With insightful yet spontaneous interpretations and virtuosity, Beryl Chang won the hearts of the members of the audition committee and came to the attention of the music director of the renowned Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (SSO http://www.camimusic.com/details.asp?webid=2018) at the age of fourteen and subsequently joined the orchestra as the youngest member. During her tenure with the SSO, she was selected to perform for Maestro Isaac Stern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P8Nd8GeP2w&feature=list_related&a=GxdCwVVULXcN0fCazhFquRPgAQl39le8&list=ML&playnext=1 during his historical visit to China and worked with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy and Jean P. Perrison, among others.
Continuing her music education as a full scholarship student at the California Institute of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music (MSM), Ms. Chang studied with Miwako Watanabe, a member of the Sequoia String Quartet and Francesco Trio, and the legendary violin pedagogue Raphael Bronstein http://www.msmnyc.edu/alumnireunion/memories/bronstein_Popup_Photo.asp. She was the winner of the 26th Congress of Strings and appeared in the master class of Mischa Schneider (former member of the Budapest String Quartet), and in the Mischa Elman Chair Master Class conducted by Sidney Harth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Harth with faculty pianist at MSM Joseph Seiger, who was at one time the exclusive pianist for the renowned Elman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZtqVXKLQFA.
During her undergraduate years at MSM, Ms. Chang served as concertmistress of the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra and performed with numerous orchestras such as the American Symphony Orchestra, the Jupiter Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and toured within the U.S. and overseas. She was also a full scholarship recipient and participant of the Music Academy of the West (under the recommendation of Stuart Canin, then the concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony), the Waterloo and the Aspen Music Festivals (under the recommendation of Dorothy DeLay of the Juilliard School). In her pursuit of an MM program at MSM and an MA degree at Columbia University (Magna Cum Laude), she studied with the members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, subsequently served as Deputy Principal for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, represented the U.S. for the 1988 Summer Olympics Arts Festival in Korea, toured with the New York City Symphony in Japan. She was named in the International Who's Who in Music in the mid-90s and mentioned in the Chronology of Western Classical Music by Charles Hall, 2002 Edition. Ms. Chang plays a 1928 Stradivarius model of Carletti made in Bologna, Italy.
In more recent years, Ms. Chang has been active in chamber music concerts with pianists Alexander Wu http://www.alexanderawu.com/, Terry Eder http://www.terryeder.com/index.cfm?siteid=366&itemcategory=37253&priorId=0, and others in the New York City area. She has taught privately and at Columbia University since her graduate and undergraduate school years.
About the Artist