Amy Chang
"Amy Chang is a cellist with exciting, dramatic temperament and virtuoso technique," said Paul Katz, world-renowned cellist of the former Cleveland String Quartet.
Amy is the Associate Principal Cello of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the Toledo Opera. She is also a member of the Toledo Trio, and serves on the music faculty of the University of Toledo. In addition to performing as a soloist with the Toledo Symphony, Amy travels regularly to Asia performing concertos and chamber music with musicians from Taiwan and Japan. Her most recent solo engagements include the Dvorak Cello Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto with Yin-Qi Symphony Orchestra at the Taipei National Concert Hall in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
Amy has collaborated with many orchestras including the Taipei Symphonietta conducted by Henry Mazer; the International Music Festival Orchestras conducted by Jahja Ling, Byron McGilvry and Uriel Segal; the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ya-Hui Wang; the Yin-Qi Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cheng-Tu Su; the Japan Euodia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Shi-Wen Chin; the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei conducted by Chung-Fung Lee and the Celebrity Chamber Group. Music performances have taken Amy from Shinjuku, Japan to Beijing, China, Vancouver, Canada. She has also performed in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City in the United States. In 1997, Amy toured throughout Canada and the United States with the Taiwanese Cultural Festival sponsored by the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). She was the member of the designated String Trio for the First Taipei International Piano Competition and the First Taipei Competition for Young Composers.
While she was studying at the Academy of Arts in Taipei, Amy received a full scholarship from the Rotary Club to study as a high school exchange student in the United States. The North Shore Music Center in Chicago also granted her a full scholarship to study cello. That very year she won the first prize at the St. Paul Musical Arts Competition. She then continued her studies at the Eastman School of Music in New York where she received her Bachelor and Master's Degrees in Cello Performance.
Upon graduation, Amy returned to her native country, Taiwan, where she was actively involved in promoting music composed by contemporary composers. She performed with Ivan Tcherepnin, the famous composer of electronic music. She also participated regularly in "Euterpe-Autumn" music series, the most avant-garde exhibition of compositions by modern Chinese composers. In addition to performing solos, chamber music, and concertos throughout Taiwan, she taught cello and chamber music at Soo-Chow and Dong-Hai Universities.
Her former teachers include Nell Novak, Robert Sylvester, Allan Harris, Pamela Frame, Paul Katz, Zara Nelsova and Steven Kates.
Amy was featured in the recording "The Story of Man" composed by Gordon Chin. She has also recorded with jazz pianist Claude Black in "Live at the Peristyle."
You can email Amy Chang at cellochang@hotmail.com