Look up chang or Chang in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Chang may refer to:

People[link]

Surname[link]

• Chang (surname), the romanization of several separate Chinese surnames
• Chang or Jang (Korean name), romanizations of the Korean surname 장

Given name[link]

• Chang Bunker (昌) (1811–1874), one of the original Siamese twins
• Liu Chang (鋹)
• Chang (Pseudo-Chinese: "Little of Nothing"), the younger brother in the children's book Tikki Tikki Tembo
• Chang (Star Trek), a Klingon general from the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Ethnography[link]

• Chang Naga, a tribe of Tuensang in Nagaland, India

Other uses[link]

• Chang or ThaiBev, a brand of beer in Thailand
• Chang, chaang, or chhaang, a traditional alcoholic rice drink of Tibet
• Chang (film), a 1927 film
• Chang (roller coaster), a roller coaster formerly at Bluegrass Boardwalk
• chang (instrument), a Persian harp
• Chang number in mathematics
• Chang or zhàng, a Chinese customary unit of length

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Sarah Chang
Chang before performing a 2005 concert
Born	Young Joo Chang[1] (1980-12-10) December 10, 1980 (age 31) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Violinist
Years active	1984–present
Korean name
Hangul	장영주
Hanja	張永主
Revised Romanization	Jang Yeong-ju
McCune–Reischauer	Chang Yŏng-ju

Sarah Chang (Korean: 장영주) (born December 10, 1980) is an American classical violinist. Her debut came in 1989 with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Shortly thereafter, Chang was recognized as a child prodigy. She enrolled at Juilliard School to study music, graduating in 1999 and continuing university studies. During the 1990s and 2000s, Chang had major roles including being a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. She has also performed in countries such as England, France, Germany, Netherlands, China, South Korea, and Japan.

She has collaborated with most major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic. For the 2004 Olympics, she was chosen to participate in the Olympic Torch relay in New York.^[2] Yale University dedicated a chair in Sprague Hall for Chang's name in 2005.^[2]

Early life and education[link]

Chang was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Voorhees Township, New Jersey.^[3] She is the daughter of Myoung-Jun, a composer, and Min-Soo Chang, who was a violinist and music teacher.^[4] Chang's parents moved to the United States from South Korea in 1979 for her father's advanced music degree at Temple University. Her mother took composition classes at the University of Pennsylvania. Chang has said that although she "never actually lived in Korea... I do still feel very strongly it's where my roots are."^[5] She has a younger brother, Michael. In a 1998 interview to PBS, Chang explained that he is an avid tennis player and is thus often mistaken for being Michael Chang, an unrelated athlete with the same name.^[6] Her father has settled back to Korea, while her brother graduated from Princeton University in 2011.^[7][8]

In 1986, when Chang was 5 years old, she eventually auditioned for and was accepted to the Juilliard School by performing the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor.^[9] Chang spent her weekends attending music classes at Juilliard and shopping in New York City with her parents.^[10][11] In 1989, she began working with Dorothy DeLay at her studio,^[12] where her father had received his musical lessons. A former student and assistant to DeLay, Hyo Kang, also provided training to Chang.^[13][14]

In addition to her native English, she is fluent in both Korean and German.^[15][16]

Following her 1999 high school graduation in New Jersey, she returned to Juilliard for university and studied with DeLay.^[17]

Due to her musical accomplishments, Chang is among a very small number of professional figures recognized as a child prodigy.^[18][19]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Her mother trained her to play one-finger melodies on the piano at age 3. For her fourth birthday, she was given a 1/16-sized violin. At age 8, she auditioned alongside Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti, who worked with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Both granted her immediate engagements.^[20][21][22]

In 1991, when Chang was 10 years old, she recorded her first album, Debut;^[23] it was released by EMI Classics on August 18, 1992 and quickly reached the Billboard chart of classical best-sellers.^[24] Chang quickly rose to fame and became known on an international scale, performing up to 150 concerts a year. At the age of 17, she asked for a three-month break; this opportunity did not come until she turned 20 years old. In 2006, Newsweek ranked her as one of the Top Eight Achieving Females in the United States. In the interview accompanying the feature, she commented: "I think having a career at such an early age kept me focused. We schedule at least two to three years in advance in the classical industry. I felt so grounded and so grateful to already know what it was that I wanted to do with my life."^[25]

2002–2005[link]

Chang in Italy at the 2005 Festival I suoni delle Dolomiti, performing outdoors

In 2002, she performed in Pyongyang, North Korea. Chang commented: "The concert was full of government officials. Every single last seat. It was invitation only, but it was an unbelievable experience. Frightening and exhilarating at the same time. And I just thought about how lucky I am. I am so fortunate to be a musician, and at that moment, I genuinely felt that music is the one and only universal language."^[25][26]

Chang took part in watchmaker Movado's global advertising campaign "The Art of Time" with Pete Sampras and composer Wynton Marsalis. For the 2004 Olympics, she was selected to carry the Olympic Torch in New York.^[2] In 2005, Yale University dedicated a chair in Sprague Hall in Chang's name.^[2] Following this, Chang toured for a year with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a Sextet programme of summer festivals leading to a concert at the Berlin Philharmonie.^[27][28]

2007–present[link]

Chang had her recital at Carnegie Hall on April 7, 2007 with British pianist Ashley Wass,^[29] and continued to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen and make appearances with the former at both the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall throughout 2008.^[30] From May 2009 to June 2010, she held recital tours across Europe, North America and Asia with pianist Andrew von Oeyen; a July 2010 recording of the two was eventually released.^[31] In the February 12, 2010 program, she held her recital at the Barbican Hall in London.^[32] Chang made an appearance at the University of Southern California in March 2010, where she played Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26. She performed at the Hollywood Bowl in August 2010.^[33][34]

Public image[link]

Chang plays the 1717 Guarneri del Gesu violin, which she received through the late Isaac Stern,^[35] and uses a variety of bows: Pajeot for Mozart and Bach; Sartory for "the big-whammy concertos, the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius"; and two Dominique Peccattes for other music.^[35]

Chang has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, orchestras in London, England, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Holland. Additionally, she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Honolulu Symphony, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others.

Chang has also been a soloist under the baton of conductors Mariss Jansons, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Placido Domingo, David Lockington, David Zinman, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap van Zweden, John Williams and others.

