2016-2017 Season Review

June 27th, 2017
2016-2017 Season Review

Joyce Yang has concluded a sparkling 2016-2017 season that featured orchestral debuts, ambitious recitals, thoughtful collaborations, and a critically acclaimed album release. As she prepares for a summer of festivals and a demanding 2017-2018 concert calendar, we take a moment to reflect on the highlights of the past year.

The 2016-2017 season brought several notable orchestral debuts, the first being in November alongside the San Diego Symphony. In January, Yang made her Minnesota Orchestra debut under the direction of Roderick Cox with a “crystalline” and “richly characterized” (Star Tribune) performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. Days later, she performed with the Charleston Symphony for the first time while stepping in for Andre Watts. Yang also showcased a wide array of repertoire all over the United States in return appearances with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony and Rhode Island Philharmonic.

For the past year, Yang has toured a thrilling solo recital program featuring works by Carl Vine, Debussy, Granados, Ginastera, Grieg, Scarlatti, and Schumann. Her January recital at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, CA was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “extraordinary” and “kaleidoscopic.”

Yang continued her enduring partnerships with the Alexander String Quartet (performances in New York and Charlottesville) and violinist Augustin Hadelich (performances in Palm Desert, La Jolla, Costa Mesa, Santa Barbara, Saint Paul, Dallas, New York, San Francisco, Cincinnati and Hong Kong). “It was hard to imagine finer performances by any violin-and-piano pairing,” wrote The Dallas Morning News of Yang and Hadelich’s Dallas recital.

In November, Yang and Hadelich released Works for Violin and Piano by Franck, Kurtág, Previn, Schumann, their first duo recording on Avie Records - a work that delighted both audiences and critics. “One can only sit in misty-eyed amazement at their insightful flair and spontaneity.” (The Strad) “It is a rare recording that maintains the sort of precision that allows it to stand up to repeated listening while at the same time fostering an illusion of spontaneity, but this is one.” (Gramophone)