Li-Kuo Chang

Viola

Li-Kuo Chang has been the assistant principal viola of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1988, appointed by Sir Georg Solti. He has appeared with many orchestras as soloist, including the Chicago Symphony, most recently with Pinchas Zukerman performing Bach's Sixth Brandenburg Concerto. He also has been an active chamber music performer collaborating with many renowned artists, such as Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Pinchas Zukerman, in concerts at the Orchestra Hall in Chicago, as well as at Ravinia Music Festival, Los Angeles Music Center, Staatsoper in Berlin, Lucerne International Music Festival in Switzerland, and Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, among other concert halls and music festivals around the world. From 2000 to 2007, he was invited by Daniel Barenboim to be the guest solo viola of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Berlin Staatskapelle, and toured with these two ensembles in their many European and Asian tours, including Richard Wagner's complete Ring des Nibelungen performances in Japan in 2002.

Li-Kuo Chang has been active as a teacher for many years. He has been on the faculty of Northwestern University from 1993 to 2008 and Roosevelt Universities since 1998. He is also on the faculty of the Affinis Music Festival in Japan since 1992. Chang has given master classes at the Indiana University, Northern Illinois University, DePaul University, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and Shanghai Conservatory. His students have won positions in major orchestras, such as Chicago, Detroit, Saint Louis, Indianapolis, Oregon, Phoenix, and prizes in many competitions. He will begin teaching at Peabody in the 2011 fall semester.

Chang studied violin and piano at the Music High School of the Shanghai Conservatory in his native city Shanghai, China. He was a winner of the Chinese Young Artist Competition, held in Shanghai in 1978. In 1979, he came to the United States as a full scholarship student at the Eastman School of Music and a young artist fellow at the Music Academy of the West. He studied viola with Francis Tursi, Donald McInnes, Milton Thomas, William Magers and Paul Doktor. He has also played for William Primrose at Primrose's master classes.

Li-Kuo Chang's instrument, the famous ex-Henri Vieuxtemps viola, is a rare G. B. Guadagnini viola made in 1770, Turin.