ABOUT

Jessie Chang is admired for her beautiful tone, spectacular virtuosity, and deep musical sensitivity.  She first discovered her love for the piano when she was 3 1/2 years old and urged her parents to enroll her in the Yamaha Music School in Hsin Chu, Taiwan. Her family immigrated to the US when she was nine. Having been in the States for just one year, she was discovered at a talent show competition and made her TV debut, appearing on the Taiwan Central Television in Los Angeles. Five years later, she made her concerto debut with the California State University Orchestra.

Ms. Chang attended the Manhattan School of Music with a full scholarship, where she studied with Constance Keene. At the age of nineteen, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and Master’s degree two years later. She was the recipient of the “Best Female Pianist” award at both commencements.  Her previous teachers include Yin Yin Huang, and Milton Stern; she has also worked closely with renowned artists such as Menahem Pressler, Herbert Stessin, Oxana Yablonskaya, and Bernard Segall. 

She has received top honors in more than thirty distinguished piano competitions of national and international stature, including First Prizes in the following: the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, the Music Teachers Association of California State Solo Competition, the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, the Southern California Junior Bach Festival. The Grand Prize was awarded to Ms. Chang in the Music Teachers Association of California Young Artists Guild, and additional top honors were received in the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Competition, the IBLA International Competition, and the International Young Artists Piano Competition.  Ms. Chang has the distinguished honor of being the first person to have won four gold medals at the US Open Music Competition. 

 Among the highlights of her career, Ms. Chang appeared at the Blossom Festival with The Cleveland Orchestra playing Mozart’s double concerto with her duo-partner and husband, Jahja Ling.  Ms. Chang was also invited by composer/conductor, Tan Dun, to perform his piano concerto "the Banquet" and the triple concerto with the Macao Symphony Orchestra under the composer's direction.  

Ms. Chang has been featured at the Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium and in front of 28,000 people at Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta. She has performed with various orchestras including the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Florida Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra, and the Guangzhou Symphony.

Ms. Chang regularly performs chamber music with musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony, as well as renowned artists, including Augustin Hadelich, Lang Lang, Bill Preucil, Che-Yen Chen, and the Formosa Quartet.