Notable recital engagements have included her Carnegie Hall debut and performances at the Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall, Symphony Hall, Barbican Centre, Philharmonie, and Concertgebouw.

As a chamber musician, Chang has collaborated with Pinchas Zukerman, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yefim Bronfman, Martha Argerich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Stephen Kovacevich, Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, Lars Vogt, and the late Isaac Stern. She has made several chamber recordings with current and former members of the Berlin Philharmonic, including the Sextet and Piano Quintet of Dvorak and the Souvenir de Florence of Tchaikovsky.

In January 2011, Sarah Chang was interviewed by Evan Solomon of Power & Politics (CBC) where it was revealed that she had been appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission on Russian Relations, and also was taking on a new role as State Department Special Cultural Envoy.^[9] Chang has already been promoting and supporting childhood musical education for many years. She has also been a cultural ambassador for the U.S.; for instance, she was invited to play in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, with a South Korean orchestra in 2002.^[26]

Awards[link]

Chang has received a number of awards, including:

• 1992 – Avery Fisher Career Grant
• 1993 – Gramophone Magazine Young Artist of the Year (1993)
• 1993 – Newcomer of the Year for "Echo" (Germany)
• 1993 – Nan Pa (South Korea)
• 1994 – Newcomer of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards
• 1999 – Avery Fisher Prize^{[fn 1]}
• 2004 – Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana Award in Siena, Italy
• 2004 – Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame^{[fn 2]}

Discography[link]

CDs[link]

• 1992: Debut Sarasate, Elgar, Paganini (EMI Classics)
• 1993: Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances 1, 2, 4, 7 / Peter Tchaikowsky: Violin concerto op 35. Conductor: Sir Colin Davis (EMI Classics)
• 1996: Édouard Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole/Henri Vieuxtemps: Violin concerto Nr. 5. Orchestra: Concertgebouw Orchestra (Lalo) / Philharmonia Orchestra (Vieuxtemps), Conductor: Charles Dutoit (EMI Classics)
• 1997: Simply Sarah (EMI Classics)
• 1998: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Jean Sibelius: Violin concertos. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Maris Jansons (EMI Classics)
• 1999: Sweet Sorrow. Pieces of Vitali, Gluck, Brahms, Lalo, Vieuxtemps, Paganini, Sibelius, Liszt, Tschaikowsky, Saint-Saens, misc. Orchestras, conductors (EMI Classics)
• 1999: Richard Strauss: Violin concerto and Violin sonata. Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Conductor and piano: Wolfgang Sawallisch (EMI Classics)
• 2000: Karl Goldmark: Violin concerto op. 28. Orchestra: Gürzenich-Orchester, Conductor: James Conlon (EMI Classics)
• 2002: Fire and Ice. Sarasate, Massenet, Ravel, Beethoven, J. S. Bach, Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Plácido Domingo (EMI Classics)
• 2002: Antonín Dvořák, Tchaikowsky: (with other artists) Souvenir de Florence (EMI Classics)
• 2003: Classical Legends. Compilation ft Sarah Chang and other artists
• 2004: French Violin sonatas. Piano: Lars Vogt (EMI Classics)
• 2004: Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sinfonies. Disc 4: The Lark Ascending. Conductor: Bernard Haitink (EMI Classics)
• 2005: Meisterwerke der Kammermusik. Compilation ft Sarah Chang and other artists, 3 CD
• 2005: Andrew Lloyd Webber: Phantasia (with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber) (EMI Classics)
• 2006: Dmitri Shostakovich: Violin concerto Nr.1 / Sergej Prokofieff: Violin concert Nr. 1. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker, Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle (EMI Classics)
• 2007: Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, and Violin Concerto in g, op 12 no 1, RV 317. Orchestra: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (EMI Classics)
• 2009: Max Bruch Violin Concerto No.1, Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto Kurt Masur, Dresdner Philharmonie (EMI Classics)^[36]

DVDs[link]

• 1995: Niccolò Paganini Violin Concerto Berliner Philharmoniker, Zubin Mehta
• 2003: Spanish Night: Sarasate Carmen Fantasie, Zigeunerweisen, Thais Meditation, Berliner Philharmoniker, Plácido Domingo (Conductor)

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sarah Chang

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sarah Chang

• Official website
• Sarah Chang on Twitter
• EMI Classics biography page
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• Artist Management
• Sarah Chang at Allmusic
• Sarah Chang Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
• Sarah Chang Bruch/Brahms Concertos
• Sarah Chang plays Massenet's "Meditation from Thais" on YouTube

Jing Ju (Chinese: 景駒; died 208 BC) was one of the leaders during the Daze Village Uprising against the Qin Dynasty.

Upon hearing the news of Chen Sheng defeated by the Qin forces and uncertain about his death, his subordinate Qin Jia persuaded him to claim the title King of Chu. Shortly after, the Chu noble Xiang Liang called Jing Ju betrayed King Chen by claiming his title and he sent Ying Bu to defeat Qin Jia, which resulted in executions for both Qin Jia and Jing Ju.^[1]

References[link]

A portrait of Antonio Vivaldi in 1725

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741), nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest") because of his red hair, was an Italian^[1] Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe. Vivaldi is known mainly for composing instrumental concertos, especially for the violin, as well as sacred choral works and over 40 operas. His best known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons.

Many of his compositions were written for the female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children where Vivaldi worked from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to 1740. Vivaldi also had some success with stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna hoping for preferment. The Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and the composer died a pauper, without a steady source of income.

Though Vivaldi's music was well received during his lifetime, it later declined in popularity until its vigorous revival in the first half of the 20th century. Today, Vivaldi ranks among the most popular and widely recorded Baroque composers.

