Han-na Chang
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| Han-na Chang | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 장한나 |
| McCune–Reischauer | Chang Han-Na |
- This is a Korean name; the family name is Chang.
Han-Na Chang (born December 23, 1982) is a South Korean cellist, one of the most sought-after cellists in the world today and considered one of the most important musicians of her generation.
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Biography
Childhood
She was born in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea to Korean parents. Chang began studying piano at age 3, and began her study in cello three years later at age 6. In 1993, her family moved to United States, where she was enrolled in the pre-college division of the Juilliard School. Also from 1993, she attended Mischa Maisky's masterclasses in Siena, Italy, and continued to study with him privately. 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. Her musical growth and career development were particularly influenced by her mentors Maisky, Rostropovich, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Lorin Maazel.
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, Gustavo Dudamel, Antonio Pappano, Yuri Temirkanov, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Krzysztof Penderecki and Yannick Nezet-Seguin.
World Premier Performances
She gave world premier of Krzysztof Penderecki's Concerto Grosso for 3 solo cellos and orchestra, in June 2001 in Tokyo with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, with Boris Pergamenchkov, Truls Mork and Charles Dutoit. She also gave world premier of Lorin Maazel's "Giving Tree" for cello, narrator and orchestra in April 1998 in Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Lorin Maazel. She gave the Asian premier of Isang Yun's Cello Concerto in May 1999 in Seoul.
Personal
Abiding in wisdom granted to her from her parents, her great mentors and her managers, 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. Even in interviews she gives nowadays, she says that she continues to keep the number of performances she gives per season under control, preferring to have time for further study, reflection, and musical growth.
Outreach
Chang has been active in her native country South Korea in introducing classical music to children and adults alike. She has produced 10 short TV programs with MBC TV for children, each introducing such diverse music as the Swan, the Rococo Variations, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Chopin cello sonatas, Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee and the Ritual Fire Dance by Manuel de Falla.
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)
- Best Concerto Album of the Year from Caecilia Award (Holland) (2003)
- Best Concerto Album of the Year from Cannes Classical Award (France) (2003)
- Best Concerto Album of the Year from ECHO Classical Award (Germany) (2003)
- Best Concerto Album of the Year from Gramophone magazine (UK) (2003)
- Named Classical Super-star of Tomorrow by the Gramophone Magazine (UK) (2006)
Albums
- Vivaldi Cello Concertos (2008)
- Romance - Lalo Cello Concerto & other pieces (2007)
- Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1/ Cello Sonata (2006)
- Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante/ Cello Sonata (2003)
- The Swan (2001)
- Haydn Cello Concerto C major and D major (1998)
- Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations/Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 (1996)
Conducting
In 2007, Chang made her conducting debut in Korea. In interviews, she said her wish to introduce the great classical masterpieces to a wider audience and especially to children and teens, encouraged her to take up conducting.
This resulted in the "Beethoven Project" produced with the MBC TV, which introduced Beethoven Symphonies Nos 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7, each in one-hour long episodes covering the whole symphony with Chang's commentary and rehearsal footages.
In July 2009, Han-Na Chang studied with Lorin Maazel for three weeks, at the Inaugural Castleton Festival as a Conducting Apprentice in the Lorin Maazel Conducting Masterclasses.
At the Castleton Festival, Virginia, Han-Na Chang conducted the Castleton Festival Orchestra in Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra".
Ms. Chang has launched "Absolute Classic" at Sungnam Arts Center in Korea(www.snart.or.kr) by conducting Tchaikovsky Symphonies in 2009. The Absolute Classic will be held in August every year. The Absolute Classic aims at letting more people, especially teenager and young adults, enjoy classical music. Ms. Chang had sessions of introducing Tchaikovsky's symphonies and of having conversation with audiences to let them be more familiar with the music.