Pianist Yuja Wang’s Recording Sonatas and Etudes Wins International Piano Award for Best Debut Album of 2009

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Read my review of this CD on Interchanging Idioms... We loved it first!

International Piano magazine has announced that twenty-two year old pianist Yuja Wang’s recording Sonatas & Etudes has been selected as the International Piano Awards Best Debut Album of 2009. Now in its fourth year, the 2009 International Piano Awards celebrate the best piano recordings, sheet music, books and DVDs released between October 2008 and November 2009. The complete list of winners will be published in the November/December 2009 issue of International Piano and can be found online at www.rhinegold.co.uk and www.international-piano.com.

Yuja Wang is an exclusive artist for Deutsche Grammophon. Her debut album, Sonatas & Etudes, released in the spring of 2009 “suggests a combination of blazing technique and a rare instinct for poetry.” [Gramophone] The recording includes works by Chopin, Ligeti, Scriabin and Liszt.

“What marks out the playing of Yuja Wang is the mix of superb technique, a remarkable sensitivity and formidable musical intelligence. She traverses a wide repertoire with ease. Still, there is no doubt that there is room for her to grow, and that makes tracking her career all the more exciting.” said Chloe Cutts, editor of International Piano.

Recognized for playing that combines the spontaneity and fearless imagination of youth with the discipline and precision of a mature artist, Yuja is noted for her authority over the most complex technical demands of the repertoire, the depth of her musical insight, as well as her fresh interpretations and graceful, charismatic stage presence. She has been praised for her controlled, prodigious technique and her command of the piano has been described as “astounding” and “superhuman.”

Following Yuja’s Carnegie Hall debut performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Charles Dutoit earlier this season, The New York Times wrote “the evening’s most breathtaking moments were provided by the pianist Yuja Wang…She seems to have everything: speed, flexibility, pianistic thunder and interpretive nuance.” This season Yuja will also make her Kimmel Center recital debut, appear as soloist with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Russian National Orchestra during their U.S. tours, and perform with the Indianapolis Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, and the New World Symphony. She will also perform the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s piano concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Andrew Litton and give recitals in San Francisco, Vancouver, Detroit, and Washington DC , among other cities. Yuja was also recently name the named the Classic FM Gramophone Awards 2009 Young Artist of the Year.

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