Violinist Sarah Chang is recognized the world over as one of classical music's most captivating and gifted performers. One of the most remarkable prodigies of any generation, she has matured into a young artist whose musical insight, technical virtuosity, and emotional range continue to astonish. Appearing in the music capitals of Asia, Europe and the Americas, 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 Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the principal London orchestras and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam.
Among the esteemed conductors with whom she has worked are 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 and David Zinman. 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 as well as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She has reached an even wider audience through her many television appearances, concert broadcasts and best-selling recordings for EMI Classics. The remarkable accomplishments of her career were recognized in 1999 when she received the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the most prestigious awards given to instrumentalists.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Chang has collaborated with such artists as Pinchas Zuckerman, 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. Her sextet performances last season at summer festivals in Switzerland and Italy, with members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, culminated in a performance at the Berlin Philharmonie in the autumn.
During the 2004-2005 season, Ms. Chang appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, China Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as Cinncinnati, Toronto, Dallas, Philadelphia and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.
This season Ms. Chang performed with the Berlin Philharmonic (with which she recorded Prokofiev's and Shostakovich's first violin concertos under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Danish Radio Orchestra, as well as with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, among others.
Ms. Chang records exclusively for EMI Classics. Her widely lauded recordings include “Fire and Ice,” an album of popular shorter works for violin and orchestra, with Placido Domingo conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, a disc of chamber music for strings (Dvorak's Sextet and Tchaikovsky's “Souvenir de Florence”) with current and former members of the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Dvorak Violin Concerto with the London Symphony and Sir Colin Davis, along with the Dvorak Piano Quintet (with Leif Ove Andsnes, Alex Kerr, Georg Faust and Wolfram Christ). She has also recorded a CD of  French sonatas by Ravel, Saint-Saens and Franck, in collaboration with pianist Lars Vogt.
Born in Philadelphia to Korean parents, Sarah Chang began her violin studies at age 4 and promptly enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with the late Dorothy DeLay. Within a year she had already performed with several orchestras in the Philadelphia area. Her early auditions, at age 8, for Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti led to immediate engagements with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Ms. Chang has appeared on numerous television and radio programs throughout Europe, North America and the Far East. Along with Pete Sampras and Wynton Marsalis, she is a featured artist in Movado's global advertising campaign “The Art of Time.”
In 2005, Yale University named a chair in Sprague Hall in honor of Ms. Chang.  In June 2004, she was given the honor of running with the Olympic Torch in New York, and became the youngest person ever to receive the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame award. She is a past recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Gramophone's “Young Artist of the Year” award, Germany's “Echo” Schallplattenpreis, “Newcomer of the Year” honours at the International Classical Music Awards in London, and Korea's “Nan Pa” award.  In July 2005 she was awarded the Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize.
Date Last Edited: 7th June 2006
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