My Impression of Korea - Korea.net

CULTURAL FIGURE - 2
Credia
‘For Me, the Stage
is My Home’
Violinist Sarah Chang
BY LEE JI-YOON
STAFF WRITER
Sarah Chang reacts after her performance in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 19
From time to time geniuses appear
in the world of classical
music — and then are easily forgotten.
But 29-year-old violinist
Sarah Chang, who debuted as a child
prodigy at the age of 9, is considered
one of the most consistent violinists
active in the international scene. The
late violinist Yehudin Menuhin once
called her “the most wonderful, the
most perfect, the most ideal violinist I
have ever heard.”
In 1980, Sarah Chang, also known
as Chang Young-ju in Korea, was
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
to Korean parents who had moved
to the United States for study one
year earlier. Both graduated from
the Music College of Seoul
National University, Chang Minsoo,
her father, is a violinist and
her mother Chang Myoung-jun
is a composer.
Her mother put Chang on
the piano when she was 3.
But at 4 she asked for the violin
because she wanted
“something smaller and
Violinist Sarah Chang
Credia
more portable.” Then she auditioned
for the Juilliard School in New York at
6 and was admitted into the studio of
the late Dorothy DeLay, violin teacher
to some of the world’s great violinists,
including Chang’s father.
At 8 she auditioned with Zubin
Mehta and Riccardo Muti, who were
working, respectively, with the New
York Philharmonic and the
Philadelphia Orchestra, and both gave
her immediate engagements.
She was possibly the youngest violinist
ever to record — at the age of 9.
Her first album, entitled “Debut,” quickly
reached Billboard’s best-sellers.
She has collaborated with most
major orchestras, including the New
York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia
Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the
Boston Symphony, the Berlin
Philharmonic and the Vienna
Philharmonic.
In 2006 Newsweek magazine
named her one of the eight top achieving
females in the United States. In the
article accompanying the announcement,
she wrote about the early start of
her social career, saying: “I think having
a career at such an early age kept
me focused. We schedule at least two
to three years in advance in the classical
industry. I felt so grounded and so
grateful to already know what it was
that I wanted to do with my life.”
She is one of the most sought-after
musicians in the world, performing
100 to 150 concerts per year. It is
a well-known story that she asked
for a three-month break at 17, and
took it when she was 20 after her
agency rearranged her schedule for
three years.
“For me, the stage is my home. I
love the adrenaline rush you get from
having a live audience in front of
you,” she said in the Newsweek article.
In 2002 she performed in
Pyongyang with South and North
Korean orchestras. It was an unforgettable
experience for the Korean-
American musician.
“I’m so fortunate to be a musician,
and at that moment (in Pyongyang), I
genuinely felt that music is the one and
only universal language,” she said. ■
Her first album
“Debut” (top)
and others
34 KOREA NOVEMBER 2008
NOVEMBER 2008 KOREA 35