Fifteen-year-old CHARLES YANG from Austin, Texas, began studying the violin with his mother. His awards include two top places at the Interlochen Arts Camp Concerto Competition, grand prize and first prize at the first Asian American Young Musicians Challenge Cup, first prize of Austin Symphony Orchestra's Youth Award, first prize of the 2004 Lennox International Young Artists Competition, a Young Masters Scholarship, and designation as a Cultural Leader. Since his 1999 debut in China on the televised program A Gala Evening with Charles Yang, Charles has performed as a soloist with Austin Symphony Orchestra, Flint Symphony, Richardson Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet, and has frequently been a featured soloist with the Starling Chamber Orchestra in concerts in Aspen, Cincinnati, Munich, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. Yang has performed as a soloist for the National Public Radio show From the Top and was invited to represent From the Top as a young artist at Harvard University's Faculty Club in the Best Fifteen-minute-Concert Ever, as well as at Britney Spears' Camp in Cape Cod. In the summer of 2001, Charles was accepted to the Aspen Music Festival and School as a student of Dorothy DeLay and Kurt Sassmannshaus. He now is a New Horizon Fellowship student of Professor Sassmannshaus. Currently, Yang studies with two violin teachers. He regularly commutes to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music to study with Professor Sassmanshaus and perform with the Starling Chamber Orchestra. In Texas, he studies with Professor Brian Lewis of the University of Texas at Austin School of Music. Yang has been featured in Austin American Statesman, Picayune, Boston Globe, Fortissimo, Shenzhen Daily, Shaumburger Nachrichten, and Dallas Daily. You may also catch him in Spy Kids II.