SARAH CHANG Young violinist has had long career

The 22-year-old started playing violin at age 4.
By T.D. MOBLEY-MARTINEZ
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
You don't need to ask Sarah Chang how old she is. You can hear it in the soft giggle and the way "totally" surfaces occasionally in her easy, confident conversation.
She's young, only 22, and during the past 18 years she has had a career most musicians never conjure in a lifetime.
Chang, a violinist of international regard, has recorded and played with the superstar best of contemporary classical music -- from conductors Bernard Haitink, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Charles Dutoit to musicians Pinchas Zuckerman, Isaac Stern and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
"I was so unbelievably young when I started out," Chang says from her parents' new home in Philadelphia, where she lives when not touring. "But it all happened quite naturally. It was like this was the way life was supposed to be. Traveling all the time. Playing with different orchestras. It took me a while to realize that it wasn't totally normal."
She pauses, and you can hear the stiff paper thwap of sheet music as she absently puts down the page.
"I was telling my mom the other day, 'I never knew there was so much to do at home."' Chang laughs, a soft tinkling like ice in a highball glass.
Started as preschooler
Chang's mother, a composer, put her daughter at the piano when the child was 31/2.
By age 4, she'd chosen the violin, her father's instrument, and along with ballet and gymnastics and other such stuff, was practicing about 10 minutes a day.
"A hobby," she calls it. "It got outta hand." Chang laughs.
By 51/2, she had her first audition at the Juilliard School. "That set a lifelong trend of basically being the youngest one on stage," she says. "Always, always."
By 8, she would audition twice more -- for Riccardo Muti of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Zubin Mehta of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra -- and then, never again.
"Once you start out at a level," she says, trailing off. Start again: "Two auditions is unbelievable. You hardly have anywhere to go after that."
More laughter.
"I auditioned on Thursday," she says of her first real audition, "and Maestro Mehta called on Friday afternoon and asked if I could play the next day. With no rehearsal.
"But I didn't think about it. At that age, you're fearless. You feel you can do no wrong."
Some might argue that's still true.