Clive Chang: YoungArts president combines business and music skills

Clive Chang acquired his love for music at an early age, after he immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong at age 5, learning from a Russian piano instructor who did not know much English. “That’s the beauty of art,” he said, because there was an unspoken connect that needed no languages.

Mr. Chang was chief advancement and innovation officer for the prestigious Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York before taking the role as president at YoungArts, a local non-profit with national impact that works to amplify young artists’ potential for a future in the competitive, and most times underfunded, world of the arts.

He was also an adjunct professor in the graduate program in Arts Administration at Columbia University in New York since 2018 and served on the board of the Music Academy in Santa Barbara, CA. Before that, he was director of strategy and business development for Disney Theatrical Group, which captured, among other works, Broadway shows from the stage to the screen, with productions like Newsies in 2016 and Aladdin in 2019.

He studied business administration as a condition to studying what was really his passion, music, and later realized that that was the best decision he could have made. As a holder of dual degrees in music and fine arts and business administration, he believes the intersection of both disciplines is the formula for success in the artistic world. He says he hopes to inspire artists to acquire business skills, because they were essential to his career.

“We always need more artists,” he said, “and thus, here I am, excited to nurture that next generation.”

Mr. Chang spoke with Miami Today reporter Monica Correa.

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