Childhood[link]

The church where Vivaldi was baptised: San Giovanni Battista in Bragora, Sestiere di Castello, Venice

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in Venice, the capital of the Republic of Venice in 1678. He was baptized immediately after his birth at his home by the midwife, which led to the belief that his life was somehow in danger. Though not known for certain, the immediate baptism was most likely due either to his poor health or to an earthquake that shook the city that day. In the trauma of the earthquake, Vivaldi's mother may have dedicated him to the priesthood.^[2] Vivaldi's official church baptism did not take place until two months later.^[3]

Vivaldi's parents were Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio, as recorded in the register of San Giovanni in Bragora.^[4] Vivaldi had five siblings: Margarita Gabriela, Cecilia Maria, Bonaventura Tomaso, Zanetta Anna, and Francesco Gaetano.^[5] Giovanni Battista, a barber before becoming a professional violinist, taught Antonio to play the violin, and then toured Venice playing the violin with his young son. He probably taught him at an early age, judging by Vivaldi's extensive musical knowledge at the age of 24 when he started working at the Ospedale della Pietà.^[6] Giovanni Battista was one of the founders of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, an association of musicians.^[7]

The president of the Sovvegno was Giovanni Legrenzi, a composer of the early Baroque and maestro di cappella at St. Mark's Basilica. It is possible that Legrenzi gave the young Antonio his first lessons in composition. The Luxembourg scholar Walter Kolneder has discerned in the early liturgical work Laetatus sum (RV Anh 31, written in 1691 at the age of 13) the influence of Legrenzi's style. Vivaldi's father may have been a composer himself: in 1689, an opera titled La Fedeltà sfortunata was composed by a Giovanni Battista Rossi, and this was the name under which Vivaldi's father had joined the Sovvegno di Santa Cecilia:^[8] "Rosso" is Italian for "Red", and would have referred to the colour of his hair, a family trait.

Vivaldi's health was problematic. His symptoms, strettezza di petto ("tightness of the chest"), have been interpreted as a form of asthma.^[3] This did not prevent him from learning to play the violin, composing or taking part in musical activities,^[3] although it did stop him from playing wind instruments. In 1693, at the age of 15, he began studying to become a priest.^[9] He was ordained in 1703, aged 25. He was soon nicknamed il Prete Rosso, "The Red Priest", because of his red hair.^[10] Not long after his ordination, in 1704, he was given a reprieve from celebrating the Holy Mass because of his ill health. Vivaldi only said Mass as a priest a few times. He appears to have withdrawn from priestly duties, but he remained a priest.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] At the Conservatorio dell'Ospedale della Pietà

In September 1703, Vivaldi became maestro di violino (master of violin) at an orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice.^[1] While Vivaldi is most famous as a composer, he was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well. The German architect Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach referred to Vivaldi as "the famous composer and violinist" and said that "Vivaldi played a solo accompaniment excellently, and at the conclusion he added a free fantasy [an improvised cadenza] which absolutely astounded me, for it is hardly possible that anyone has ever played, or ever will play, in such a fashion."^[11]

Vivaldi was only 25 when he started working at the Ospedale della Pietà. Over the next thirty years he composed most of his major works while working there.^[12] There were four similar institutions in Venice; their purpose was to give shelter and education to children who were abandoned or orphaned, or whose families could not support them. They were financed by funds provided by the Republic.^[13] The boys learned a trade and had to leave when they reached 15. The girls received a musical education, and the most talented stayed and became members of the Ospedale's renowned orchestra and choir.

Shortly after Vivaldi's appointment, the orphans began to gain appreciation and esteem abroad, too. Vivaldi wrote concertos, cantatas and sacred vocal music for them.^[14] These sacred works, which number over 60, are varied: they included solo motets and large-scale choral works for soloists, double chorus, and orchestra.^[15] In 1704, the position of teacher of viola all'inglese was added to his duties as violin instructor.^[16] The position of maestro di coro, which was at one time filled by Vivaldi, required a lot of time and work. He had to compose an oratorio or concerto at every feast and teach the orphans both music theory and how to play certain instruments.^[17]

His relationship with the board of directors of the Ospedale was often strained. The board had to take a vote every year on whether to keep a teacher. The vote on Vivaldi was seldom unanimous, and went 7 to 6 against him in 1709.^[18] After a year as a freelance musician, he was recalled by the Ospedale with a unanimous vote in 1711; clearly during his year's absence the board realized the importance of his role.^[18] He became responsible for all of the musical activity of the institution^[19] when he was promoted to maestro di' concerti (music director) in 1716.^[20]

In 1705, the first collection (Connor Cassara) of his works was published by Giuseppe Sala:^[21] his Opus 1 is a collection of 12 sonatas for two violins and basso continuo, in a conventional style.^[16] In 1709, a second collection of 12 sonatas for violin and basso continuo appeared, his Opus 2.^[22] A real breakthrough as a composer came with his first collection of 12 concerti for one, two, and four violins with strings, L'estro armonico Opus 3, which was published in Amsterdam in 1711 by Estienne Roger,^[23] dedicated to Grand Prince Ferdinand of Tuscany. The prince sponsored many musicians including Alessandro Scarlatti and Georg Frideric Handel. He was a musician himself, and Vivaldi probably met him in Venice.^[24] L'estro armonico was a resounding success all over Europe. It was followed in 1714 by La stravaganza Opus 4, a collection of concerti for solo violin and strings,^[25] dedicated to an old violin student of Vivaldi's, the Venetian noble Vettor Dolfin.^[26]

In February 1711, Vivaldi and his father traveled to Brescia, where his setting of the Stabat Mater (RV 621) was played as part of a religious festival. The work seems to have been written in haste: the string parts are simple, the music of the first three movements is repeated in the next three, and not all the text is set. Nevertheless, perhaps in part because of the forced essentiality of the music, the work is one of his early masterpieces.

Despite his frequent travels from 1718, the Pietà paid him 2 sequins to write two concerti a month for the orchestra and to rehearse with them at least five times when in Venice. The Pietà's records show that he was paid for 140 concerti between 1723 and 1733.

Opera impresario[link]

First edition of Juditha triumphans^[27]

In early 18th century Venice, opera was the most popular musical entertainment. It proved most profitable for Vivaldi. There were several theaters competing for the public's attention. Vivaldi started his career as an opera composer as a sideline: his first opera, Ottone in villa (RV 729) was performed not in Venice, but at the Garzerie Theater in Vicenza in 1713.^[28] The following year, Vivaldi became the impresario of the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice, where his opera Orlando finto pazzo (RV 727) was performed. The work was not to the public's taste, and it closed after a couple of weeks, being replaced with a repeat of a different work already given the previous year.^[24]

In 1715, he presented Nerone fatto Cesare (RV 724, now lost), with music by seven different composers, of which he was the leader. The opera contained eleven arias, and was a success. In the late season, Vivaldi planned to put on an opera composed entirely by him, Arsilda regina di Ponto (RV 700), but the state censor blocked the performance. The main character, Arsilda, falls in love with another woman, Lisea, who is pretending to be a man.^[24] Vivaldi got the censor to accept the opera the following year, and it was a resounding success.

