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Pianist
In June 2005, at nineteen years of age, Joyce Yang was awarded the silver medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The prize package included $20,000, three years of U.S. concert engagements, and a compact disc recording on the harmonia mundi usa label. The youngest of the Cliburn Competition's participants, she was the recipient of both the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music, as well as the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work. Of her spectacular finish at one of the world's most prestigious showcases for young talent, she told reporters, "I'm still dreaming." There is no doubt that Joyce captured the hearts of all who heard her!
The dream continued in summer 2006 as Joyce Yang appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center, the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Symphony, and she opened the season of the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. In November 2006, Joyce Yang made her New York Philharmonic debut with Lorin Maazel in Avery Fisher Hall, preceded by concerts with them in Korea. She appeared with them again in June 2007 in New York City and in July 2007 in Vail, CO, in July 08 in Vail as well as in Avery Fisher Hall and is slated for Fall 2008 at the special request of Lorin Maazel in his final season as Music Director. Joyce's recent activities have also included engagements with the symphonies of Houston, Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Colorado, Kansas City, Colorado Springs, Nashville and the National Symphony, as well as numerous recitals throughout North America and in Europe, including appearances at the Kennedy Center for the Washington Performing Arts Society and the Tonhalle in Zurich.
2008/2009 includes Joyce Yang's New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum, the Ravinia festival with the Chicago Symphony and James Conlon and the Hollywood Bowl. She has been invited by James Conlon to play the Bernstein "Age of Anxiety" with the Deutsches Symphonie Berlin in Fall 09 which will mark her debut with that orchestra.
Joyce Yang continues to captivate audiences and colleagues with her warm and generous personality, combined with musicianship that belies her age Other recent engagements include recitals in Chicago presented by the Chicago Symphony, the Tonhalle in Zurich, Ft. Worth for the Van Cliburn Foundation, Seoul, Korea and six recitals in Hawaii. She appears with no fewer than fifteen orchestras throughout North America as well as continues her collaboration with the Takacs Quartet.
Born in Seoul, Korea, Joyce received her first piano lessons at age four from her aunt. She quickly took to the instrument, which she received as a birthday present, and over the next few years won several national piano competitions in Korea. By age ten she had entered the Korean National Conservatory, and subsequently made a number of concerto and recital appearances in Seoul and Taejon. In 1997, Joyce moved to the United States to begin studies at the pre-college division of the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
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. In April 1999, she was invited to perform at a benefit concert with the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Winning at 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.
Joyce Yang is featured in In the Heart of Music, the film documentary about the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Her debut disc distributed by harmonia mundi usa includes live performances of works by Bach, Liszt, Scarlatti, and the Australian composer Carl Vine. She currently resides in New York City where she attends the Juilliard School as a student of Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky.
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Joyce Yang
