Soph Nominated for Grammy

While 50 Cent is celebrating his first chance to win a Grammy, Han-Na Chang ’06 is packing her bags for a tour in Germany—and taking her second nomination for the prestigious award in stride.

Last Thursday, Chang learned that her fourth album “Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante,” had been nominated—seven years after her first album was considered for a Grammy.

Chang’s latest album has already won several European awards and a nomination for France’s Cannes Classical Awards under the Best Concerto Recording category.

Though she said she wasn’t surprised when her record company, EMI Classics, told her about the nomination, Chang said she was happy to hear the news.

“I really love this piece, and my collaborators and I are very happy with the results, so it is wonderful that the album is also moving and special to others,” Chang wrote in an e-mail.

But Chang’s fans aren’t limited to the Grammy nomination committee.

Alexander S. Misono ’04, violinist and music director of Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra, described her as “the most brilliant, most talented and most accomplished musician in our age bracket in the entire world.”

Chang started playing piano at the age of three and switched to the cello three years later. At age 11, she won the top prize at the prestigious Rostropovich Competition and then skyrocketed to stardom.

“I really liked it in the beginning because it was more like ‘playing’ as in playing with friends and toys. I think I gradually came to regard it as my ‘voice’—I would say I became really serious about it when I was 8 or 9,” Chang said.

Since then, she has played at some of the most coveted venues in the world with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony in Tokyo and the Orchestre de Paris.

Despite her high-profile music career, Chang is “quite down to earth,” Misono said, pointing to her willingness to play with College groups, as well.

“She is off touring the entire globe just about every weekend or every other weekend, but she is still a college kid when she has to be,” Misono said.

Chang has concert and recording commitments until 2007, and has already been away this semester on two short tours.

She will leave today for a tour in Germany, which will last until the end of January, when she returns to the campus to take exams.

Next semester, Chang will take a leave of absence to allow for additional tours, some of which will last up to two months.

According to Chang, juggling her lives as a professional musician and a serious Harvard student is simply an exercise in time management.

By knowing her concert schedule roughly two years in advance, Chang explained, she has plenty of time to coordinate her academic efforts and activities with professors and TFs.

Because she must practice everyday, Chang lives off-campus near the Quad.

“As it is not permitted to practice in the dorm rooms, and as none of the Harvard music practice rooms could be reserved exclusively for my use, the ideal thing to do was to get my own place,” she said.

Chang said she’s happy she chose Harvard over Yale or Julliard, schools more well-known for their music programs.

“Most of these students [at Harvard] have very strong non-academic interests and commitments—and I chose to come here because I wanted to build a solid intellectual foundation for personal satisfaction as well as have something to balance my artistic efforts with,” Chang said.