2018 Award Winner: Amy Yang, Piano
Hailed by The Washington Post as a “jaw-dropping pianist who [steals] the show … with effortless finesse,” Amy Yang is a seasoned soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue.
Recent engagements include collaborations with Dover Quartet, Jasper String Quartet, and Grammy award-winning violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaya and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Yang’s latest solo ventures include performances with Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata at UNAM, National Youth Orchestra of USA, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Penn Symphony Orchestra. She participated in the Mitsuko Uchida Workshop at Carnegie Hall, and recently returned to Weill Recital Hall, Phillips Collection, Schneider Concert Series, and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
Upcoming engagements include recitals with Roberto Diaz and Berlin-based Amelia Piano Trio, of which she is the pianist, at Piano Salon Christofori and Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, as well as performances at Ojai, Berkeley and Aldeburgh Festivals with Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Anthony Romaniuk, members of Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and participating in a world premiere by composer Michael Hersch.
Major engagements include soloing with Houston Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony, and Connecticut Virtuosi Orchestra; collaborating with Aizuri, Amphion, and members of Daedalus Quartets; premiering music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, Avner Dorman, Ezra Laderman, Paul Wiancko, and Hua Yang (her father); and appearing at Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Prussia Cove, Verbier Academy, Caramoor, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart, Chelsea Music Festival, to name a few.
Founder of the Schumann Project, Ms. Yang will lecture on Schumann’s late piano works, presented by Philadelphia Music Teachers’ Association. A debut solo CD of Bach, Caroline Shaw, and Schumann; and three CDs with Tessa Lark, ltamar Zorman (BIS Records), and solo works by Ezra Laderman (Albany Records), respectively, are expected for 2018 release.
Ms. Yang serves as Chamber Music Mentor at Curtis Institute of Music and Chamber Music Coach at The University of Pennsylvania. At Curtis Summerfest, she is the Program Director and faculty for its Young Artist Summer Program and faculty for the Chamber Music and Orchestra for Adults program.
She traces her musical lineage through the gifted teaching of Timothy Hester, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, and Robert McDonald, as well as through the joy of collaborating with luminaries Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Guarneri String Quartet members, Ida Kavafian, Miriam Fried, David Shifrin, Kim Kashkashian, Roberto Diaz, Marina Puccinini, Daniel Druckman, Joseph Lin, and countless others. Ms. Yang is an alumna of Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, and Yale School of Music, where she received the Parisot Award for an Outstanding Pianist and Alumni Association Prize. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Jon, and loves to draw, paint, and learn.