PBS: Joyce Yang an outstanding Concert Pianist

The program started off unpromisingly enough. It was a white guy
commenting on music appreciation. From experience they tend to be
snotty types talking down to us the great unwashed. My CBC classical
music radio station commentator just drives me up the wall with his
upper class English accent. I was pecking at my computer and not
looking at the TV. Then this Asian voice caught my ear. She spoke
English well, like an ABC, but still with a recognizable Oriental
accent. Took a look. She looked Chinese. Then she played a passage
from Listz's Hungarian Rhapsody #6. It was a fantastic virtuoso
performance. The notes just flew off her keyboards like a string of
pearls.. I like these rhapsodies enough to have heard many versions
over the years. Oddly enough for a guy who is not musically
particular I am fussy as to how it is played and I have heard many
interpretations that just rattle my ears. Hers was perfect.

I watched the rest of the program in rapture. I agreed with
everything the commentator said about this young lady although I
cannot remember his exact words. Thus my paraphrasing what I think he
said. The commentator said he often came across people who doubted
someone so young could possibly have personally experienced the
sensitivity expressed on the piano. It takes maturity therefore it
must have been a taught technique. Another discussion wast since many
classical composers also played their compositions could their
interpretation have been the final authority that others should seek
to emulate but can never surpass. The answer is certainly "not so."
A later musician can certainly become the body and soul with the music
and see in a piece of music something far beyond what the composer
himself could see. Joyce Yang is certainly the embodiment of music
genius and maturity far beyond her youth..

Now on TV we can see closes-ups a concert goer could never see. Her
sparkling expressive eyes, the gentle opening of her lips then a smile
of rapture, a pout, kitted brows as in "What interesting passage have
we here now?", the flow of her arms, flittering fingers, the sway of
her body and the bounce on her seat. Her playing was soft and gentle
yet precise and powerful without being overpowering. Just the right
touch to be all music without being concious of the musician or the
instrument. You don't have to see her at all to be fully immersed in
the imaginary Eden that her music evokes. That is how her string
quartets must have felt too for they played for her and she for them
in appreciation. It was in perfect harmony, without a trace of a
struggle for one to follow or to anticipate the other. Everything
just flowed smoothly as an organic whole. You must watch Miss Yang if
you ever get the chance.

I had no idea who she was but just managed to catch "Van Cliburn Piano
Competition" at the closing credits. A quick search turned up:-

Joyce Yang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joyce Yang (born 1986 in Seoul, Korea) is a classical music pianist.

She began playing piano at age four as her aunt's first piano student;
at age ten, she entered the Korean National Conservatory.[citation
needed] In 1997, Joyce moved to New York and began studying in
Juilliard's pre-college division.[citation needed] While in New York,
she attended Ward Melville High School.

She gained international renown during the 2005 Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition, in which she was awarded the silver
medal despite being the competition's youngest participant.[citation
needed] During the same competition, Joyce was also awarded both the
Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music,
as well as the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of
a New Work.[citation needed]

During the 2007-08 season, Joyce Yang is touring the United States,
playing concerts with a variety of symphony orchestras, including the
New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony,
and the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.[citation needed]


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