Internationally renowned violinist Sarah Chang will share her seemingly endless talent with Austin when she and her 1717 Guarneri del Gesu violin present Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story Suite” as part of the Austin Symphony Orchestra’s concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 6, at Knowlton Auditorium at Austin High School.

Under the direction of Stephen Ramsay, the symphony will also play Bernstein’s “Overture to ‘Candide,’”  Darius Milhaud’s “Suite Provencale” and Ravel’s “Alborada Del Gracioso.”

A child prodigy who began to play when she was 4 years old, Chang today has performed worldwide with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, the Orchestra National de France, and dozens of other highly regarded organizations. Chang has received multiple honors and served as an artistic ambassador on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.

By the time she was 5 years of age, she was already playing under the tutelage of Dorothy DeLay from New York’s Juilliard School of Music. Invited by the conductor Zubin Mehta, she debuted as a guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight and earned a standing ovation for the talent she displayed.

But perhaps her closest professional friend and mentor was violinist Isaac Stern. In a February story appearing in “Strings” magazine, Chang told of her now-famous acquisition of her violin. She was 14 and was ready for a full-sized instrument. Stern made some calls and before long, 16 violins were traveling to New York to be “auditioned” by Chang.

But while Stern and Chang were on their way to Carnegie Hall to try them out, Stern suddenly recalled a violin he owned and had in a safe at his home, and offered it to Chang to try.

After playing all the violins, it was the Guarneri del Gesu violin – the one from Stern’s safe – that she chose and continues to play to this day.

Her talents have impressed musicians worldwide.

The great violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, said, “I thought Sarah Chang was the most wonderful, perfect, ideal violinist I had ever heard.”

Chang was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Cherry Hill and Voorhees Township, New Jersey. Her parents came to the United States from South Korea in 1979 so her father could study music at Temple University.  Her father was a composer and her mother was a violinist and music teacher.

Chang has performed all over the world. 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.”

Tickets are $25 and available for purchase at Hy-Vee or Coffee House on Main.