Korean American violinist, Dr. Ruth Chang is enjoying a versatile career as an orchestral musician, collaborator, and teacher. Currently based in Austin, Dr. Chang joined the Austin Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal Second Violin in the fall of 2022. When not performing, Dr. Chang is a passionate teacher and maintains a private violin studio in North Austin. Her students have won top prizes in local and national competitions, earned top rankings in the Texas All-State Orchestras, and have been accepted into top institutions such as Harvard College.

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Dr. Chang has performed internationally and across the United States in venues such as the Meyerson Center (Dallas, TX), Bass Performance Hall (Fort Worth, TX), Koussevitstky Music Shed (Lennox, MA), and Suntory Hall (Tokyo, Japan). She has performed in orchestras under the baton of world renowned conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Andris Nelsons, Valery Gergiev, and Herbert Blomstedt. She has served as concertmaster in the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra (2019-2021), Pacific Music Festival Academy Orchestra (2018), and the New England Conservatory Orchestras (2012-2016). 

As a soloist, Dr. Chang has performed with orchestras ranging from the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra to the community-based Central Texas Medical Orchestra.

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Throughout her training, Dr. Chang has participated in masterclasses with Joseph Silverstein, James Ehnes, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Nathan Cole, and Robert Chen among others. She has studied chamber music with artists such as Emanuel Ax, Martin Beaver, Jeremy Denk, Rainer Küchl, Glenn Dicterow, and the Juilliard, Borromeo, and Ying String Quartets.

Dr. Chang has spent her summers at the Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Meadowmount School of Music where she spent five summers as a Starling Foundation scholarship recipient during her pre-college years.​

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A Dallas native, Dr. Chang began violin lessons at the age of 4. She was fortunate to be introduced to esteemed pedagogue and former Dallas Symphony Principal Associate Concertmaster, Jan Mark Sloman at age 11. She studied under his tutelage for seven years before attending the New England Conservatory to pursue her B.M. in 2012. She completed her M.M. at Indiana University in 2018, and received her doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 2022. Her primary teachers include Paul Biss, Grigory Kalinovsky, and Sandy Yamamoto.

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In her spare time, Dr. Chang enjoys practicing pilates, baking, reading, and exploring Austin with her husband David and mini goldendoodle Teddy.