Overview
Biography
Winner of the prestigious ECHO Klassik Best Up-and-Coming Artist Award 2014 and the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics 2014 for her Naxos recordings of the Mendelssohn Violin Concertos and Complete Music for Violin by Sarasate, Tianwa Yang is referred to as “an unquestioned master of the violin” by American Record Guide who “rises above her competition” (Fanfare), while quickly establishing herself as a leading international performer and recording artist. The young violinist, a resident of Germany and heralded by the Detroit News as “the most important violinist to come on the scene in many a year,” has debuted with such major orchestras as the Detroit, Seattle, Baltimore, Nashville, Kansas City, Pacific, Toledo, SWR-Baden Baden-Freiburg, and New Zealand Symphonies, in addition to the MDR-Sinfonieorchester-Leipzig, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Orchestre National d'Île de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Hong Kong, Malaysia, Buffalo, BBC, Deutsche Radio, Erfurt, Warsaw and Royal Liverpool Philharmonics. Ms. Yang has performed under the baton of renowned conductors Marc Albrecht, Andreas Delfs, JoAnn Falletta, Giancarlo Guerrero , Günther Herbig, Yoel Levi, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Gerard Schwarz, Vassily Sinaisky amongst others. Other international engagements include those at the Ravinia Festival, Virginia Arts Festival, Schwetzinger Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris’ Salle Pleyel, New York’s Rose Theater, Lincoln Center, and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus. Ms. Yang has also given live concert broadcasts from the Schwetzingen Festival, broadcast by the SWR Stuttgart; from the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, broadcast by Deutschlandradio; and from the Montpellier Festival, broadcast by Radio France.
As a critically acclaimed recording artist for Naxos, Ms. Yang most recently released the Violin Concertos by Castelnuovo-Tedesco recorded with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and the complete Solo Sonatas by Eugene Ysaye which immediately won several awards. Her Mendelssohn Violin Concertos album earned her the title “ one of the best new violinists of the new century” by Musicweb-International. Of her previously released recordings of Pablo de Sarasate’s complete works for violin as an eight disc set, David Hurwitz of Classics Today calls Ms. Yang a “sensationally talented violinist,” while All Things Strings speaks of her “stunning effortless virtuosity” and “uncanny affinity for Spanish music “. The Complete works for violin and piano by Wolfgang Rihm was released in late 2012, and she has also recorded Piazzolla’s Las 4 Estaciones Porteñas with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Vivaldi/Piazzolla Eight Seasons performed with her own ensemble.
Ms. Yang continues to build her growing reputation in concert halls across Europe, Australasia and North America. Most recently, she debuted with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Edmonton Symphony adding this Canadian orchestra to her 2012 Canadian debut performances in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. She debuted in New York’s Rose Theater as part of that same 2012 tour. Upcoming debuts include those with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, the Vancouver and Winnipeg Symphonies, and Guerzenich Orchestra, Cologne.
Raised in the Chinese capital city, Ms. Yang began studying violin at the age of four. Demonstrating unquestionable ability, Ms. Yang won six competitions as a young child. At the age of ten she was accepted to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing as a student of Lin Yaoji. Within one year, Hong Kong media described the young artist as “A Pride of China.” Ms. Yang recorded the 24 Paganini Caprices at the age of thirteen, making her the youngest artist to release the works. In 2003 Ms. Yang was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service to study chamber music in Germany, marking the beginning of her European career.
Ms. Yang has won several awards during her career including the Volkswagen Foundation prize “Star of Tomorrow” by Seiji Ozawa and the 2006 “Prix Montblanc.” She is the recipient of the much coveted ECHO Klassik Award for Best Up-and-Coming Artist 2014. She is Professor of Violin at the University of the Arts, Bern, Switzerland and is grateful to Lin Yaoji, Jörg-Wolfgang Jahn and Anner Bylsma for the musical insight and support they have offered throughout her career.
She performs on a Guarneri del Gesu ( 1730 ) on kind loan from Mr. Kei Mei Rin in Singapore.
(July 2015)