At this period, the Pietà commissioned several liturgical works. The most important were two oratorios. Moyses Deus Pharaonis, (RV 643) is lost. The second, Juditha triumphans (RV 644), celebrates the victory of the Republic of Venice against the Turks and the recapture of the island of Corfù. Composed in 1716, it is one of his sacred masterpieces. All eleven singing parts were performed by girls of the Pietà, both the female and male roles. Many of the arias include parts for solo instruments—recorders, oboes, clarinets^{[citation needed]}, violas d'amore, and mandolins—that showcased the range of talents of the girls.^[29]

Also in 1716, Vivaldi wrote and produced two more operas, L'incoronazione di Dario (RV 719) and La costanza trionfante degli amori e degli odi (RV 706). The latter was so popular that it performed two years later, re-edited and retitled Artabano re dei Parti (RV 701, now lost). It was also performed in Prague in 1732. In the following years, Vivaldi wrote several operas that were performed all over Italy.

His progressive operatic style caused him some trouble with more conservative musicians, like Benedetto Marcello, a magistrate and amateur musician who wrote a pamphlet denouncing him and his operas. The pamphlet, Il teatro alla moda, attacks Vivaldi without mentioning him directly. The cover drawing shows a boat (the Sant'Angelo), on the left end of which stands a little angel wearing a priest's hat and playing the violin. The Marcello family claimed ownership of the Teatro Sant'Angelo, and a long legal battle had been fought with the management for its restitution, without success. The obscure writing under the picture mentions non-existent places and names: ALDIVIVA is an anagram of A. Vivaldi.

In a letter written by Vivaldi to his patron Marchese Bentivoglio in 1737, he makes reference to his "94 operas". Only around 50 operas by Vivaldi have been discovered, and no other documentation of the remaining operas exists. Although Vivaldi may have exaggerated, in his dual role of composer and impresario it is plausible that he may either have written or been responsible for the production of as many as 94 operas during a career which by then had spanned almost 25 years.^[30] While Vivaldi certainly composed many operas in his time, he never reached the prominence of other great composers like Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Adolph Hasse, Leonardo Leo, and Baldassare Galuppi, as evidenced by his inability to keep a production running for any extended period of time in any major opera house.^[31]

His most successful operas were La constanza trionfante and Farnace which garnered six revivals each.^[31]

[edit] Mantua and The Four Seasons

Caricature by P.L.Ghezzi, Rome (1723)

	"La primavera" (Spring) – Movement 1: Allegro from The Four Seasons A 2000 live performance by Wichita State University Chamber Players.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

In 1717 or 1718, Vivaldi was offered a new prestigious position as Maestro di Cappella of the court of prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua.^[32] He moved there for three years and produced several operas, among which was Tito Manlio (RV 738). In 1721, he was in Milan, where he presented the pastoral drama La Silvia (RV 734, 9 arias survive). He visited Milan again the following year with the oratorio L'adorazione delli tre re magi al bambino Gesù (RV 645, also lost). In 1722 he moved to Rome, where he introduced his operas' new style. The new pope Benedict XIII invited Vivaldi to play for him. In 1725, Vivaldi returned to Venice, where he produced four operas in the same year.

During this period Vivaldi wrote the Four Seasons, four violin concertos depicting scenes appropriate for each season. Three of the concerti are of original conception, while the first, "Spring", borrows motifs from a Sinfonia in the first act of his contemporaneous opera "Il Giustino". The inspiration for the concertos was probably the countryside around Mantua. They were a revolution in musical conception: in them Vivaldi represented flowing creeks, singing birds (of different species, each specifically characterized), barking dogs, buzzing mosquitoes, crying shepherds, storms, drunken dancers, silent nights, hunting parties from both the hunters' and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, ice-skating children, and warming winter fires. Each concerto is associated with a sonnet, possibly by Vivaldi, describing the scenes depicted in the music. They were published as the first four concertos in a collection of twelve, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, Opus 8, published in Amsterdam by Le Cène in 1725.

During his time in Mantua, Vivaldi became acquainted with an aspiring young singer Anna Tessieri Girò who was to become his student, protégée, and favorite prima donna.^[33] Anna, along with her older half-sister Paolina, became part of Vivaldi's entourage and regularly accompanied him on his many travels. There was speculation about the nature of Vivaldi's and Giro's relationship, but no evidence to indicate anything beyond friendship and professional collaboration. Although Vivaldi's relationship with Anna Girò was questioned, he adamantly denied any romantic relationship in a letter to his patron Bentivoglio dated 16 November 1737.^[34]

Later life and death[link]

During the height of his career, Vivaldi received commissions from European nobility and royalty. The wedding cantata Gloria e Imeneo (RV 687) was written for the marriage of Louis XV. Vivaldi's Opus 9, La Cetra, was dedicated to Emperor Charles VI. In 1728, Vivaldi met the emperor while he was visiting Trieste to oversee the construction of a new port. Charles admired the music of the Red Priest so much that he is said to have spoken more with the composer during their one meeting than he spoke to his ministers in over two years. He gave Vivaldi the title of knight, a gold medal and an invitation to Vienna. Vivaldi gave Charles a manuscript copy of La Cetra, a set of concerti almost completely different from the set of the same title published as Opus 9. The printing was probably delayed, forcing Vivaldi to gather an improvised collection for the emperor.

Frontispiece of Il teatro alla moda

Accompanied by his father, Vivaldi traveled to Vienna and Prague in 1730, where his opera Farnace (RV 711) was presented.^[35] Some of his later operas were created in collaboration with two of Italy's major writers of the time. L'Olimpiade and Catone in Utica were written by Pietro Metastasio, the major representative of the Arcadian movement and court poet in Vienna. La Griselda was rewritten by the young Carlo Goldoni from an earlier libretto by Apostolo Zeno.

