Yiheng Yang, piano and early keyboards

Yi-heng Yang has been described as an “exquisite collaborator (Opera News), “suberbly adept (Gramophone)” and noted for her “remarkable expressivity and technique (Early Music Magazine).” 

 

Her work spans from collaborations on period instruments with visionary artists such as the Grammy award-winning tenor Karim Sulayman, in their acclaimed album, “Where Only Stars Can Hear Us (Avie Records),” to groundbreaking and provocative explorations into Romantic and Classical performance practice with cellist Kate Bennett Wadsworth (Brahms Cello Sonatas, Deux-Elles, and harpsichordist Rebecca Cypess (“Sisters Face-to-Face” Acis). In May 2022, she released her first soloalbum, “Free Spirits: early Romantic music on the Graf piano (Deux-Elles),” which received a 4-star rating by BBC Music Magazine. Of this recording on an original 19th c Graf piano, Anne E. Johnson of Classical Voice North America writes that “Yang’s performance of these early Romantic works on one of the best instruments from that era takes us as close to the original experience as we can ever hope to come.” Her recent album of Schumann Piano Trios with her group Trio Ilona was “A notable debut from a period-aware trio, fascinating.” 

 

In recent seasons, she has performed as a soloist with the Albany Symphony, and in the People’s Symphony Concerts in NYC with baritone Roderick Williams. She has given recitals at the Boston Early Music Festival, Early Music of the Islands, BC,  the Brattleboro Music Center, Carnegie Hall, The Phillips Collection, Chatham Baroque, Columbus Early Music, and The Helicon Series. She has also performed at The New York Philharmonic Ensembles Series at Merkin Hall,The Serenata of Santa Fe Series, The Finchcocks Collection, The Cobbe Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival, and the Utrecht Early Music Festival.

 

Yi-heng is a faculty member of The Juilliard School, where she teaches piano, fortepiano, improvisation, chamber music, keyboard studies and performance practice in the Precollege, College, and Historical Performance departments. She has also taught at The Mannes School of Music and Rutgers University, and given masterclasses at The Curtis Institute, New England Conservatory, and the University of Connecticut. She is creator and host of The Catskill Mountain Foundation’s International Fortepiano Salon Series, and the artistic director of the RIVAA Concert Series in NYC. www.yihengyangpianist.com

 

 

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