34-year-old with his massive social media following always brings.

There are few classical performers who can be so cool and yet so universally accepted by the conservative concertgoer.

Ray Chen performs Tchaikovsky. Photo © Craig Abercrombie

Having the best instruments helps. For his latest tour, Chen is showing off his newly acquired 1714 ‘Dolphin’ Stradivarius, once owned by Jascha Heifetz and on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

Last year he was here with another Strad, the 1735 ‘Samazeuilh’. In fact, his instruments change so quickly that...