Sarah Chang |

Sarah Chang

American Sarah Chang is recognized worldwide as one of the most amazing violinists of her generation.

Sarah Chang was born in 1980 in Philadelphia, where she began learning to play the violin at the age of 4. Almost immediately she was enrolled in the prestigious Juilliard School of Music (New York), where she studied with Dorothy DeLay. When Sarah was 8 years old, she auditioned with Zubin Meta and Riccardo Muti, after which she immediately received invitations to perform with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras. At the age of 9, Chang released her first CD “Debut” (EMI Classics), which became a bestseller. Dorothy DeLay would then say of her student: “No one has ever seen her like.” In 1993, the violinist was named “Young Artist of the Year” by Grammophone magazine.

Today, Sarah Chung, a recognized master, continues to amaze the audience with her technical virtuosity and deep insight into the musical content of the work. She regularly performs in the music capitals of Europe, Asia, North and South America. Sarah Chung has collaborated with many renowned orchestras, including the New York, Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony and London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Orchester National de France, Washington National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los -Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome and Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchester Tonhalle (Zurich) and Orchestra of Romanesque Switzerland, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, NHK Symphony (Japan), Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra and others.

Sarah Chung has played under famous maestros such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Barenboim, Charles Duthoit, Maris Jansons, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Lauryn Maazel, Riccardo Muti, André Previn , Leonard Slatkin, Marek Yanovsky, Gustavo Dudamel, Placido Domingo and others.

Recitals of the violinist took place in such prestigious halls as the Kennedy Center in Washington, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Symphony Hall in Boston, the Barbican Center in London, the Berlin Philharmonic, and also in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Sarah Chung made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2007 (piano by Ashley Wass). In the 2007-2008 season, Sarah Chung also performed as a conductor – performing the solo violin part, she conducted Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons cycle during her tour of the United States (including a concert at Carnegie Hall) and Asia with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra . The violinist repeated this program during her tour of Europe with the English Chamber Orchestra. Her performances coincided with the release of Chang’s new CD The Four Seasons by Vivaldi with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on EMI Classics.

In the 2008-2009 season, Sarah Chang performed with the Philharmonic (London), NHK Symphony, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Washington National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, National Arts Center Orchestra (Canada), Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (Brazil). Sarah Chung also toured the United States with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall. In addition, the violinist toured the countries of the Far East with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by E.-P. Salonen, with whom she later performed at the Hollywood Bowl and the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles, USA).

Sarah Chung also performs a lot with chamber programs. She has collaborated with such musicians as Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Efim Bronfman, Yo-Yo Ma, Marta Argerich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Steven Kovacevich, Lynn Harrell, Lars Vogt. In the 2005-2006 season, Sarah Chang toured with musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with a program of sextets, performing at summer festivals as well as at the Berlin Philharmonic.

Sara Chung records exclusively for EMI Classics and her albums often top the markets in Europe, North America and the Far East. Under this label, Chang’s discs with works by Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Paganini, Saint-Saens, Liszt, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Franck, Lalo, Vietanne, R. Strauss, Massenet, Sarasate, Elgar, Shostakovich, Vaughan Williams, Webber. The most popular albums are Fire and Ice (popular short pieces for violin and orchestra with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Placido Domingo), Dvorak’s Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davies, a disc with French sonatas (Ravel, Saint-Saens , Frank) with pianist Lars Vogt, violin concertos by Prokofiev and Shostakovich with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. The violinist has also released several chamber music recordings with soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, including Dvořák’s Sextet and Piano Quintet and Tchaikovsky’s Remembrance of Florence.

Sarah Chung’s performances are broadcast on radio and television, she takes part in the programs. The violinist is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including Discovery of the Year at the Classics Awards in London (1994), the Avery Fisher Prize (1999), awarded to classical music performers for outstanding achievements; ECHO Discovery of the Year (Germany), Nan Pa (South Korea), Kijian Academy of Music Award (Italy, 2004) and Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame award (youngest recipient). In 2005, Yale University named a chair at Sprague Hall after Sarah Chang. In June 2004, she was honored to run with the Olympic torch in New York.

Sara Chang plays a 1717 Guarneri violin.

Source: Moscow Philharmonic website