Lynn Chang

My mission is to train violinists to become musicians for the 21st century and to teach them how to perfect their craft, become better communicators, become advocates for their art, and become citizen-musicians.

Lynn Chang joined the Conservatory in 1982 and is a professor of violin.

A top-prize winner in the international Paganini Competition, Chang enjoys an active international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. For 25 years, he performed as a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, and he has appeared at the Marlboro and Tanglewood music festivals and as a soloist with orchestras worldwide. He has performed with members of the Juilliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, Vermeer, and Orion string quartets. His discography includes the works of William Grant Still on New World Records, Made in America with Yo-Yo Ma on Sony, and the Grammy Award-winning The Girl with Orange Lips with Dawn Upshaw on Nonesuch Records. In 2010 Chang performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, to honor Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, and in 2011 he performed for President Obama at the nationally telecast Kennedy Center Honors to celebrate cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Chang received his AB in music from Harvard University and studied the violin with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School. Chang's former students now serve as members of the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. His former student Joseph Lin was recently named first violin of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Chang also has taught at Cornell University, New England Conservatory, Harvard College, and Boston University. From 2008 to 2014, he was vice chair of the board of overseers for Harvard University, where he also has served as vice chair and chair of arts and humanities. In 2015, he served on the visitation committees for the Harvard University Department of Music and Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. For the past several summers, he has worked with the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong and has taught and performed at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont, the Heifetz Institute, and the Vivace Vilnius Festival in Lithuania.

Highlights

• Member, Boston Chamber Music Society (1983–2008)
• Performed at the nationally televised Kennedy Center Awards in 2011, as President Barack Obama honored Yo-Yo Ma
• Performed at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, in honor of Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo
• Appeared on the PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, 2024
• Recorded the album Made in America (Sony Classical) with Yo-Yo Ma, 1993

Awards

• Second prize, International Paganini Competition
• Winner, Concert Artists Guild and Young Concert Artists audition
• Grammy Award, with Dawn Upshaw for The Girl with Orange Lips