Sarah Chang at the Radio New Zealand studio. Photo: RNZ/Dru Falkner.
“Her gifts are at a level so removed from the rest of us that all we can do is feel the appropriate awe and then wonder on the mysteries of nature. The ancients would certainly have had Ms. Chang emerging fully formed from some Botticellian scallop shell.”
~ The New York Times
Violin virtuoso Sarah Chang talks to Upbeat's Clarissa Dunn.
Thursday 30th April 2015 in the Auckland Town hall the American superstar Sarah Chang performs the Dvorak Violin Concerto to a sold out house with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Michał Dworzyński.
“I adore the Dvorak. It is such a beautiful concerto…..It’s one of those pieces that is incredibly technical and it has lots of challenges and it’s just loaded with runs and scales and arpeggios and quadruple stops and it’s everything in the kitchen sink plus more, but at the same time he puts in these gorgeous melodies and these incredible, lyrical lush like scenic visuals, sort of pictures. So it really is a sort of feast for the ears.”
A child prodigy, Sarah made her professional debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of 8 and since then she has performed with the greatest orchestras, conductors and accompanists internationally in a career spanning more than two decades.
Despite that this is her first trip to New Zealand and her first time performing with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
“There aren’t too many orchestras or too many conductors that I am debuting with now and I’ve been performing since I was five years old …..usually when I go to a new place, even it if is a new orchestra, I either know the conductor, or it’s a city that I’ve been to but it’s my first time with the orchestra so there’s one common denominator but this time around everything is new so it’s pretty cool.”
In this Radio New Zealand Concert interview with Clarissa Dunn, Sarah Chang describes the experience of being a child prodigy, her unique sound, her special 1717 Guarneri del Gesù violin, which she received through her “musical grandfather” and teacher, the late Isaac Stern; her bow collection and even the role of fashion in performance.
In addition to being the recipient of a host of awards and accolades, Ms. Chang was honoured in 2006 as one of 20 Top Women in Newsweek Magazine’s “Women and Leadership, 20 Powerful Women Take Charge” issue and in 2008 was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for her professional achievements, commitment to society and potential in shaping the future of the world. In 2004 she was given the honour of running with the Olympic Torch in New York, and that same year became the youngest person ever to receive the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame award.
