BWW Interviews: VIOLINIST SARAH CHANG at NJ PAC

SARAH CHANG talks to BROADWAYWORLD CLASSICAL about NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WINTER FESTIVAL - January 16-25

In 1986, when Sarah Chang was only five years old, she was accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School of Music. In 1989, she made her New York Philharmonic debut. Since then she has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world. This month she begins a residency with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. We at BWW Classical are thrilled that Sarah found time from her busy schedule to sit with us and chat about her upcoming performances!

You have been a frequent guest of the NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY, only last season you performed the Bruch Concerto with them. What's special about this relationship?

I spent a good part of my childhood growing up in NJ, so I love going back as often as I can. I've worked with the NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY musicians for years, some have become true friends over the years, not just musical colleagues, and Maestro Jacques Lacombe is an absolute joy to work with.

How do you choose your repertoire generally?

I only perform works I absolutely love and feel 100% confident with. The audience deserves the best and I feel it's every performer's responsibility to deliver their very best every evening. If you don't love the repertoire, I truly believe it shows, so I am very careful about rep selection. I have played everything from Tchaikovsky to Brahms with the NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY, usually ‎focusing on the big, romantic war horse Concerti, so it's such a pleasure to be playing something totally different and iconic this time around with the West Side Story!

After a long career of playing the biggest and most demanding works ever written for the instrument, this season you are performing the West Side Story suite. What's the attraction of this piece?

West Side Story is one of my top 5 all-time favorite movies, and hands down my favorite movie soundtrack. I love anything and everything Bernstein. I asked a Hollywood film composer friend of mine, David Newman, to create a violin and orchestra suite of West Side Story for me, and I worked with him for over a year, custom making the arrangement. ‎He has done a phenomenal job in staying true to Bernstein's original score, adding virtuosic violin fireworks while maintaining the gorgeous, lyrical melodies.

Aside from your parents, what or who was your biggest influence as an artist?

David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman. David Oistrakh is my favorite violinist of all time. Isaac Stern was my mentor and teacher, he was fierce, demanding, brutally honest yet gentle. I adored him and I acquired my current Guarneri violin through him before he passed away, which has immeasurable sentimental value ‎to me. Pinchas Zukerman is unstoppable. He is a phenomenal violinist, violist, teacher, and conductor. I have so much respect for him.

The term "interpretation" - how do you define it? And does it vary from piece to piece? And how has it evolved for you over time?

‎It absolutely varies from composer to composer. One has to play Bach differently from Brahms and Shostakovich. I try to honor the composer's style and wishes first, and then add my interpretation and personal stamp on each work.

You have been doing this for a very long time now, having started so young. What do you think were the benefits and the drawbacks to such an early career start?

I'm so grateful to have started my career‎ so early. I feel incredibly fortunate in having worked with some of the most incredible conductors and orchestras. One of the benefits of having started so young is the fact I've had over 20 years of working with various partners and I know who I get along with onstage and who I don't get along with. I am in a wonderful, happy place in my career where I can be selective over my concert dates and having chemistry with my musical partners is one of my top priorities‎. Some of the drawbacks stem from not having had a so-called 'normal' childhood, I started going to The Juilliard School from the time I was 6, I was touring all the time and surrounded by adults/agents/managers/record execs/publicists/assistants/etc and not kids my own age, so I had to grow up pretty quickly.

What's the hardest part about being a musician in 2015 and what's the best?

I feel that I was fortunate enough to enjoy the very last wave of recordings. My first several CD's were released on LP's as well as‎ cassette tapes!! Everything is done digitally online now, but there was a true art and genuine pleasure in creating CD's, beginning at the recording studio, being a part of the editing process, art cover and design, booklet notes, etc. Pace of life is also dizzying fast now, which means you can bounce from country to country and play every night in a different hall with a different orchestra and conductor, so sometimes you have to remind yourself to slow down and breathe a bit and pace yourself! One of the best aspects, though, is having friends all over the world, and getting to experience so many different cultures, people, architechure, food, etc!

There has been a ton written lately on the state of classical music. What's your view on the classical music scene at present? Is there really a crisis?

I believe in the honesty of classical music. It's very black and white, we don't have lasers, no extra lighting, no smoke machines, no lip syncing, no microphones. We perform live every night and I think there's a certain beauty and timeless elegance to classical music, and the emotional journey one can experience through classical music is parallel to none. I believe that all of us in the music business who have the privilege to be onstage and perform have a responsibility to look after the next generation. The US Embassy kindly gave me the honor of being an Artistic Ambassador several years ago, and I believe in the work we do, going into schools all over the world, playing for the students, giving masterclasses, doing Q+A's, bringing the children into the concert halls to watch a dress rehearsal and getting the chance to see what goes on behind the scenes.

When you aren't performing, practicing or rehearsing, what do you like to do most?

I sleep! I am perpetually jet lagged, so I sleep every chance I get. I also love movies, and I treat the world as my personal shopping mall. I also recently got a puppy, who is, unapologetically, the center of my universe!

What is coming up for you in 2015?

2015 is a very busy year for me! I'm playing everywhere in the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia. I'm also looking forward to getting to know my puppy better and hope to learn how to balance my professional and personal life!

Sarah Chang will perform Bernstein's West Side Story Suite in all six NJSO venues statewide across two concert programs led by Music Director Jacques Lacombe, January 16-18 in Princeton, Red Bank and Morristown and January 22-25 in Englewood, Newark and New Brunswick. Chang's two-week residency with the NJSO, sponsored by Bank of America, anchors the Orchestra's 2015 Winter Festival: Sounds of Shakespeare.

http://www.njpac.org

Peter Danish

BWW Classical Editor-in-Chief