Sebastian Chang is a composer & pianist based in southern California. He utilizes a combination of traditional craft and modern aesthetics to create his compositions. His first major performance as a piano soloist was of his composition Concertino for Piano and Orchestra with the Tokyo Symphony at the age of 9. Sebastian obtained his B.M. in Composition from the Curtis Institute of Music & an M.M. in Composition from the University of Southern California. From '16-'18, Sebastian was the Resident Composer for the Louisville Orchestra and currently fulfills their first-call Auxiliary Pianist role.
The Louisville Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, ChamberFest Cleveland, the Louisville Ballet, the Louisville Chamber Choir, the NouLou Chamber Players, and the Britt Festival Orchestra are among the ensembles that have performed Sebastian's compositions.
His Symphony, premiered Jan. '15 by the Louisville Orchestra, is subject of Episode 9: “First Symphony” of the Music Makes a City Now documentary.
Between Heaven and Earth, in collaboration with visual artist Vian Sora, premiered Feb. '18 by the Louisville Orchestra & Louisville Chamber Choir at the Kentucky Center in Louisville, KY.
Cryptogenic Infrastructure Fantasy for violin, clarinet, piano, and timpani, premiered Jul. '18 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center as part of ChamberFest Cleveland.
His Piano Concerto premiered Jun. 17, '22 in by the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, OR, with the composer as pianist.
His Piano Trio 2 premiered Sunday, Nov. 20, '22 by the Trio Barclay at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, and was also featured in the Derby City Chamber Music Festival on Apr. 28, ’24 at Second Presbyterian Church. It was most recently played by the composer in a series of concerts for “Music for a Purpose” in Louisville, KY, in Apr. ’25.
His film score for the silent horror film Nosferatu premiered Oct. 27 & 28, ’23 by the Louisville Orchestra at Whitney Hall in the Kentucky Center. It was performed again on Oct. 23, ’24 as part of the L.O.’s film series.
He conducted the premiere of his Double Concerto for Flute & Cello on Sunday, Nov. 3, ’24, with the Cabrillo Chamber Orchestra, at Incarnation Lutheran Church in Poway, CA.
He played piano solo in Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 with the Louisville Orchestra on Mar. 31 & Apr. 1, ’23 at Whitney Hall in the Kentucky Center. He performed Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff with the Louisville Civic Orchestra on Feb. 19 & 22, at Bellarmine University and Springdale Presbyterian Church respectively.
He is Louisville Orchestra’s first-call pianist. He was Orchestral Piano/Keyboard for the '22 Britt Orchestra Season, following the premiere of his Piano Concerto. He is an instructor in the Instrumental Music conservatory at the Orange County School of the Arts. His publishing company is Sebastian Press, registered under the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP).
As a student, he received the BMI Student Composer Awards in '02 (receiving the Carlos Surinach Prize that year for being the youngest recipient), ’05, & ’07, and received the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards in '01 , '02 , '04 , '05 , & '06. He is a '02 Davidson Fellow Laureate through the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.
Sebastian played keyboard in the Louisville Orchestra in the album “The American Project” featuring Yuja Wang as piano soloist and compositions by Teddy Abrams and Michael Tilson Thomas, which won a Grammy in the "Best Instrumental Classical Solo" category in '24.
