Sunmi Chang, violin, and Clara Yang, piano | WSN 22-23

As the laureate of both the 2007 International Markneukirchen and Sion-Valais International Violin Competitions, Sunmi Chang has performed widely to much acclaim throughout North America and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. In 2008, she was the soloist of the Yale Philharmonia’s tour to Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai, performing the Beethoven Concerto. She studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England and at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin with Prof. Eberhard Feltz. An active chamber musician, Ms. Chang won first prize at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and has collaborated with many renowned artists. She was invited to take part in the Rising Stars Series at Caramoor, Music@Menlo and Chamber Music Northwest. She completed her studies with Peter Oundjian, Ani Kavafian, and Soovin Kim in 2009, earning the Artist Diploma and the Master of Music degree at Yale University, where she won the concerto competition in 2006.  She was a tenured member of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra from 2009 to 2015 and she recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan in 2020. 

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), the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), Remonstrantse Kerk (The Netherlands), the Seymour Centre (Sydney, Australia), the Barclay Theater (Irvine, California), Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater (Rochester, New York), the Sunset Center (Carmel, California), Memorial Hall (Chapel Hill, North Carolina), Meymandi Concert Hall (Raleigh, North Carolina), and in series such as Carolina Performing Arts, Dame Myra Hess (Chicago Cultural Center), and Museu d’Història de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain). She is currently Associate Professor of Music and Head of Keyboard Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.