Want To See A Cello Concert?

Addresses:
Record company--EMI Records Group (United Kingdom), EMI House, 43 Brook
Green, London, England, W6 7EF, phone: (44) 20 7605 5050, fax: (44) 20
7605 5000.

At only eleven years old, cellist Han-Na Chang made a grand entrance
on the classical music scene by winning the prestigious Rostropovich
International Cello Competition in Paris in 1994. In 2001, at age 17,
she performed as the featured soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra in a sweeping European tour through Spain, Germany, and
Poland. No typical teenager, young Chang by that time had appeared in
debut performances with many world class orchestras including the
Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony
Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the
La Scala Orchestra of Milan. A student of the premier virtuoso Mstislav
Rostropovich, Chang's personal discography with EMI Records features an
outstanding repertoire backed by an equally impressive lineup of noted
conductors.
Han-Na Chang was born Hanna (pronounced Hannah) Chang in Seoul,
Korea, in 1983; she was named after the Biblical mother of Samuel. She
was introduced to piano lessons at age three, but grew tired of that
instrument and switched to the cello three years later at age six.
Barely two years passed again before Chang, who was merely eight years
old, performed in a public debut recital in Seoul with Luciano Berio
conducting. At age ten, Chang and her family immigrated to the United
States where she enrolled at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music
in New York City. It was at that time that Chang adopted the hyphenated
spelling of her first name, which was the result of a translation error
on her passport papers. In America, Chang and her family settled in
rural upstate New York where her talent flourished against an idyllic
backdrop of forest wildlife and rippling waters.
Yet even as her childhood dreams and emotions were nurtured in this
natural setting, the young cellist adhered to a rigorous lifestyle,
augmenting her school days with lengthy practice sessions interspersed
with homework. In 1994, at eleven years of age and still too short to
play a full-sized cello, Chang won the prestigious Rostropovich
International Cello Competition in Paris. Chang, playing a fractionally
proportioned 7/8-size cello, won not only the Contemporary Music Prize
but also the coveted Grand Prize of the overall competition. The
contest was adjudged by Maestro Rostropovich himself along with a
collection of his musical colleagues. The judging panel, according to
Anna Tims in the Independent, gave serious consideration before
designating the prestigious award to a child musician for fear of the
pressures of exploitation. Thereafter, Rostropovich brought the young
cellist under his own guidance as a mentor.
Approximately one year after her prize-winning performance at the
international competition, young Chang grew into a full-size
instrument. In recognition of the occasion, she was given a 1757
Guadagnini, one of the finest cellos in the world, which was acquired
in Milan in support and appreciation of her talent by a consortium of
well-to-do Korean citizens. She returned to Seoul in March of 1995 for
a formal concert debut with the Dresden Staatskapelle, conducted by
Guiseppe Sinopoli. Also that year she issued her first commercial
recording through EMI Classics. The album, Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme,
included works by Saint-Saens, Bruch, and Fauré. It was recorded at
England's Abbey Road Studios and featured the London Symphony Orchestra
under the baton of her teacher, Rostropovich. According to Chang in an
EMI interview, the recording studio posed a more intimidating
environment by far than performing in the presence of a live audience
because of the permanence attached to every note. As with all true
prodigies, she displayed an uncanny ability to infuse an extraordinary
purity of artistic expression into her music. Critic Lawson Taitte of
the Dallas Morning Newssaid of her performance on the
Tchaikovsky piece that "Ms. Chang responds to the work's poise and
freshness with an adroit innocence." Later in 1995, as she appeared for
a series of concerts in Tel Aviv with conductor Yoel Levi and the
Israel Philharmonic, Levi remarked to Michael Ajzenstadt of the Jerusalem Post
that "[S]he brings with her this great naivete which does not exist any
longer. It's fresh and blossoming and it's really great."
In April of 1996, a 13-year-old Chang appeared with Leonard Slatkin
and the International Chamber Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The televised concert marked the
center's twenty-fifth anniversary gala celebration. Chang later
appeared for a debut at Carnegie Hall in October of 1996 with Charles
Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Under the protective eye of
Rostropovich, Chang had assumed a limited concert agenda of 15 concerts
per year by the age of 15.
In November of 1999, Chang appeared in a debut performance at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. San Francisco Chroniclecritic
Joshua Kosman commended the 16-year-old's "magnificent rendition of
Haydn's C-Major Cello Concerto. It was a moment to remember.... In an
age when teenage performers and even preteen performers are routinely
trotted out onto concert stages regardless of their level of ability,
it's a joy to encounter an artist who's the genuine article." Also
during the 1999-2000 season, Chang performed with the Berlin
Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de Paris, and with Myung-Whun Chung and the
Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome. In the United States in the summer of
2000, Chang appeared in a debut at the Hollywood Bowl with Slatkin and
the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She performed again later that summer
with Slatkin in conjunction with the Sydney Olympic Games, which marked
her Australian debut. Additionally, she has performed in chamber
ensembles with Mischa Maisky, who is also among her teachers, and the
popular violinist Gidon Kremer.
Early in 2001, Kosman gave an endorsement of "wild applause" to Chang's EMI Classic album The Swan,which
she recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Soon afterward,
on January 22 of that year, she performed with the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra in a sendoff concert, a prelude to a European tour. The
itinerary took her to Spain, Germany, and Poland with Jesús López-Cobos
conducting. Upon her return to the United States, she performed the
Haydn Concerto with the Atlanta Symphony, evoking praise from Pierre
Ruhe of the Atlanta Constitution. "Her tone is robust,
dark-mahogany in color, with a slightly raspy finish; her technique
agile.... Her sound rings out brilliantly--yet she finds ways of
singing very quietly with her cello, of making the audience do some of
the work. One saw a great many people in the audience leaning forward
in their seats during the hushed slow movement, where her sculpted
phrasing was understated, poignant, frisson-inducing."
Despite her precocious talent, Chang emphasized to Tims, "I don't
find it hard to be normal.... I love music, shopping, and roller
blading." Normalcy notwithstanding, Chang admitted to having read
Dostoyevsky's intense novel, The Idiot,at age 13 "to improve my
mind." By 2000, Chang was in her final year of college preparatory
studies at the Rockland Country Day School in her hometown of Congers,
New York. Her demanding musical curriculum included weekend excursions
to Juilliard on Saturdays, interspersed with five-hour daily practice
sessions after school.


by Gloria Cooksey

Han-Na Chang's Career


Recital
tours: Korea, Japan; chamber ensembles with Maisky, Gidon Kremer,
Dmitry Sitkovetsky; formal debut with Dresden Staatskapelle in Seoul,
Korea, 1995; made recording debut with EMI Classics with Mstislav
Rostropovich and the London Symphony, 1995; Carnegie Hall debut with
Montreal Symphony, 1996; featured soloist with assorted orchestras
including the Israel Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Berlin
Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of
Washington, D.C., and Orchestre de Paris.