Fall and Winter Highlights

The 2017-2018 season may still be in full swing, but pianist Joyce Yang has already reached thrilling new milestones. In November, she was nominated for her first Grammy Award for Chamber Music / Small Ensemble alongside long-standing duet partner Augustin Hadelich. The nominated work is their recording of pieces by Franck, Kurtag, Previn & Schumann, of which Gramophone wrote, “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.”

Also in November, Yang made her debut with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, embarking on a five-city New Zealand tour under the baton of Edo De Waart. There, The New Zealand Herald referred to her as the “ideal soloist” for Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, and the Otago Daily Times praised her “unbelievable virtuosity,” writing that Yang displayed “extraordinary physical strength and mastery […], conquering heavy chords and boisterous thematic intensity with unrelenting passion and assured technique.”

In the coming months Yang will perform alongside the Nashville Symphony (February 1 – 3), Allentown Symphony (February 10 & 11), Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (February 16 – 18), the Oklahoma City Philharmonic (March 3), The Albany Symphony Orchestra (March 10) and the Vancouver Symphony (March 19). In the spring,

Yang will realize a long-standing dream when she performs alongside the dancers of the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet in a genre-bending program of music and dance. The performance will include a new ballet set to Schumann’s Carnaval choreographed by Jorma Elo with collaborative input from Yang herself. The work will receive its world premiere on March 24 in Aspen, presented in collaboration with the Aspen Music Festival and School. Encore performances will follow in Santa Fe (March 31), Costa Mesa (April 5), and Los Angeles (April 7).