Filmed for the Sound Tracks: Quick Hits series by the Talbot Players in association with PBS Arts (http://www.facebook.com/soundtrackstv).
Born in Beijing in 1987, Yuja Wang began playing the piano at the age of six. From a music conservatory in China to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, she never stopped, and now she roams the world, playing a demanding schedule of concerts across Europe, Asia and North America. She's recorded three critically acclaimed albums for Deutsche Grammophon, her most recent is a Grammy nominee. "I've been doing this my whole life," she tells SOUND TRACKS reporter Alexis Bloom. "I can't really remember anything before the piano."
So, Yuja Wang is already a veteran, a self-assured and immensely accomplished virtuoso. But she's also a young woman who travels the world, mostly alone, living in hotels and backstage dressing rooms. Is she ever lonely? "Not really," she tells us. She's "more alive" on the road, especially in concerts, plus "I have my blackberry, laptop andkindle. I'm all set."
As you'll see in her interview, Yuja is a warm, engaging personality with a quick laugh and a candid comment. She can be shy one moment, outspoken the next. When she's warming up to play Rachmaninoff or Prokofiev, she likes to hear the raw wildness of Rihanna. And she'smade something of a reputation for herself in the classical world as a fashionista, not afraid to wear eye-catching outfits, including that orange dress that set off a wave of commentary last year when she appeared at the Hollywood Bowl. "I'm just being myself," she says.
As the New York Times critic wrote after Yuja's Carnegie Hall debut ast October, "If you've got it, flaunt it. What matters is that Ms. Wang has got it as a pianist."
Yuja Wang's website
http://www.yujawang.com/
