Joyce Yang
Piano
Blessed with “poetic and sensitive pianism” (Washington Post) anda “wondrous sense of color” (San Francisco Classical Voice), pianistJoyce Yang captivates audiences with her virtuosity, lyricism, andinterpretive sensitivity. As a Van Cliburn International PianoCompetition silver medalist and Avery Fisher Career Grantrecipient, Yang showcases her colorful musical personality in solorecitals and collaborations with the world’s top orchestras andchamber musicians.
Yang came to international attention in 2005 when she won thesilver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International PianoCompetition. The youngest contestant at 19 years old, she tookhome two additional awards: the Steven De Groote MemorialAward for Best Performance of Chamber Music (with the TakàcsQuartet) and the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for BestPerformance of a New Work.
Since her spectacular debut, she has blossomed into an“astonishing artist” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). She has performed assoloist with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, LosAngeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore,Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Sydney, and Torontosymphony orchestras, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, andthe BBC Philharmonic (among many others), working with suchdistinguished conductors as Edo de Waart, Lorin Maazel, JamesConlon, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, Bramwell Tovey, PeterOundjian, and Jaap van Zweden. In recital, Yang has taken thestage at New York’s Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Museum; theKennedy Center in Washington, DC; Chicago’s Symphony Hall; andZurich’s Tonhalle.
Yang kicks off the 2015/16 season with a tour of eight summerfestivals (Aspen, Bridgehampton, Grand Tetons, La Jolla, Ravinia,Seattle, Southeastern Piano Festival, and Bravo! Vail) beforecommencing a steady stream of debuts, return engagements, andnotable chamber music concerts. She reunites with the New YorkPhilharmonic under Tovey for a five-date engagement of Falla’s“Nights in the Gardens of Spain” ― after an appearance last seasonthat theNew York Timescalled “…a sumptuous, powerful, subtleperformance … distinguished by a variety of touch and color” ―and makes her New Jersey Symphony debut with Rachmaninoff’sConcerto No. 3 in an evening celebrating the orchestra’s seasonfinale and conductor Jacques Lacombe’s last concert as MusicDirector. A sought-after interpreter of new music, Yang performsand records the world premiere of Michael Torke’s Piano Concerto,created expressly for her and commissioned by the AlbanySymphony. Showcasing her vast repertoire with appearancesacross North America, she plays with the Colorado Springs,Orlando, and Reading Philharmonics, and the Alabama, Anchorage,Corpus Christi, Greenwich, Milwaukee, Nashville, Pasadena,Princeton, Santa Fe, Utah, and Vancouver symphonies, and returnsto the Melbourne Symphony to perform Rachmaninoff’s PianoConcerto No. 2. In 2016 Avie Records will release a recording withYang and her frequent duo partner, violinist Augustin Hadelich,featuring repertoire by Schumann, Kurtág, Franck, and Previn.
Yang further demonstrates her diverse range this season with astring of laudable collaborations. She opens the Chamber MusicInternational 30th anniversary season with violinist Sheryl Staplesand cellist Carter Brey in Dallas; joins the Alexander String Quartetat San Francisco Performances; appears with the ModiglianiQuartet at the Phoenix Chamber Music Society; and reunites withHadelich and guitarist Pablo Villegas at the La Jolla Music Societyand Philharmonic Society of Orange County for a reprise of thetrio’s widely acclaimed “Tango, Song, and Dance,” in which “Yangshone” (Washington Post) at its Kennedy Center premiere. Sheplays an innovative program of Albéniz, Debussy, Ginastera, andRachmaninoff in a series of recitals in New York, Wisconsin, andVirginia.
Highlights of recent seasons include Yang’s Royal FlemishPhilharmonic and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin debuts,UK debut in the Cambridge International Piano Series, Montrealdebut with I Musici de Montréal with Jean-Marie Zeitouni, andPittsburgh Symphony debut playing Schumann’s Concerto undermusic director Manfred Honeck. She concluded a five-yearRachmaninoff cycle with de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony,to which she brought “an enormous palette of colors, andtremendous emotional depth” (Milwaukee Sentinel Journal); joinedthe Takács Quartet for Dvorak in Lincoln Center’s Great Performersseries; and impressed theNew York Timeswith her “vivid andbeautiful playing” of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet with members ofthe Emerson String Quartet at the Mostly Mozart Festival atLincoln Center. A residency with Musica Viva Australia at theHuntington Estate Music Festival was marked by chamber musicperformances and solo recitals.
In spring 2014, Yang “demonstrated impressive gifts” (New YorkTimes) with a trio of album releases: her second solo disc for AvieRecords,Wild Dreams,on which she plays Schumann, Bartók,Hindemith, Rachmaninoff, and arrangements by Earl Wild; apairing of the Brahms and Schumann Piano Quintets with theAlexander Quartet; and a recording of Tchaikovsky’s PianoConcerto No. 1 with Denmark’s Odense Symphony Orchestra thatInternational Record Reviewcalled “hugely enjoyable, beautifullyshaped … a performance that marks her out as an enormoustalent.” Of her 2011 debut album for Avie Records,Collage,featuring works by Scarlatti, Liebermann, Debussy, Currier, andSchumann,Gramophonepraised her “imaginative programming”and “beautifully atmospheric playing.”
Yang made her celebrated New York Philharmonic debut withMaazel at Avery Fisher Hall in November 2006 and performed onthe orchestra’s tour of Asia, making a triumphant return to herhometown of Seoul, South Korea. Subsequent appearances withthe Philharmonic included the opening night of the LeonardBernstein Festival in September 2008, at the special request ofMaazel in his final season as music director. TheNew York Timespronounced her performance in Bernstein’sTheAge of Anxietya“knockout.”
Born in 1986 in Seoul, South Korea, Yang received her first pianolesson at the age of four. She quickly took to the instrument, whichshe received as a birthday present, and over the next few yearswon several national piano competitions in her native country. Bythe age of ten, she had entered the School of Music at the KoreaNational University of Arts, and went on to make a number ofconcerto and recital appearances in Seoul and Daejeon. In 1997,Yang moved to the United States to begin studies at the pre-collegedivision of the Juilliard School with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky. Duringher first year at Juilliard, Yang won the pre-college divisionConcerto Competition, resulting in a performance of Haydn’sKeyboard Concerto in D with the Juilliard Pre-College ChamberOrchestra. After winning the Philadelphia Orchestra’s GreenfieldStudent Competition, she performed Prokofiev’s Third PianoConcerto with that orchestra at just twelve years old. Shegraduated from Juilliard with special honor as the recipient of theschool’s 2010 Arthur Rubinstein Prize, and in 2011 she won its 30thAnnual William A. Petschek Piano Recital Award.
Yang appears in the filmIn the Heart of Music,a documentaryabout the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. ASteinway artist, she currently lives in New York City.