Cello prodigy returns for centennial celebration

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Han-Na Chang with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra 8 p.m. today, 4 p.m. Sunday Blaisdell Concert Hall $15-$57 792-2000

Somewhere within the passing of another six years and countless hours of practice, the South Korea-born Chang became a cello prodigy.

Chang, now 20 and a rising star among her peers, returns for her third set of concerts with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra today and Sunday at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. The performances are part of the continuing centennial celebration of Korean immigration to the United States.

Chang's last performances with the Honolulu orchestra were in 2000, when she impressed audiences with intense and emotional renderings of Dmitri Shostakovich's Concert No. 1 for Cello, about as demanding a composition for her instrument as they come. Chang's program this time around will include the Elgar concerto that first drew her to the cello.

A year after moving from South Korea to New York City to study at the Juilliard School, Chang entered the prestigious Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris. The competition itself was surely a draw, but Chang's real dream was to perform for Russian cello master Mstislav Rostropovich, who was a juror. Chang walked away from the competition with its Contemporary Music Prize and an unprecedented (at 11, she was the youngest winner ever) and unanimous (as in all 11 jurors) First Place prize.

Rostropovich took Chang on as a student soon after, even conducting the London Symphony Orchestra on Chang's 1995 recording debut for EMI Classics. Her first formal performance occurred the same year — in home town Seoul, no less — with Guiseppe Sinopoli conducting. Chang received her Carnegie Hall debut in 1996 with conductor Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Chang's years since have largely consisted of maintaining the occasional worldwide touring schedule while trying to keeping up with high-school classes and, now, finding time for philosophy studies at Harvard University. She has been directed by Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti and Seiji Ozawa, and has performed with Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma.

In concert, Chang is an aggressive performer who dives into pieces with powerful sonic attacks, fierce technical accomplishment and a penchant for showy virtuosity. The first and last of these especially have impressed (and in some cases, irritated) music critics. After wowing Honolulu music scribes with passionate and energetic performances of Haydn on her first visit in 1999, and Shostakovich on her second, it will be interesting to see how Chang handles the intimacies of Elgar's arguably more audience-familiar and elegiac cello masterwork.