The soulful melody and message of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” has resonated with listeners for decades.
In 2025, it’s still having a powerful effect with guest violin soloist Charles Yang going viral for his moving rendition of the ’60s song as an impromptu encore performance at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Though Yang performed the song back in November, videos of his encore have blown up in recent weeks, amassing millions of views.
“I had no idea when I stepped on stage that I was gonna do this song and how the audience would react,” he said. “The moment I finished playing this song on stage and the roar of applause, the first thing that popped into my mind was how powerful a song this is.”
Sam Cooke wrote “A Change is Gonna Come” after watching the 1963 March on Washington. “A Change is Gonna Come” has become a timeless anthem of the Civil Rights era, has been included in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
In recent years, Beyonce performed the piece for an audience in Detroit, and Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi performed the song at former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.
Many commenters on Instagram expressed the timeliness of Yang’s encore performance in which he belted out the lyrics while striking chords on his violin.
One commenter on Instagram wrote: “Beautiful rendition of a culturally sacred song. May we hold tight to the original message of Sam Cook. May the words spark new hope in marginalized communities.”
Yang said the song can take meanings as varied as the people who listen to it. For him, it’s a source of hope.
“I think it's just an awareness of hate, right? And hopefully, we can abolish that and a change will come,” he said.
The encore performance has also gone global. A South Korean classical music account has posted a video of Yang performing “A Change is Gonna Come,” which now has over 10 million views.
Yang is a classically trained, Grammy-award winning violinist who has not confined himself to one genre of music. He said his passion for different genres and improvisation came from his upbringing in Austin, where he was exposed to Motown, blues and classic rock.
He said the audience’s reaction to the “A Change is Gonna Come” encore shows the universality of music.
“That shows that it doesn't matter the genre, people can understand it and people can feel it, so I think that applies to life as well,” he said.
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