Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is recognized for playing that combines the fearless imagination of youth with the discipline and precision of a mature artist. Yuja’s command of the piano has been described as “astounding” and “superhuman,” and she has been praised for her authority over the most complex technical demands of the repertoire, the depth of her musical insight, as well as her fresh interpretations and graceful, charismatic stage presence. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote The arrival of Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang on the musical scene is an exhilarating and unnerving development. To listen to her in action is to re-examine whatever assumptions you may have had about how well the piano can actually be played.
Yuja has already performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New World, and San Francisco symphonies and the Philadelphia Orchestra in the U.S., and abroad with the Tonhalle Orchestra, China and Nagoya philharmonics and the NHK Symphony. In 2006 Yuja made her New York Philharmonic debut at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival and performed with the orchestra the following season under Lorin Maazel during the Philharmonic’s Japan/Korea visit. In the spring of 2008, she toured the U.S. with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Sir Neville Marriner. Yuja has given recitals in major cities throughout North America and abroad, makes regular appearances at festivals, and is a dedicated performer of chamber music.
DIn the 2012-13 season Yuja returns to the Israel Philharmonic to work with Zubin Mehta, followed by a tour of the U.S. that includes performances at Carnegie and Disney halls. She then launches into a three-week tour of Asia with the San Francisco Symphony and Tilson Thomas, traveling to Macau, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Yuja will again join the principal players from the Berlin Philharmonic with a series of all-Brahms concerts in Paris, and will be presented by the Berlin Philharmonic in recital at the Philharmonie. In spring 2014 she returns to Carnegie Hall again in both recital and a concerto appearance with the San Francisco Symphony, and then a recital tour of Japan where she makes Suntory Hall recital debut.
Yuja is an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon. Her debut recording, Sonatas & Etudes, released in the spring of 2009, “suggests a combination of blazing technique and a rare instinct for poetry” wrote Gramophone magazine, which named Yuja the Classic FM Gramophone Awards 2009 Young Artist of the Year. Her second recording, Transformation, was released in spring of 2010 to great critical acclaim, and was selected by Gramophone Magazine as the July 2010 Record of the Month.
Born in Beijing, Yuja began studying piano at age six, and then at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. After attending three Morningside Music summer programs at Calgary’s Mount Royal College from 1991-2001, she moved to Canada to study at the Mount Royal College Conservatory. Yuja moved to the U.S. at 15 to study with Gary Graffman at The Curtis Institute of Music, where she graduated in 2008. In 2006 Yuja received the Gilmore Young Artist Award. In 2010 she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.
