Critically acclaimed as “the most gifted young pianist of her generation” with a “million-volt stage presence,” pianist Joyce Yang captivates audiences around the globe with her stunning virtuosity combined with heartfelt lyricism and interpretive sensitivity. Just twenty-five, she has established herself as one of the leading artists of her generation through her innovative solo recitals and notable collaborations with the world’s top orchestras. In 2010 she was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most prestigious prizes in classical music.
Ms. Yang came to international attention in 2005 when she became the Silver Medalist of the 12th Van Cliburn International Competition. As the youngest contestant, she swept two additional awards as an all-around winner, receiving the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music with the Takàcs Quartet, and the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for Best Performance of a New Work.
Since her spectacular finish, Ms. Yang has flourished into an “astonishing artist” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), and she is continually re-engaged by orchestras across the U.S. and abroad. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Houston Symphony, and BBC Philharmonic, among many others, working with such renowned conductors as Edo de Waart, Lorin Maazel, James Conlon, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, and Bramwell Tovey. In recital, Ms. Yang has appeared at New York’s Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Chicago’s Symphony Hall, and Zurich’s Tonhalle.
This past season, Ms. Yang appeared for the first time with the San Francisco Symphony, led by Alondra de la Parra, returned to the Chicago Symphony under James Conlon at Ravinia, and performed as concerto soloist with Edo de Waart in Milwaukee, Sydney, Melbourne, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. She made her Lincoln Center recital debut at Alice Tully Hall and gave recitals in Atlanta, Berkeley (Cal Performances) and Sydney, Australia. An avid chamber musician, she continued her longtime collaboration with the Takàcs Quartet, and toured with violinist Stefan Jackiw and the Miró Quartet.
During the summer of 2011, Ms. Yang performed recitals, chamber music and concertos at eminent U.S. music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival with conductor Jaap van Zweden, Napa’s Festival del Sole with the Russian National Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center, Bravo! Vail Valley with artistic director Anne-Marie McDermott, and La Jolla Summerfest with the Tokyo Quartet. In her first appearance at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, she played a solo recital and four chamber music concerts.
In the 2011/12 season Ms. Yang returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl under Bramwell Tovey. She continues her Rachmaninoff Concerto series with the Milwaukee Symphony and Edo de Waart, appears as soloist with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra in Budapest, the State Academic Philharmonic in Moscow, and the symphony orchestras of Eugene, Charlotte and Vancouver, among others. The Van Cliburn Foundation, San Francisco Performances and Wolf Trap each present her in recital, and she tours California and Texas with violinist Augustin Hadelich. She also reunites for concerts with the Takàcs Quartet and violinist Stefan Jackiw. Fall 2011 marks the release of her first solo album for Avie, Collage, featuring piano works by Scarlatti, Liebermann, Debussy, Currier, Schumann and Chopin/Liszt.
Ms. Yang made her celebrated New York Philharmonic debut with Lorin Maazel at Avery Fisher Hall in November of 2006 and performed on their Asian tour, making a triumphant return to her hometown in South Korea. Since then, she has appeared with the orchestra frequently, including the opening night of the Leonard Bernstein Festival in September 2008 at the special request of Lorin Maazel in his final season as Music Director. The New York Times called Yang’s rendition of Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” a “knock-out.”
Born in Seoul, Korea, Ms. Yang received her first piano lesson at age four from her aunt. 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 Korea. By age ten, she had entered the School of Music at the Korea National University of Arts, and subsequently made a number of concerto and recital appearances in Seoul and Daejon. In 1997, Ms. Yang moved to the United States to begin studies at the Pre-College division of the Juilliard School in New York with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky. During her first year at Juilliard, she won its Pre-College Division Concerto Competition, resulting in a performance of the Haydn Concerto in D major with the Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra. Winning the Philadelphia Orchestra's Greenfield Competition led to a performance of the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra when she was just twelve. She graduated from Juilliard with special honor, and is the recipient of the school’s 2010 Arthur Rubinstein Prize and William A. Petschek Piano Recital Award.
Joyce Yang is featured in In the Heart of Music, the film documentary about the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and she is a frequest guest on American Public Media’s nationally syndicated radio program “Performance Today”. Her debut disc, distributed by harmonia mundi usa, includes live performances of works by Bach, Liszt, Scarlatti, and the Australian composer Carl Vine. A Steinway Artist, she currently resides in New York City.
