How do you get to New York’s Carnegie Hall? In the celebrated words of Jack Benny: practice, practice, practice.

Ray Chen has just played Carnegie Hall for the fourth time, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the National Youth Orchestra of USA in July.

This week, he is playing recitals at the major concert halls of east coast Australia, accompanied by pianist Lee Dionne, with repertoire by Bach, Dvorak, Tartini and Franck.

But the practice part is hard, admits Chen.

“That’s the part where you’re isolated, and it’s very difficult to motivate yourself,” he says.

Growing up in the Brisbane suburb of Ascot, Taiwan-born Chen had one massive advantage: his mother, Christina, who was adept at both carrot and stick.

“She’d be like, ‘if you don’t want to, that’s fine, th

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