Yuja Wang

Biographical Timeline

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, April 2008

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

1996 Recital in Germany

1998 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, Dallas Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestra Mozart (with Claudio Abbado), San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, and Lucerne Festival orchestras. Recitals in Seattle, Charleston SC, St. Paul, Santa Barbara, Reggio Emilia, Paris, Prague, Bergamo (Michelangeli Festival), London (South Bank Centre), Munich, Bad Kissingen (Festival), and Verbier (Festival)