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Sarah Chang

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Sarah Chang
Chang before performing a 2005 concert
Born
Young Joo Chang[1]

(1980-12-10) December 10, 1980 (age 43)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
OccupationViolinist
Years active1984–present
Korean name
Hangul
장영주
Hanja
張永主
Revised RomanizationJang Yeong-ju
McCune–ReischauerChang Yŏng-ju

Sarah Chang (Korean: 장영주, also 張永主) (Chinese: 張永宙) (born Young Joo Chang; December 10, 1980) is a Korean American violin virtuoso. Her debut came in 1989 with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. During the 1990s and 2000s, Chang had major roles in performing at famous orchestras like New York Philharmonic and NHK Symphony Orchestra.

For the 2004 Olympics, she served running with the Olympic Torch in New York.[2] In 2005, Yale University dedicated a chair in Sprague Hall in Chang's name.[2]

Early life and beginnings

Chang was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Min-Soo Chang, is a violinist and music teacher. Her mother, Myoung Jun, is a composer.[3] Chang's parents moved to the United States from South Korea in 1979 for her father's advanced music degree at Temple University. Her mother took composition classes at the University of Pennsylvania. Chang has said that although she "never actually lived in Korea... I do still feel very strongly it's where my roots are."[4] She has a brother, who is seven years younger, Michael. In a 1998 interview to PBS, Chang explained that he is an avid tennis player and is thus often mistaken for being Michael Chang, an athlete with the same given name who the family have no relations to.[5]

She started to play one-finger melodies on the piano at age 3. For her fourth birthday, she was given a 1/16-sized violin, and eventually auditioned for the Juilliard School two years later by performing the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor.[6] Chang was admitted into the studio of the late Dorothy DeLay,[7] the same alma mater of her father. She was also taught by Hyo Kang, a former student and assistant of DeLay. Chang attended elementary school in the Philadelphia area while studying music on Saturdays at Juilliard. Due to her musical accomplishments, Chang is among a very small number of professional figures recognized as a child prodigy.[8][9] At the age of 8, she auditioned alongside Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti, who worked with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Both granted her immediate engagements.[10]

In 1991, when Chang was 10 years old, she recorded her first album, Debut;[11] it was released by EMI Classics on August 18, 1992.[12] Debut quickly reached the Billboard chart of classical best-sellers. A teacher in an interview said that "no one had ever seen anything like her".[citation needed] Chang attended high school in New Jersey, where she graduated from in 1999.

She learned to speak Korean and German.

Career

Chang plays the 1717 Guarneri del Gesu violin,[13] and uses a variety of bows: Pajeot for Mozart and Bach; Sartory for "the big-whammy concertos, the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius"; and two Dominique Peccattes for other music.[13]

She has collaborated with most major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the principal London orchestras, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Additionally, she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Honolulu Symphony, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others.

Chang in Italy at the 2005 Festival I suoni delle Dolomiti, performing outdoors

Among the conductors Chang has worked alongside include Mariss Jansons, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Placido Domingo, David Lockington, David Zinman, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap van Zweden and John Williams.

Notable recital engagements have included her Carnegie Hall debut and performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Symphony Hall in Boston, the Barbican Centre in London, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

As a chamber musician, Chang has collaborated with such artists as Pinchas Zukerman, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yefim Bronfman, Martha Argerich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Stephen Kovacevich, Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, Lars Vogt, and the late Isaac Stern. She has made several chamber recordings with current and former members of the Berlin Philharmonic, including the Sextet and Piano Quintet of Dvorak and the Souvenir de Florence of Tchaikovsky.

Along with Pete Sampras and Wynton Marsalis, she is a featured artist in watchmaker Movado's global advertising campaign "The Art of Time". For the 2004 Olympics, she was given the honor of running with the Olympic Torch in New York.[2] In 2005, Yale University dedicated a chair in Sprague Hall in Chang's name.[2] Following this, Chang toured for an entire year with members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with a Sextet programme in summer festivals leading to a concert at the Berlin Philharmonie.

