Elizabeth Chang

In the words of her own website, violinist Elizabeth Chang is "committed to finding an organic intersection of performance, teaching, and artistic leadership." In addition to performing widely, she is an important educator and has founded several ongoing performance venues and educational projects. Chang was born in New York around 1965 and was a child prodigy; a New York Times article when she was 12 (April 3, 1977, p. 478) noted that "she has yet to tame her instrument, completely, but what a temperament!" She was a Presidential Scholar in the Arts award winner. Chang attended Harvard University, where she numbered Louise Behrend, Roman Totenberg, and composer Leon Kirchner among her teachers. Chang went on for further training in Europe under the auspices of the New England Conservatory's Beebe Fellowship for Studies Abroad. She has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and several new music groups based in New York City. She has been a frequent guest at music festivals at home and abroad, including the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and the Interharmony Festival in Italy and Germany. Chang has had a long educational career, giving master classes in South America, East Asia, and Europe in addition to the U.S. She taught at Rutgers University, New York University, and the School for Strings, where she founded the school's Intensive Chamber Music Workshop for Strings, which she directed from 2003 to 2007. In 2004, she joined the Juilliard School's Pre-College music faculty, and she later joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. As co-coordinator of the Five College New Music Festival, she created the Violin Duo Project, which to date has commissioned 32 new works. In 2021, Chang made her recording debut on the Albany label with the album Transformations, featuring works by Kirchner, Roger Sessions, and Arnold Schoenberg.
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