Like many composers of the time, the final years of Vivaldi's life found him in financial difficulties. His compositions were no longer held in such high esteem as they once were in Venice; changing musical tastes quickly made them outmoded. In response, Vivaldi chose to sell off sizeable numbers of his manuscripts at paltry prices to finance his migration to Vienna.^[36] The reasons for Vivaldi's departure from Venice are unclear, but it seems likely that, after the success of his meeting with Emperor Charles VI, he wished to take up the position of a composer in the imperial court. On his way to Vienna, Vivaldi may have stopped in Graz to see Anna Girò.^[37]

It is also likely that Vivaldi went to Vienna to stage operas, especially since he took up residence near the Kärntnertortheater. Shortly after Vivaldi's arrival in Vienna, Charles VI died, a stroke of bad luck that left the composer without royal protection or a steady source of income. Vivaldi died a pauper^[38][39] not long after the emperor, on the night between 27 and 28 July 1741 at the age of 63,^[40] of "internal infection", in a house owned by the widow of a Viennese saddlemaker. On 28 July he was buried in a simple grave at the Hospital Burial Ground in Vienna. Vivaldi's funeral took place at St. Stephen's Cathedral, where the young Joseph Haydn was then a choir boy. The cost of his funeral included a Kleingeläut (pauper's peal of bells).^[41]

He was buried next to Karlskirche, in an area now part of the site of the Technical Institute. The house Vivaldi lived in while in Vienna was torn down; the Hotel Sacher is built on part of the site. Memorial plaques have been placed at both locations as well as a Vivaldi "star" in the Viennese Musikmeile and a monument at the Rooseveltplatz.

Only three portraits of Vivaldi are known to survive: an engraving, an ink sketch and an oil painting. The engraving, by Francois Morellon La Cave, was made in 1725 and shows Vivaldi holding a sheet of music. The ink sketch was done by Ghezzi in 1723 and shows only Vivaldi's head and shoulders in profile. The oil painting found in the Liceo Musicale of Bologna gives us possibly the most accurate picture and shows Vivaldi's red hair under his blond wig.^[42]

Style and influence[link]

Vivaldi's music was innovative. He brightened the formal and rhythmic structure of the concerto, in which he looked for harmonic contrasts and innovative melodies and themes; many of his compositions are flamboyantly, almost playfully, exuberant.

Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi's concertos and arias (recalled in his St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, and cantatas). Bach transcribed six of Vivaldi's concerti for solo keyboard, three for organ, and one for four harpsichords, strings, and basso continuo (BWV 1065) based upon the concerto for four violins, two violas, cello, and basso continuo (RV 580).

Posthumous reputation[link]

During his lifetime, Vivaldi's popularity quickly made him famous in other countries, including France where musical taste was less dictated by fashion than elsewhere.^{[citation needed]} This popularity dwindled. After the Baroque period, Vivaldi's published concerti were relatively unknown, and largely ignored, even after Felix Mendelssohn rekindled interest in Bach. Even Vivaldi's most famous work, The Four Seasons, was unknown in its original edition.

In the early 20th century, Fritz Kreisler's Vivaldi-styled concerto (which he passed off as an original Vivaldi work) helped revive Vivaldi's reputation. This spurred the French scholar Marc Pincherle to begin an academic study of Vivaldi's oeuvre. Many Vivaldi manuscripts were rediscovered, and were acquired by the National University of Turin Library with generous sponsorship of Turinese businessmen Roberto Foa and Filippo Giordano, in memory of their sons. This led to renewed interest in Vivaldi by, among others, Mario Rinaldi, Alfredo Casella, Ezra Pound, Olga Rudge, Desmond Chute, Arturo Toscanini, Arnold Schering, and Louis Kaufman. These figures were instrumental in the Vivaldi revival of the 20th century.

In 1926, in a monastery in Piedmont, researchers discovered 14 folios of Vivaldi's work, previously thought lost during the Napoleonic wars. Some volumes in the numbered set were missing; these turned up in the collections of the descendants of the Grand Duke Durazzo who had acquired the monastery complex in the 18th century. The volumes contained 300 concertos, 19 operas and over 100 vocal-instrumental works.^[43]

The resurrection of Vivaldi's unpublished works in the 20th century is mostly due to the efforts of Alfredo Casella, who in 1939 organised the historic Vivaldi Week, in which the rediscovered Gloria (RV 589) and l'Olimpiade were revived. Since World War II, Vivaldi's compositions have enjoyed wide success. In 1947, the Venetian businessman Antonio Fanna founded the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, with the composer Gian Francesco Malipiero as its artistic director, having the purpose of promoting Vivaldi's music and publishing new editions of his works. Historically informed performances seem to have increased Vivaldi's fame further.

Recent rediscoveries of works by Vivaldi include two psalm settings of Nisi Dominus (RV 803, in eight movements) and Dixit Dominus (RV 807, in eleven movements), identified in 2003 and 2005, respectively, by the Australian scholar Janice Stockigt. Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot called RV 807 "arguably the best nonoperatic work from Vivaldi's pen to come to light since... the 1920s".^[44] Vivaldi's lost 1730 opera Argippo (RV 697) was re-discovered in 2006 by harpsichordist and conductor Ondřej Macek, whose Hofmusici orchestra performed the work at Prague Castle on 3 May 2008, its first performance since 1730.

In popular culture[link]

The movie Vivaldi, a Prince in Venice was completed in 2005 as an Italian-French co-production under the direction of Jean-Louis Guillermou. In 2005, ABC Radio National commissioned a radio play about Vivaldi, which was written by Sean Riley. Entitled The Angel and the Red Pries, the play was later adapted into a stage version and performed at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts.^[45]

The music of Vivaldi, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Corelli, has been included in the theories of Alfred Tomatis on the effects of music on human behaviour and used in music therapy.^{[citation needed]}

Works[link]

A Vivaldi work is identified by RV number, which refers to its place in the "Ryom-Verzeichnis" or "Répertoire des oeuvres d'Antonio Vivaldi", a catalog created in the 20th century by musicologist Peter Ryom.

Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) of 1723 is his most famous work. Part of Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest between Harmony and Invention"), it depicts moods and scenes from each of the four seasons. This work has been described as an outstanding instance of pre-19th Century program music.^[46]

Vivaldi wrote more than 500 other concertos. About 350 of these are for solo instrument and strings, of which 230 are for violin, the others being for bassoon, cello, oboe, flute, viola d'amore, recorder, lute, or mandolin. About 40 are for two instruments and strings, and about 30 are for three or more instruments and strings.

As well as about 46 operas, Vivaldi composed a large body of sacred choral music. Other works include sinfonias, about 90 sonatas, and chamber music.

Some sonatas for flute, published as Il Pastor Fido, have been erroneously attributed to Vivaldi, but were composed by Nicolas Chédeville.

Vivaldi's Gloria (a collection of choral pieces for SATB) is a very well known and widely praised piece. The research of Richard Vendome showed that Vivaldi wrote this piece while director of music at a girl's dance school, implying that he intended it to be sung by females - including the tenor and bass parts. While this thesis is controversial, Vendome has proved it possible with his own 'SPAV' choir, dedicated to the works of Vivaldi and his students, in which females sing bass and tenor, along with soprano and alto, all at pitch.^{[citation needed]}

Notes[link]

References and further reading[link]

• Bukofzer, Manfred (1947). Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-09745-5.
• Cross, Eric (1984). Review of I libretti vivaldiani: recensione e collazione dei testimoni a stampa by Anna Laura Bellina; Bruno Brizi; Maria Grazia Pensa in Music & Letters, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Jan., 1984), pp. 62–64
• Formichetti, Gianfranco Venezia e il prete col violino. Vita di Antonio Vivaldi, Bompiani (2006), ISBN 88-452-5640-5.
• Heller, Karl Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice, Amadeus Press (1997), ISBN 1-57467-015-8
• Kolneder, Walter Antonio Vivaldi: Documents of His Life and Works, C F Peters Corp (1983), ISBN 3-7959-0338-6
• Barbara Quick, Vivaldi's Virgins (novel), HarperCollins (2007), ISBN 978-0-06-089052-0.
• André Romijn. Hidden Harmonies: The Secret Life of Antonio Vivaldi, 2007 ISBN 978-0-9554100-1-7
• Eleanor Selfridge-Field (1994). Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi. New York, Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-28151-5.
• Michael Talbot, Antonio Vivaldi, Insel Verlag (1998), ISBN 3-458-33917-5
• Michael Talbot: "Antonio Vivaldi", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 26 August 2006), (subscription access)
• Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque, H. C. Robbins Landon, 1996 University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-46842-9
• Sarah Bruce Kelly: The Red Priest's Annina, 2009 Bel Canto Press, ISBN 978-0-578-02566-7
• Sarah Bruce Kelly: Vivaldi's Muse, 2011 Bel Canto Press, ISBN 978-0-9836304-0-1

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (August 2011)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Antonio Vivaldi

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Antonio Vivaldi

• Catalog of instrumental works
• Complete works catalog
• Works by or about Antonio Vivaldi in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Michael Talbot: Recent Vivaldi Discoveries from the online magazine Goldberg.
• Antonio Vivaldi by Fréderic Délaméa (Translated by Kirk McElhearn) from Goldberg.
• Two Vivaldi biopics may duel at the box office
• Free scores by Antonio Vivaldi at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Antonio Vivaldi in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Antonio Vivaldi in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Antonio Vivaldi
• Vivaldi biography. Free English eBooks: 1. Talbot, M. Vivaldi. 1993; 2. Heller, K. Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice. 1997
• project Anima Veneziana (Ryom, Peter. Vivaldi Werkverzeichnis. 1. Auflage. 2007. Breitkopf & Härtel. 664 S., format: JPG)
• The Seasons in interactive hypermedia Allegro, Largo, Allegro (Shockwave required) at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext
• Allegro molto from 'Winter' by Vivaldi
• Video of ballet to music by Antonio Vivaldi
• Informations about the research project on the Saxon court's instrumental music collection in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, in German (open source online publication of all Vivaldi manuscripts from the Pisendel collection)
• Fata Tiganca by Vivaldi

Mike Chang
Glee character
Harry Shum, Jr. as Mike Chang during Glee Live! In Concert! wearing his "Can't Sing" T-shirt
First appearance	"Preggers"
Created by	Ryan Murphy Brad Falchuk Ian Brennan
Portrayed by	Harry Shum, Jr.
Information
Occupation	High school student
Family	Michael Chang, Sr. (father) Julia Chang (mother)
Significant other(s)	Tina Cohen-Chang

Michael "Mike" Robert Chang, Jr. is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor and dancer Harry Shum, Jr., and has appeared on Glee since the fourth episode in the first season, "Preggers", first broadcast on September 23, 2009. Glee follows the trials of the New Directions glee club at the fictional William McKinley High School in the town of Lima, Ohio, of which Mike is a member. He is introduced as a football player who joins the club together with a few of his teammates, and quickly shows himself to be an excellent dancer.

Development[link]

Casting and creation[link]

Mike is played by Harry Shum, Jr. He has also been portrayed as a very young boy by Evan Kishiyama in the episode "The Substitute". When Shum was hired, he had been through the audition process, but as far as he knew "it was just like a regular acting gig where you go on for a day."^[1] In an interview with the New York Post, he elaborated, "I got hired as a day player and it turned into a week, and then a month and so on. I was just rolling with it—I mean, who would say no to that?"^[2]

Mike performed in the glee club's production numbers, but was given very little dialogue, staying mostly "in the background, doing some facial expressions." Shum noted, "It wasn’t until I came on the [Glee Live! In Concert!] tour and had this crazy reaction from the audience, and the producers were like, 'Wow, how do they know him?'"^[1]

Mike is a senior in the third season of the show.^[3] Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy has stated that, due to graduation, "more characters are leaving than are staying" at the end of the season.^[4] Mike's parents are dealing with his college plans and appear on the show in "Asian F" to this end, and may be recurring characters.^[5][6]

Characterization[link]

Mike very slowly developed from a football player who "was afraid to dance outside [his] room"^[7] to a confident and highly skilled dancer and performer. Little was revealed about him during the first season of Glee, though Shum described Mike halfway through that season as a "shy football player"^[8] with "dancing and singing abilities" who has "found a place where he can express himself and feel accepted."^[9]

