For me, the stage is my home: violinist Sarah Chang

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 Min-soo, 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 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 top eight 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.

BY Lee Ji-yoon