Chang had her recital at Carnegie Hall on April 7, 2007 with British pianist Ashley Wass,[14] and continued to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen and make appearances with the former at both the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall throughout 2008.[15] From May 2009 to June 2010, she held recital tours across Europe, North America and Asia with pianist Andrew von Oeyen; a July 2010 recording of the two was eventually released.[16] In the February 12, 2010 program, she held her recital at the Barbican Hall in London.[17]

Awards

Sarah Chang has received a number of awards, including:

Discography

CDs

  • 1992 Debut. Sarasate, Elgar, Paganini (EMI Classics)
  • 1993 Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances 1, 2, 4 7/Peter Tchaikowsky: Violin concert op 35. Conductor: Sir Colin Davis (EMI Classics)
  • 1996 Édouard Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole/Henri Vieuxtemps: Violin concert Nr. 5. Orchestra: Concertgebouw Orchestra (Lalo)/Philharmonia Orchestra (Vieuxtemps), Conductor: Charles Dutoit (EMI Classics)
  • 1997 Simply Sarah (EMI Classics)
  • 1998 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Jean Sibelius: Violin concerto. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Maris Jansons (EMI Classics)
  • 1999 Sweet Sorrow. Pieces of Vitali, Gluck, Brahms, Lalo, Vieuxtemps, Paganini, Sibelius, Liszt, Tschaikowsky, Saint-Saens, misc. Orchestras, conductors (EMI Classics)
  • 1999 Richard Strauss: Violin concerto and Violin sonata. Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Conductor and piano: Wolfgang Sawallisch (EMI Classics)
  • 2000 Karl Goldmark: Violin concerto op. 28. Orchestra: Gürzenich-Orchester, Conductor: James Conlon (EMI Classics)
  • 2002 Fire and Ice. Sarasate, Massenet, Ravel, Beethoven, J. S. Bach, Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Plácido Domingo (EMI Classics)
  • 2002 Antonín Dvořák, Tchaikowsky: (with other artists) Souvenir de Florence (EMI Classics)
  • 2003 Classical Legends. Compilation ft Sarah Chang and other artists
  • 2004 French Violin sonatas. Piano: Lars Vogt (EMI Classics)
  • 2004 Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sinfonies. Disc 4: The Lark Ascending. Conductor: Bernard Haitink (EMI Classics)
  • 2005 Meisterwerke der Kammermusik. Compilation ft Sarah Chang and other artists, 3 CD
  • 2005 Andrew Lloyd Webber: Phantasia (with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber) (EMI Classics)
  • 2006 Dmitri Shostakovich: Violin concerto Nr.1/Sergej Prokofieff: Violin concert Nr. 1. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle (EMI Classics)
  • 2007 Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, and Violin Concerto in g, op 12 no 1, RV 317. Orchestra: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (EMI Classics)
  • 2009 Max Bruch Violin Concerto No.1, Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto Kurt Masur, Dresdner Philharmonie (EMI Classics)[18]

DVDs

Footnotes

  1. ^ Avery Fisher Prize rarely grants this distinction. Chang is among one of three females to be selected for the award, along with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Midori Gotō.
  2. ^ To date, Chang is the youngest person on record to receive this title.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sarah Chang.
  1. ^ Earls, Irene. Young Musicians in World History. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 54. ISBN 9780313314421. OCLC 47838282.
  2. ^ a b c d "Sarah Chang: Opus 3 Artists". opus3artists.com. Cite error: The named reference "opus3bio" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Young, gifted and calling the tunes". The Independent Music. August 12, 1999. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
  4. ^ "Sarah Chang is back". Korea JoongAng Daily. September 8, 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  5. ^ "LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER: Interview with Sarah Chang". PBS. March 3, 1998. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  6. ^ "They Burn So Bright". Newsweek. June 27, 1993. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
  7. ^ Dervan, Michael (January 29, 2009). "Living with the 'prodigy' tag". Irish Times. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
  8. ^ "Sarah Chang Aims to Cast Off Prodigy Label". Korea Times. December 7, 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  9. ^ "Childhood's End". Strings Magazine. January 2004, No. 115. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  10. ^ Heisler, T (September 15, 2004). Rocky Mountain News, p. 3.
  11. ^ San Jose Public Library catalog entry for Debut [sound recording]
  12. ^ Debut at amazon.com
  13. ^ a b James Reel, Childhood's End: For Former Prodigy Sarah Chang, Adulthood Offers a New World of Possibilities, Strings Magazine, January 2004
  14. ^ New York Times, Steve Smith "Strong Expression, Delivered With Spirit and Teamwork" April 7, 2007
  15. ^ About the Performer at Hollywood Bowl
  16. ^ Lee Hyo-won (12 July 2009)
  17. ^ "Sarah Chang - Brahms, Theofanidis and Franck". Barbican Hall. February 12, 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  18. ^ "EMI Classics UK | Release | Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 / Brahms: Violin Concerto". EMI Classics. September 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Sarah Chang.
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