He was given his first storylines in the show's second season. Mike began dating Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz),^[10] was revealed to lack confidence in his singing early in the season,^[11] and although his confidence gets a boost after that, he goes as far as to wear a t-shirt that says he "can't sing" in the episode "Born This Way".^[12] Although he sometimes fools around in academic classes,^[13] he is also very intelligent, and is a member of the school's academic decathlon team.^[14] Indeed, his grades are so good that his father becomes alarmed when Mike gets an "A−" on a chemistry exam, as that could harm his chances of getting into Harvard. Mike Chang is of Chinese American descent, and his great-grandmother was originally from Hubei province in China.^[6]

Storylines[link]

Season 1[link]

Mike first appears in the episode "Preggers" as a member of the McKinley High football team. He dances to "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" by Beyoncé with Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) and his fellow high school football players, and subsequently decides to join the New Directions glee club with his friends and teammates Matt (Dijon Talton) and Puck (Mark Salling).^[15] Mike is a very talented dancer, able to perform complicated lock-breakdown dance steps, and he is shown singing background vocals and performing short dance solos in the glee club's musical numbers.^[16] When Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) is briefly made co-director of New Directions along with usual director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), she recruits an "elite glee club" of all the minority students including Mike, whom she calls "Other Asian".^[17] Tina, herself called "Asian" by Sue, later calls Mike "Other Asian", to his consternation, when they partner for an assignment.^[18]

In "Mash-Up", Coach Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher) tells the guys that are in both glee club and on the football team that they have to choose between the two activities. Mike decides to stay with his friends in New Directions, although he is later allowed to rejoin the team.^[19] In the episode "Sectionals", when the glee club is faced with having to create an entirely new setlist for Sectionals in an hour because their prepared songs had all just been sung by the competing clubs, Finn (Cory Monteith) asks the best dancers in the group—Mike, along with Matt, Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera)—to come up with a dance routine for a new song on the spot. They do, and New Directions goes on to win the competition.^[20] In the episode "Dream On", Tina asks Mike to perform a special dance number with her, even though it was originally intended to be for her boyfriend, Artie (Kevin McHale), who is in a wheelchair.^[21] As the season ends, New Directions competes at Regionals, but they come in third and their director Will Schuester is forced to disband the group. When the club members thank Will and tell him how their lives have changed, Mike says that before New Directions he was too afraid to dance outside of his room. Sue later gets the glee club a one-year reprieve, and Mike and the rest of the members celebrate.^[22]

Season 2[link]

Over the summer, Mike and Tina are both arts counselors at "Asian Camp", where they kiss and start dating. By the beginning of the school year when season two begins, Tina has officially broken up with Artie, as she is more attracted to Mike and his abs.^[23] He gets his first vocal solo in the episode "Duets" when he performs "Sing!" from A Chorus Line with Tina, though he initially tries to tell her that she should sing and he should just dance around; the duet ultimately gets a great reception.^[24] This experience gives him the confidence to volunteer to play the lead when the glee club is planning a performance of The Rocky Horror Show, but he has to pull out when his parents object to him playing a transvestite.^[25] Tina and Mike's relationship continues to heat up—they are still a couple at the end of the school year—and in "Never Been Kissed" they try to cool themselves off by thinking of coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones), but this leads to Mike getting jealous and confronting Coach Beiste. When Mr. Schuester falls ill, he has a dream in which he and Mike perform a recreation of "Make 'Em Laugh" from Singin' in the Rain.^[26] Fellow football player Dave Karofsky (Max Adler) is relentlessly bullying glee club member Kurt, so Mike and Artie confront him in the locker room after practice, telling him to back off. In the ensuing fight, Sam (Chord Overstreet) jumps in to defend them, and all four of them are injured.^[27] Guidance counsellor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) tells Will that there are more talented members in glee club than just Rachel, Finn and Mercedes (Amber Riley), so he picks Mike and Brittany to take the lead in a dance number for Sectionals. Their constant rehearsing worries Tina, who mistakenly fears that she is losing Mike to Brittany; she later apologizes to him for her doubts.^[28] In "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle", the glee club and non-glee factions of the football team initially rupture, imperiling the team's chances, but ultimately come together to wins the championship. In the episode "Born This Way", when everyone in New Directions wears T-shirts to describe the thing they dislike about themselves, Mike's T-shirt says "Can't Sing". Along with the rest of the glee club, Mike travels to New York City at the end of the season for the National show choir competition. New Directions finishes in twelfth place out of fifty teams.

Season 3[link]

In "Asian F", Mike has his first major story line. After he receives an "A−" on a chemistry exam, his father (Keong Sim) is upset by this "Asian F" and the danger it poses to his chances of attending Harvard, and insists that Mike focus more on his studies and give up glee club and his girlfriend, who has been helping him improve his singing. Mike begs for one more chance and promises to meet with a tutor, but later decides to follow his dreams and auditions for the role of Riff in West Side Story, performing "Cool". He misses a tutoring session and is confronted by his mother (Tamlyn Tomita), and when he admits he wants to be a dancer rather than a doctor, she reveals that she gave up dreams of becoming a dancer and doesn’t want her son to do the same.

Tina reveals in "The First Time" that she and Mike had sex over the summer and says how wonderful it was with the boy she loved. Also in that episode, Mike's father confronts him about his participation in West Side Story, and Mike tells him he wants to be a professional dancer, not a doctor. His father disowns him. However, in "Hold On to Sixteen", Mike tells Tina that he will not be applying to dance schools as planned, but has instead applied to Stanford's pre-med program to please his father. Tina, appalled, tries to intervene with Mike's father, but he remains convinced that dancing is too risky a path for Mike. His father later goes to see Mike perform with New Directions in Sectionals, and afterward tells him that he now understands that dancing is Mike's passion, and Mike should apply to the best dance schools.

Musical performances[link]

In the first season, Mike only appeared in numbers performed by the entire glee club. He had no solos or other vocal leads, though his dancing was featured in a few numbers. His only vocal lead in the second season was in the episode "Duets", when he performed "Sing!" from A Chorus Line with his girlfriend, Tina. Both Aly Semigran of MTV and Anthony Benigno of the Daily News named the piece as their favorite routine of the episode, though Benigno gave it only a "B" grade, as its appeal hinged on Mike's dancing, rather than his vocal performance.^[29][30] Vanity Fair's Brett Berk gave it four stars out of five, his highest rating of the episode; it was one of two songs to get that rating.^[31] Though Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal and the Houston Chronicle's Bobby Hankinson also commented positively on the song, the former thought that Tina's sung interjections became annoying and the latter called it "far from the best of the evening".^[32][33]

Harry Shum, Jr. as Mike during Glee Live! In Concert!

