Sunmi Chang
As the laureate of the 2007 International Markneukirchen Violin Competition, and the 2007 Sion-Valais International Violin Competition, Sunmi Chang has performed widely and to acclaim throughout North America and Europe as a solo artist and chamber musician. In 2008, she was the soloist of the Asian Tour to Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai with the Yale Philharmonia, performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

She started playing the violin at the age of seven with Professor Nam-Yun Kim in South Korea. Before starting her studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England in 1995, she had already won several national competitions including the Wol-Gan Music Competition, 20th Junior Korean Newspaper Competition, and Cho-Sun Daily Newspaper Competition. While studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England, she performed regularly in concerts at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and Purcell Room. In 1998 and 1999, she toured with the Yehudi Menuhin School orchestra playing Bach Double Concerto for two violins conducted by Lord Menuhin at the UNESCO Headquarter in Paris, Guildford Cathedral etc. After graduating from the YMS, she went to Germany to continue pursuing a musical career and to study at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin with Professor Eberhard Feltz. She has taken part in various summer festivals and master classes with Mauricio Fuks, Maya Glezarova, Felix Andrievsky, Zakhar Bron, Robert Masters, Zvi Zeitlin, Rainer Kussmaul, Boris Kuschnir, Igor Ozim, Midori, and Lord Menuhin.

As a chamber musician, Chang won the first prize at Plowman Chamber Music Competition and has collaborated with renowned artists including Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Atar Arad, Steven Taylor, Marcy Rosen, Edward Arron, Wu Han, and David Finckel. In 2006 and 2007, she was invited to take part in the Rising Stars Series at the Caramoor Chamber Music Festival, and in 2009 she was one of eleven international program artists for Music@Menlo, an internationally acclaimed chamber music festival and institute in the San Francisco Bay Area.

She completed her studies with Peter Oundjian and Ani Kavafian earning the Artist Diploma and the Master of Music degree at Yale University, where she won the School of Music Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition in 2006 performing the Bartok Violin Concerto No.2 with the Yale Philharmonia. She won a position in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2009, and was a full time tenured member of the orchestra from 2009 until 2015.

As well as being an active performer, she is a dedicated teacher educating the next generation of young musicians. Starting September, 2023, Chang will start her role as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Oregon School of Music & Dance. Prior to joining the University of Oregon, Chang taught at West Virginia University. She was a faculty member at the Chamber Music Institute Program at Music@Menlo for many years and was also a board member and a judge of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Youth Chamber Music Competition. In 2020, Chang completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan.

Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Oregon School of Music & Dance, and serves as the artistic director of Summit Chamber Music Series, which aspires to bring joy, peace, comfort and encouragement to Morgantown WV by presenting world-class chamber music performances throughout the season.

Clara Yang
Praised by Fanfare as “a first-rate pianist who isn’t afraid of challenges,” Chinese-American Pianist Clara Yang has performed in notable venues such as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York), Auditorio Nacional de Musica (Madrid), Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), Chiesa dell’Addolorata (Italy), the Seymour Centre (Sydney), the Barclay Theater (Irvine, CA), Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater (Rochester), the Sunset Center (Carmel, CA), Memorial Hall (Chapel Hill), Meymandi Concert Hall (Raleigh), and on series such as Carolina Performing Arts, Dame Myra Hess (Chicago Cultural Center), and Museu d’Història de Barcelona. She is currently Associate Professor of Music and Head of Keyboard Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Besides performing the traditional repertoire, Yang is also an avid contemporary and new music interpreter. The distinguished composer Chen Yi composed the piano concerto Four Spirits for her. Yang performed the U.S. premiere of the concerto with the distinguished conductor Maestro Long Yu (余隆) leading the China Philharmonic Orchestra (中国爱乐乐团) in the Carolina Performing Arts series. She performed the world premiere of this work with the China Philharmonic in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. In addition, she performed Philip Glass’s etudes alongside the composer himself, Timo Andres, and other renowned artists in the Glass at 80 Festival in 2017. She recorded Lee Weisert’s Érard, which was written for her, for Weisert’s album Wild Arc on the New Focus label. Yang served on the Artist Panel for New Music USA in 2015.

Concert highlights as a concerto soloist include performances with renowned conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Long Yu, Huang Yi, Josep Caballe Domenech, Jeff Tyzik, Carl St. Clair, Tonu Kalam, Grant Llewelyn, George Jackson, and Laura Jackson. She has soloed with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Madrid, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, among others. In addition, she has performed with acclaimed artists such as Aaron Diehl, Joélle Harvey, and Lucia Lucas.

Her solo album Folding Time (Albany Records) won a Global Music Awards Gold Medal and received rave reviews from Fanfare, New York Arts, and American Record Guide. It was chosen as one of the Best of 2016 by American Record Guide. She has also recorded a cello-piano duo album titled Grieg and Prokofiev (Albany Records) with Los Angeles Opera cellist Helen Zheng Altenbach. Her albums and performances have been aired on ABC Classic FM in Australia and New Zealand, 98.7 WFMT Chicago, and many other major radio stations across the United States.

Yang received her D.M.A. in piano performance at the Eastman School of Music, where she was a student of Nelita True. She studied with Claude Frank at the Yale School of Music (M.M., Artist Diploma) and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California as a student of John Perry.