In Monday’s (12/11) The National (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Feargus O’Sullivan writes, “You could never accuse the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra of lacking vision. Founded just five years ago, the ensemble has now chosen a musical director who really stands out from the classical music crowd: she’s a woman, she’s Korean and she’s only 29 years old. The conductor and cellist Han-Na Chang, named as the orchestra’s new musical director yesterday, already has a reputation as a name to watch, and promises interesting times ahead for the Qatar Phil. Indeed, the cheerful, personable Chang seems to have already fallen in love with the ensemble. … Chang suggests that her new orchestra’s still-peripheral position in the music world could be to its creative advantage. ‘One thing that makes the orchestra so special, so interesting, is that they’re not only excellent interpreters of the great names of the western classical tradition but they play a lot of contemporary music and works from Arabic composers,’ she says. … Following an early childhood shared between South Korea and New York’s Juilliard School of Music, [Chang] made music buffs’ jaws drop when she won the prestigious Rostropovich cello prize at the age of 11. She’s since performed as a soloist with some of the world’s top orchestras.”
Posted December 13, 2012