In the third season, Mike sings his first solo in the episode "Asian F" when he auditions for the school musical, West Side Story, by singing one of its song, "Cool". His performance of it has received positive reviews by critics. Billboard's Rae Votta wrote of "Cool" that "for Mike Chang's first solo it's impressive", and added, "maybe he should play Tony instead of Blaine"; Michael Slezak of TVLine also thought he should have been considered for Tony since it was "performed with such verve and swagger and charisma".^[34][35] Even so, he conceded that Mike (and Shum) was "not the strongest singer", an assessment echoed in the "decent singer" characterizations from Vicki Hyman of The Star-Ledger and BuddyTV's John Kubicek, and the former called the performance a fine job while the latter wrote that "Mike Chang is the total package".^[34][36][37] The Wall Street Journal's Raymund Flandez said Mike's singing "wasn't so terrible", but while Lee said his is "not, by any means, a wonderful voice" she also said "he still pirouettes with the kind of easy grace that makes each move a joy to watch."^[38][39] Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone wrote, "He's got the smooth dance moves down ... but, most impressively, his slick vocals are on point, hitting nice rises and falls at certain moments but mostly staying 'real cool', as the song calls for", and Berk gave the performance five of five stars.^[40][41]

In "Heart", he sings L-O-V-E with Tina, which received mostly positive reviews. The Washington Post's Jen Chaney characterized it as "cute and buoyant" and gave it an "A−", and HuffPost TV's Crystal Bell called it "absolute perfection".^[42][43] While Michael Slezak of TVLine praised their "sweet vocals", he wondered why their "rare moment in the spotlight had to serve as a backdrop to the Artie-Sugar-Rory triangle" and gave the performance a "B".^[44] Chaney thought the "quick edits actually gave the song a nice energy, but also prevented us from seeing more of Tina and Mike dancing", which she said "was a shame".^[43] Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal and Entertainment Weekly's Joseph Brannigan Lynch both praised Mike's singing; Lynch said his "voice sounded great", and Flandez declared that "Mike has really come into his own as a singer". ^[45][46]

Reception[link]

Mike has received generally positive reviews from critics mainly for his dancing. In the second season episode "Special Education", when he and Brittany (Heather Morris) are given featured dance roles in the song "Valerie", sung by Santana (Naya Rivera), Flandez wrote that "Brittany and Mike's pas de deux rocked".^[47] Benigno stated, "Brittany and Mike Chang handle the moves (extraordinarily well), but the vocals here are what steal it", and gave the song an "A".^[48] Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack was slightly less generous with an "A−", and wrote that it was a "great song choice for Santana"; he gave "bonus points for the phenomenal Mike/Brittany choreography", while Jen Harper of BuddyTV said that their dancing "totally made the song".^[49][50] Zap2it's Hanh Nguyen liked the dancing, but she was critical of how the song sounded, as she felt "it lacked something and didn't really feel worthy of the standing O", while Futterman said "Santana's sassy vocals are a perfect echo of Winehouse's, but the rest of the song feels a bit like a circus".^[51][52] Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times felt the entire song "seemed kind of tacked on", both the dancing and Santana's solo.^[53] In the episode "A Night of Neglect", when Mike performs the show's first solo dance routine—to the song "Bubble Toes" by Jack Johnson—he garnered some rave reviews, including from Sandra Gonzalez of Entertainment Weekly, who gave it an "A" and called it "one of the best [performances] of the season."^[54] Semigran concurred, and characterized Mike's dancing in the number as "awesome".^[55]

In the season three episode "Asian F", Mike Chang has his first major storyline which became the most widely praised storyline of the episode. Abby West of Entertainment Weekly said Shum "really showed his acting chops", and Samantha Urban of The Dallas Morning News thought the "plot worked well", though she heaped scorn on the notion that "any college would consider glee club a detriment" in an application.^[56][57] Mike's "Cool" performance was very well received. Berk called it a "spectacular audition" and Bell said it was "one of the highlights of the episode"; she also noted that the episode "really solidified" Mike and Tina's relationship, though she also pointed out that Tina was "the most neglected member of the entire cast".^[41][58] Mike's scenes in the dance studio were even more highly praised than "Cool". The first, when Mike "dances alone and imagines Tina and his dad in the room with him" was described as "really beautiful" by Benigno for The Faster Times.^[59] The Atlantic's Kevin Fallon characterized it as "a standout scene": "the performer dances out his life frustrations, pirouetting-as-catharsis until he realizes that the only place he feels happy is on stage. It's a trademark Glee moment."^[60] Hyman agreed, and wrote, "When he ducked into the studio and started dancing by himself, without music, it reminded me of how special a show Glee can be".^[36] Lesley Goldberg of The Hollywood Reporter lauded the subsequent scene in the studio with his mother as the "most touching part" of the storyline, and more than one reviewer admitted shedding tears, including Reiter.^[61][62]

Critics reacted less positive towards his scenes in The First Time. The scene where he is disowned by his father was characterized as "weird" and "tonally off" by Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club and "abrupt and unlikely" by Hyman. ^[63][64] Kubicek was even more critical: "the most over-the-top, terribly cliched scene ever". ^[65] However, Votta gave "kudos to Glee for sticking with Mike's story this season as he figures out his path", and West wrote that Shum "played it well", while Robert Canning of IGN said it and the later scene with his mother "were mighty effective, if a bit stereotypical". ^[66][67][68] Hyman and West also approved of the latter scene. ^[67][64]

After Hold On to Sixteen, Sullivan, who was enthusiastic about Shum, who he said had "emerged as a crux of the show", was not happy with Mike's "forced storyline" in the episode.^[69] Canning noted that Mike's storyline had "been a bit cliched all season", though it had been "fun to root for him", but he was puzzled by the lack of a "Mike Chang dance showcase" at the competition to justify his father's change of heart.^[70]

References[link]