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THE 130 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS
OF ALL TIME

Concert Violinist Sarah Chang

Sarah Chang is a superstar of the classical music world. She exploded onto the spotlight as a concert violinist at age eight and as a bestselling recording artist at 10. She continues to captivate audiences around the globe and top record charts internationally.

Sarah Chang was born in Philadelphia on December 10, 1980 to Korean parents Min-Soo Chang and Myuong Jun Chang. Her professional violinist father and her composer mother introduced Chang to music from an early age.

At the age of three Sarah began hitting one-finger melodies on the piano. Before long she decided to emulate her father and demanded a violin. At four she sawed on a rented “1/16” violin and by six Sarah played the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor by way of auditioning for Julliard. She was admitted and studied under the late Dorothy DeLay, one of the world’s great violinists.

Recognized as a world-class child prodigy, by age eight Sarah was auditioning for conductors of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra—both of whom welcomed her talent. In 1991, at the age of 10, Chang recorded her first album for EMI Classics. It skyrocketed to the Billboard chart of classical bestsellers.

Chang has collaborated with most major orchestras, some of which include the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the principal London orchestras, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. She has also played alongside world-renowned artists like Pinchas Zukerman, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Yo-Yo Ma. In 1999 she was one of 3 co-recipients of the Avery Fisher Prize. Generally awarded to one American each year for outstanding achievement in classical music, the Avery Fisher Prize is regarded one of the most significant awards for American instrumentalists.

One measure of Chang’s international celebrity status is her inclusion in Movado’s “The Art of Time” ad campaign along with the likes of Pete Sampras and Wynton Marsalis. In 2006 Newsweek named her one of the 20 Top Women in Leadership. In 2008 the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader. She is the youngest person ever to be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.

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