Sarah Chang - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Chang was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Voorhees Township, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Myoung-Jun, a composer, and Min-Soo Chang, who was a violinist and music teacher. Chang's parents moved to the United States from South Korea in 1979 for her father's advanced music degree at Temple University. Her mother took composition classes at the University of Pennsylvania. Chang has said that although she "never actually lived in Korea... I do still feel very strongly it's where my roots are." She has a younger brother, Michael. In a 1998 interview to PBS, Chang explained that he is an avid tennis player and is thus often mistaken for being Michael Chang, an unrelated athlete with the same name. Her father has settled back in Korea, while her brother graduated from Princeton University in 2011.

In 1986, when Chang was 5 years old, she eventually auditioned for and was accepted to the Juilliard School by performing the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. Chang spent her weekends attending music classes at Juilliard and shopping in New York City with her parents. In 1989, she began working with Dorothy DeLay at her studio, where her father had received his musical lessons. A former student and assistant to DeLay, Hyo Kang, also provided training to Chang. Following her 1999 high school graduation in New Jersey, she returned to Juilliard for university and studied with DeLay.

Chang learned to speak Korean. She is also fluent in German.

Due to her musical accomplishments, Chang is among a very small number of professional figures recognized as a child prodigy.