September 28, 2011
24-year-old virtuoso to perform works by Scriabin, Prokofiev,
and Liszt during debut Cliburn Concerts appearance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Maggie Estes, Director of Marketing
mestes@cliburn.org, 817.738.6536
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 28, 2011-The Cliburn Concerts
series proudly welcomes 24-year-old piano sensation Yuja Wang on
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. at Bass Performance Hall.
Heralded by The Detroit News as "simply the most important pianist
to appear in recent years," she will dazzle the Cliburn audience in
a performance featuring works by Scriabin, Prokofiev, and Liszt.
Single tickets for this concert are available from $15-$90 and can
be purchased at Cliburn.org, by calling 817.212.4280, or in person
at the Bass Hall Box Office (525 Commerce Street, Fort Worth,
Texas).
Widely recognized for a style of playing that combines the
spontaneity and fearless imagination of youth with the discipline
and precision of a mature artist, Yuja Wang has earned rave reviews
the world over with her unparalleled performances. The San
Francisco Chronicle has described her as having "a practically
superhuman keyboard technique with artistic eloquence that is
second to none," and stated that "to listen to her in action is to
re-examine whatever assumptions you have had about how well the
piano can actually be played." In the few years since her 2005
debut with the National Arts Center Orchestra under the baton of
Pinchas Zuckerman, Ms. Wang has gone on to appearances with many of
the world's most prestigious orchestras, including the Baltimore,
Boston, Chicago, and Dallas Symphonies; the New World and National
Symphony Orchestra; and the New York Philharmonic, among others.
She has given countless recitals in major venues across North
America, Asia, and Europe, and also made regular appearances as a
chamber musician at festivals including Aspen and Verbier.
Born in Beijing in 1987, Ms. Wang began piano lessons at the age
of 6 and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music
under the tutelage of Ling Yuan and Zhou Guangren. Following three
years at the Morningside Music Summer Program, she relocated to
Canada to continue her studies at Calgary's Mount Royal
Conservatory. In 2002, after winning the Aspen Music Festival's
concerto competition, she moved to Philadelphia to study with Gary
Graffman at The Curtis Institute of Music, where she graduated in
2008.
In 2006, Ms. Wang received the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and in
2010 she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She
records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, and her two CDs,
Sonatas & Etudes (2009) and Transformation (2010), have met
with critical acclaim. Her most recent recording, a collaboration
with Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, was released
this past spring.
Her Cliburn Concerts program will include:
Alexander Scriabin
Prelude in B Major, Op. 11, No. 11
Prelude in B Minor, Op. 13, No. 6
Prelude in G-sharp Minor, Op. 11, No. 12
Etude in G-sharp Minor, Op. 8, No. 9
Poéme in F-sharp Major, Op. 32, No. 1
Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82
Allegro moderato
Allegretto
Tempo di valzer lentissimo
Vivace
Franz Liszt
Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 8
Lento assai-Allegro energico-Grandioso- Recitativo
Andante sostenuto
Allegro energico-Andante sostenuto-Lento assai
About the Van Cliburn Foundation
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music worldwide,
and launches and nurtures young artists' careers through the
quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tours of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries, and a syndicated radio series
dedicated to the competition and its most memorable performances.
By making the competition available in its entirety on the
Internet, the Foundation has extended its outreach to listeners in
every corner of the globe.
For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Van Cliburn
Foundation promotes great music and world-class artists through the
annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches over 30,000 elementary
school students annually with the education programs of Musical
Awakenings®. In 1999, it established the International Piano
Competition for Outstanding AmateursT, which The Boston Globe
proclaimed "a celebration of music, and the people who have to make
music, no matter what." The sixth Amateur Competition was held May
23-29, 2011 at Ed Landreth Auditorium on the campus of TCU.
Visit Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn as it approaches
the 50th anniversary of the first Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition.
ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor of the Van Cliburn
Foundation. American Airlines; "Crystelle Waggoner Charitable
Trust," Bank of America, Trustee; The Pangburn Foundation, JPMorgan
Chase, N.A. Trustee; Steinway & Sons; and XTO Energy Inc. are
Official Corporate Sponsors. Official Sponsors are the Amon G.
Carter Foundation, Arts Council of Fort Worth& Tarrant County,
the Burnett Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation; the Sid W.
Richardson Foundation, and the T. Boone Pickens Foundation.
Star-Telegram is the exclusive print media sponsor, and WRR 101.1
FM is the official radio station of Cliburn Concerts.
