Yuja Wang

"Wang has both the energetic, fearless imagination of youth and the probing sensitivity that in most artists comes only with maturity – as well as the keyboard technique to put all her ideas flawlessly into action . . . Extravagantly gifted on every front".
(San Francisco Chronicle)

1987
Born in Beijing.

1993
First piano lessons, leading to studies with Professors Ling Yuan and Zhou Guangren at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music.

1996
Recital in Australia.

1998
Recital in Germany.

1999
Exchange student at the Morningside Music Bridge programme at Mount Royal College in Calgary and winner of its concerto competition.

2001
Begins two years of study with Hung Kuan Chen and Tema Blackstone at Mount Royal College Conservatory. Receives the Special Jury Award at the first Japan Sendai International Music Competition, where she is the youngest competitor.

2002
Becomes student of Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia (graduation in 2008). This summer and the next, she works with John Perry at the Aspen Music Festival, where she wins the concerto competition in her first year. Featured performer in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's “Up and Coming” series.

2003
Triumphant European concerto debut in Zurich performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman.

2005
After her North American debut performing Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Pinchas Zukerman in Ottawa (replacing Radu Lupu at one day’s notice), the Canadian press declares: “A star is born”. She has been invited back to the NAC every season since then.

2006
Debuts with the New York Philharmonic (Liszt: Concerto no.1 under Lorin Maazel) and the symphony orchestras of Chicago (Prokofiev: Concerto no.2 under Charles Dutoit), San Francisco (Ravel: Concerto in G under Michael Tilson Thomas), Houston and Japan’s NHK (Prokofiev 2 under Dutoit). First recital tour of Germany. Receives this year’s prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award.

2007
Boston Symphony Orchestra debut (deputizing for Martha Argerich) playing the Tchaikovsky First Concerto under Dutoit. Appears in the UK and Netherlands with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov. Returns to China to perform with the China Philharmonic (Beijing) and Guangzhou Symphony orchestras. Lisbon debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra under Lawrence Foster (Tchaikovsky 1, Prokofiev 3). Replaces Yefim Bronfman at a day’s notice in Prokofiev 2 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, resulting in immediate re-engagement.

2008
Yuja closes the St. Petersburg Winter Arts Festival at the invitation of Yuri Temirkanov. US tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. Other concerts include the Baltimore Symphony (Yan Pascal Tortelier), New World Symphony (Tilson Thomas), Detroit Symphony and NHK Symphony (Dutoit) orchestras, and the Orchestre National de Belgique (Walter Weller). Verbier and Saratoga festival debuts. Recitals include Washington DC, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Vancouver, and Paris.

2009
Yuja Wang signs an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first release on the Yellow Label will include works by Liszt, Chopin, Scriabin, and Ligeti. Yuja’s engagements this year will include concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony of Washington DC, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestra Mozart (with Claudio Abbado), San Francisco Symphony, and London Symphony orchestras. In October she tours China, Korea and Malaysia performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 2. Recitals in Seattle, St. Paul, Santa Barbara, Reggio Emilia, Paris, Prague, London (South Bank Centre), and Munich. Festival appearances include Verbier, Kissinger Sommer, La Roque d’Antherón, the Michelangeli Festival in Bergamo, Lucerne, and Aspen.