Program

Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-Flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3                            Ludwig van Beethoven

     I. Allegro

Peter Parra

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-Sharp Minor, S. 244                                          Franz Liszt

Andrew Lee

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata”                      Ludwig van Beethoven

     I. Allegro assai

Dayton Nguyen

Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23                                                                      Frédéric Chopin

Letian Lei

Andrew J. Yang

Deemed by The San Francisco Examiner as "a prodigy, [running] the emotional gamut from brooding introspection to manic exuberance”, American pianist, Andrew J. Yang, has an active international performance career across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Since moving to Iceland in 2020, Yang has established himself within the country's vibrant musical community. Yang is the founder and artistic director of the International Westfjords Piano Festival, Iceland Piano Festival, and the co-founder of the Icelandic Schumann Society. Recent engagements have included solo recitals for major festivals and venues such as at the Mozarthaus in Vienna, Murphy Recital Hall in Los Angeles for Loyola Marymount University, North Carolina Museum of History for the Paderewski Festival in Raleigh, Krakow Judaica Cultural Center, and the Hoheikan in Sapporo in Japan. Yang has also performed in most of the major New York venues including Victor Borge Hall, Carnegie Hall, Museum of Modern Art, Doctorow Center of the Arts, Steinway Hall, and the German Consulate in NYC.

Born and raised in California, Yang began piano lessons at the age of five with Sumi Nagasawa. His two most important teachers and musical mentors are Dr. William Wellborn, with whom he began studying with at the age of 13 at the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory Division, and Antoinette Perry, with whom he studied with at USC Thornton School of Music while pursuing a D.M.A. doctoral degree on full tuition scholarship and stipend as a graduate teaching assistant. There, he was one of the two Studio T.A.´s, teaching both undergraduate and graduate piano major students. Yang received a B.A. in Economics and B.M. in Piano Performance in the five-year dual-degree program at Northwestern University as a student of James Giles. Upon graduation with a M.M. in Piano Performance from Mannes School of Music while studying with Pavlina Dokovska, he received the 2017 Steinway & Sons Award, a top distinction given to an outstanding pianist which came with a monetary award sponsored by Steinway. Other teachers and mentors include Ruth Slenczynska, Dang Thai Son, Audrey Axinn, Julian Dawson, and Adam Wibrowski. Yang has also received numerous scholarships to study and perform at many summer festivals, including the Berkshire High Peaks Festival, Austrian International Piano Festival and Seminar, Krakow Piano Summer, Academy of Fortepiano Performance, Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, Gijon International Piano Festival, Centre d’Arts Orford, and Banff Centre.

From 2020-2023, Yang was based in Patreksfjörður, a small town in the Westfjords region of Iceland. He currently resides in Reykjavík where he is on the piano faculty at Tónlistarskólinn í Grafarvogi.