 
When I hear music,
I fear no danger,
I am invulnerable.
I see no foe.
I am related to the earlist times,
and to the latest.
- Henry David Thoreau
Sarah Chang was born in 1980. She was 4 when she started the violin and her first concert in public was at the age of 5. She had started learning the
piano when she was 3. She was born in Philadelphia and still lives there with her parents.
Her father, Min-Soo Chang who is a professional violinist and Juilliard graduate, was Sarah's first teacher and he or her Mother accompany her on tours.
She was the youngest recipient ever awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at 8 years old.
She was awarded the Starling Scholarship for the Julliard School in New York in 1987.
When she was 5 she began to study the violin with Dorothy DeLay. She played the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 for her audition into the Julliard School. She graduated from Julliard at the age of 18 in May 1999. She plays on a 1717 Guarneri del Gesu.
By the time she was 8 years old she practiced about 2 or 3 hours a day,
at different intervals. She now practices about 4 hours a day. Violinist Sarah Chang is now 17 years old.
 QUOTE: -Her approach to music is mostly intuitive, but not entirely so. Chang said she makes sure to understand the overall structure of a piece and grasp its harmony.
But that's about as far as she goes on the intellectual side.
When it comes to interpretation, I just play it and go from there. I think emotion is everything. When you get the notes, you've just scratched
the surface. The best things happen spontaneously, on stage. I'm doing three concerts here; I guarantee that none of them will be the same. We're not machines.
photo © Christian Stein, permission to use granted by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
 Sarah's first album was Debut featuring virtuoso pieces by Sarasate, Paganini, Elgar and Prokofiev.
It was recorded when she was 9, using a quarter-sized violin.
Sir Yehudi Menuhin said, "Sarah is the most wonderful, the most perfect, the most ideal violinist I have ever heard."
***********************
"I was working with Zubin Mehta and organized for him to hear Sarah when she
was eight. She was playing a 1/4 size violin. When I came to get her from
her room she was jumping up and down on the couch while playing part of a
Paganini Caprice.
 Her father (and teacher) was there as was Dorothy Delay - her current
teacher. Her father was a very shy man and didn't want to be in the concert
hall when she played.
I brought her down onto the stage in Avery Fisher Hall and then she
asked Zubin what he would like her to play. He said just play whatever
you have prepared. She said I can play whatever you like. Her teacher
Dorothy Delay then pulled out her repertoire list. I swear there was
nothing missing from that in terms of major concerto repertoire - including
Elgar, Bartok, Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius etc. as well as major recital
repertoire. She was prepared to play
any or all of it and from memory and she insisted that he chose. Zubin
settled for little of the Tchaikovsky
and then some Paganini. After about 10 extraordinary minutes
he said laughingly to Ms. Delay - she must be a midget - no-one could play
all that repertoire and play so wonderfully. And consider that she only
started playing at 4.
 Two days later she played with the Philharmonic at a Young People's Concert
and astounded the musicians
with her musicianship and technique. She played the Pagannini Concerto No1
without a rehearsal, playing it absolutely perfectly including the more
difficult cadenzas. Incidentally this was the first time she had ever played
with a major orchestra.
The concert was recorded by the Philharmonic as were all the concerts but
was never released. I continued to correspond with Sarah and family for some
years. She was the most delightful unpretentious child with a normal loving
family. Never once did I get the sense that she was pressured to play - she
really loved it and it came totally naturally to her."
Story used with permission by Catherine Wadley
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 Sarah records exclusively for EMI Classics
 Simply Sarah
The Dance of the Goblins Bazzini
Cantabile in D Major Paganini
Introduction & Tarantella, Op.43 Sarasate
Canon in D Sarasate
Waltz-Scherzo, Op.34 Tchaikovsky
Berceuse, Op.16 Faure
Hora Staccato Dinicu
Masks Prokofiev
Sonata No.12 in E minor, Op.3 Paganini
On Wings of Song, Op.34, No.2 Mendelssohn
Sonata Movement (Sonatensatz), Op.posth Brahms
Mélodie GLUCK
Banjo and Fiddle Kroll
Nocturne, Op.51, No.3 Sibelius
Zapateado, Op.23 Sarasate
- Sarah Chang violin
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op.64
Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op.47
- Sarah Chang violin
Vieuxtemps Concerto pour Violon No. 5
Symphonie Espagnole
- Debut
Fantasy on Carmen, Op. 25 Sarasate
Salutd'amour Elgar
La Capricieuse Op. 17 Kreisler
Sabre dance Khachaturian
Tempo di Minuetto Kreisler
Caprice No.1 in E, Op.1 Paganini
Caprice No. 15in E minor Op.1 Paganini
Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor Chopin
Prelude No. 10 in C# minor Shostakovich
Prelude No. 15 in D Op. 34 Shostakovich
It Ain't Necessarily So Gershwin
Consolation No. 3 in D flat Liszt
Melody in E flat Op. 42 No.3 Tchaikovsky
March from The love of three oranges Prokofiev
- PAGANINI Violin Concerto No. 1 1994
SAINT-SAËNS Havanaise
SAINT-SAËNS Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
- Tchaikovsky Violin
Brahams Hungarian Dances Nos.7, 2, 4, 1
- The Lark Ascending
Symphony No. 5
The London Philharmonic
- Sweet Sorrow
Vitali Chaconne
Mélodie by Gluck
Hungarian Dance No.1 by Brahms
Lalo Symphonie espagnole Op. 21 Andante
Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No. 5 Op. 37 Adagio & Allegro con fuoco
Paganini Sonata No. 12, Op.3 Andante innocentemente
Cantabile by Paganini
Nocturne Op. 51 No. 3 by Sibelius
Chopin Nocturne No.20
Consolation No.3 by Liszt
Canzonetta by Tchaikovsky
SAINT-SAËNS Introduction and Rondo capriccioso
  Sarah's Music Awards!
- 1987 - the Starling Scholarship for the Julliard School in New York
- 1993 - Avery Fisher Career Grant & a special Gramophone award a Young Artist of the Year
- 1994 - Newcomer of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards in London
- 1999 - Avery Fisher Award
- 2005 - Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize
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