MEET THE SOLOIST: Joyce Yang, piano

Pianist Joyce Yang performs Grieg's Piano Concerto
March 19, 2022 at 8PM

Background:

Born in 1986 in Seoul, South Korea, Yang received her first piano lesson from her aunt at the age of four. She quickly took to the instrument, which she received as a birthday present. Over the next few years, she won several national piano competitions in her native country. By the age of ten, she had entered the School of Music at the Korea National University of Arts, and went on to make a number of concerto and recital appearances in Seoul and Daejeon. In 1997, Yang moved to the United States to begin studies at the pre-college division of the Juilliard School with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky. During her first year at Juilliard, Yang won the pre-college division Concerto Competition, resulting in a performance of Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto in D with the Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra. After winning the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Greenfield Student Competition, she performed Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with that orchestra at just 12 years old. She graduated from Juilliard with special honor as the recipient of the school’s 2010 Arthur Rubinstein Prize, and in 2011, she won its 30th Annual William A. Petschek Piano Recital Award.

Highlights:

• She first came to international attention in 2005 when she won the silver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The youngest contestant at 19 years old, she took home two additional awards: Best Performance of Chamber Music (with the Takàcs Quartet), and Best Performance of a New Work. In 2006, Yang made her celebrated New York Philharmonic debut alongside Lorin Maazel at Avery Fisher Hall along with the orchestra’s tour of Asia, making a triumphant return to her hometown of Seoul, South Korea. Yang’s subsequent appearances with the New York Philharmonic have included opening night of the 2008 Leonard Bernstein Festival – an appearance made at the request of Maazel in his final season as music director.
• As an avid chamber musician, Yang has collaborated with the Takács Quartet for Dvořák – part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series – and Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet with members of the Emerson String Quartet at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Yang has fostered an enduring partnership with the Alexander String Quartet and has released three celebrated recordings with them under Foghorn Classics. 
• In 2020, Yang released her tenth album performing Jonathan Leshnoff’s Piano Concerto with the Kansas City Symphony (Reference Recordings) that was written for her. As a champion of new music, Yang has also premiered and recorded a world premiere discography of Michael Torke’s Piano Concerto with Albany Symphony and David Alan Miller (Albany Records). Yang’s wide-ranging discography also includes two celebrated solo discs (Collage and Wild Dreams.) Yang also released a live-performance recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Denmark’s Odense Symphony Orchestra (Bridge Records.)

Critical Praise:

• "Mr. Maazel led a taut performance (of Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety), and the orchestra played this dark-hued music vividly and with a sharp edge. But the standout was Joyce Yang, who gave a knockout performance of the alternately poetic, fiery and occasionally jazz-tinged piano line.” The New York Times
• "The sound is bold and modern, yet restrained. The precision of the fingerwork is astounding." BBC Music Magazine
• “Her attention to detail and clarity is as impressive as her agility, balance and velocity.” Washington Post

Tickets start at $15! Click HERE or call 401-248-7000 to purchase today!