Angelin Chang

Angelin Chang (張安麟, Chinese: 张安麟; pinyin: Zhāng Ānlín; Korean: 장 安 린) is a Grammy award-winning classical pianist and professor of music at Cleveland State University. She heads the university's keyboard studies program and coordinates the university's chamber music program, and teaches music and law.[1] Prior to joining Cleveland State, she was faculty at Rutgers University.[1]

Angelin Chang performing, July 25, 2008.

Chang's debut performance as a piano soloist was with the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, at age 12.[2] She is the first Artist-in-residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.,[1][3] and the first Academic Performing Artist for Yamaha Corporation of America.[3]

Angelin Chang performing, July 26, 2008.

Chang performed on and produced two of her CDs: Soaring Spirit (2004)[4] and Angelín (2007).[5] In 2007, she won the Grammy award for the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra[6] for her recording of Olivier Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques (Exotic Birds) with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, conducted by John McLaughlin Williams. She is the first female American classical pianist[1] and the first pianist of Asian descent to win a Grammy.[1]

Chang was born in Muncie, Indiana, and attended Burris Laboratory School there.[7] Chang graduated with top honors from the Interlochen Arts Academy and received a Bachelor of Music from Ball State University,[7][8] and a Master of Music degree, along with a distinguished Performer's Certificate, from Indiana University.[8] She earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Peabody Conservatory, at Johns Hopkins University.[3] She is the first American awarded Premier Prix Piano and Premier Prix Musique de Chambre in the same year from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (France).[1]

In addition to her musical degrees, Chang has a B.A. degree in French from Ball State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.[1] Chang is vice president and on the Board of Governors of The Recording Academy Chicago Chapter, serving as Chair of the Education Committee and Classical Task Force.[1][9]