Choong-Jin Chang

Viola

A native of Seoul, Korea, Choong-Jin Chang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as Associate Principal Viola in November 1994. He made his performance debut as a violinist at the age of 12 with the Seoul Philharmonic as winner of the Grand Prize in Korea's Yook Young National Competition. In 1981, at the age of 13, he moved to the United States to attend The Juilliard School of Music. He has also studied at the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University and The Curtis Institute of Music, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin and a Diploma in Viola. His teachers have included retired Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Viola Joseph de Pasquale, Jascha Brodsky and Margaret Pardee.

Mr. Chang has appeared as a soloist with the KBS Symphony Orchestra of South Korea, the Curtis Symphony and others. He has also given recitals throughout the United States and Korea.

An ardent chamber musician, Mr. Chang has participated in such festivals as Barge Music, Caramoor, Evian (France) , Las Vegas, Marlboro, Moritzburg (Cerrnany), Mostly Mozart and Taipei Theater. He has collaborated with many distinguished musicians, including Yefim Bronfinan, Jaime Laredo, Andre Previn and Mstislav Rostropovich. He has toured the United States with Musicians from Marlboro and Europe with a chamber ensemble from The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has released several chamber music recordings on the Sugo Music and New World labels.

Mr. Chang recently joined violinists Robert Chen and Soovin Kim and cellist Peter Stumpf to form the Johannes Quartet, which gave its debut at the Ethical Society in 1997 and at the New School in New York City in 1998. The Johannes Quartet also serves as Philadelphia Chamber Music Society's resident quartet. They plan to perform all of Beethoven's Opus 18 Quartets in Philadelphia and New York City this season.

He currently serves on the faculty of Temple Music Prep and Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music, teaching violin, viola and chamber music. For the 1996-97 school year he coached chamber music as a visiting artist at The Curtis Institute of Music.