Han-na Chang

Infobox Korean name
caption=Han-na Chang
hangul=장한나
rr=Jang Hanna
mr=Chang Han-na|

Han-na Chang (born December 23, 1982) is a Korean cellist, considered one of today’s most outstanding young instrumentalists.

Biography

Childhood

She was born in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea to two ethnic Korean parents. Even as a child Chang was considered a prodigy. Chang began studying piano at age 3, and began her study in cello three years later at age 6. In 1994, at only 11 years old she competed in the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition, winning first against many musicians some being even double her age. At this competition she was awarded with both the First Prize as well as the Contemporary Music Prize, determined by Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich and ten additional jury members. In an interview Chang confessed that she had no expectation to win, but entered the competition for the chance to be able to play in front of the great cellist and Maestro Rostropovich.

Career

This distinction opened the doors for Han-na to study privately under Rostropovich himself. In 1995 she made her debut recording with Rostropovich as Maestro and the London Symphony Orchestra. Chang also had the opportunity to participate on a full scholarship in the master classes of another famous cellist and Maestro, Mischa Maisky.

Chang has had the opportunity to appear in various televised concerts including the 1998 Easter Day concert from Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center's anniversary gala. In 1997 she also appeared in the "Victoire de la Musique" awards, which were televised throughout places in Europe. She has been profiled by "CBS Sunday Morning" and CNN. Chang has debuted all around the world in great orchestras including Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Berliner Philharmoniker, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., the New York Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Orchestre de Paris, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia of Rome, the La Scala Orchestra of Milan and the San Francisco Symphony.

Conductors with whom she has worked with all over the world include names such as Herbert Blomstedt, Myung-Whun Chung, James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, Mariss Jansons, Jesús López-Cobos, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Mstislav Rostropovich, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Leonard Slatkin, and Yuri Temirkanov.

Personal

Abiding in wisdom granted to her from her parents, her manager, and many great musicians, Chang kept to a somewhat normal lifestyle during her schooling years. Instead of trying to take on too many performances, Chang spent time with friends participating in activities, such as watching movies and playing basketball. In an interview, she said that she loved playing basketball, but after hurting her finger a week before a concert she "sort of had to give up on ambitions to be a basketball player." Chang enrolled at Harvard University in 2001 to study philosophy.

Awards

Han-na Chang received awards including:
* Both the First Prize and Contemporary Music Prize at the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition (1994)
* Young Artist of the Year prize at the ECHO Classical Music Awards in Germany (1997)

Albums

* Romance - Lalo Cello Concerto & other pieces (2007)
* Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1/Cello Sonata (2006)
* Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante (2004)
* The Swan (2002)
* Korean Virtuoso Series (2000)
* Haydn Cello Concerto C major and D major (1998)
* Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations/Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 (1995)

External links

* [http://www.emiclassics.com/artistbiography.php?aid=28 Han-na Chang at EMI Classics]
* http://www.cello.org/cnc/chang.htm
* http://music.barnesandnoble.com/features/interview.asp?z=y&NID=377482