Ya-Fei Chuang (Taiwan/USA) ← Back to list
Acclaimed by critics in the United States and abroad for performances of stunning virtuosity, refinement and communicative power, Ya-Fei Chuang's mentor Alfred Brendel has praised her as “a pianist of extraordinary ability, intelligence, sensitivity and command . . . approaching the height of her powers.” Commenting on her recently released Chopin/Liszt recording, he stated, "If you want to listen to Chopin and Liszt with different ears, Ya-Fei Chuang's ecstatic performances cannot leave you cold, and her pianism is staggering." Among her most recent reviews, Remy Franck (Classical Music Journal) called her playing "...masterful...thrilling...phenomenal", and Fanfare Magazine declared, "...she immediately draws the listener into her sound-world... She is indeed a pianist of staggering abilities." Reviewing her live recording of the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No.1, Fanfare Magazine hailed her “delicacy and fluidity of touch ... this version now sits at the top of the pile of Mendelssohn Firsts, alongside Perahia, [Rudolf] Serkin, and John Ogdon.”
Her appearances as soloist include the orchestras of Berlin, Boston, City of Birmingham, Israel, Malaysia, and Tokyo; at the Berlin Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus, the Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Barbican Centre and Queen Elisabeth Hall (London), Boston’s Symphony Hall, the National Concert Hall (Taipei), and Suntory Hall (Tokyo). More recently she has appeared in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Norway, Poland, Taiwan, Tokyo, Boston, Florida, Indiana, New York, Rhode Island, San Francisco. She has performed at the Verbier, Shannon and Oregon Bach Festivals, the Mozartwoche (Salzburg), the Mozart Festival (Romania), Beethoven Festival (Warsaw and Krakow), the European Music Festival (Germany), Bach Festival (Leipzig), and the festivals of Schleswig-Holstein, Gilmore, Nevada, Newport, Ravinia, Sarasota, Tanglewood, the Taiwan Maestro Piano Festival, and the Taipei International Music Festival. She has performed in the Celebrity Series in Boston, at the Fromm Foundation concerts at Harvard, the Harvard Musical Association, the International Music Sessions in Prussia Cove, England, and with the New York Philomusica. She performs frequently with the Spectrum Ensemble Berlin, and has appeared in duo performances with Pierre Amoyal, Alban Gerhardt, Clive Greensmith, Kim Kashkashian, and is a frequent partner of Steven Isserlis and Robert Levin. She has collaborated in chamber music performances with concertmasters and principal players of the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra.
She is equally adept at playing the fortepiano and has performed with leading ensembles on period instruments, including the Academy of Ancient Music, Boston Baroque, Concerto Köln, Handel & Haydn Society, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque. She recently gave a concert at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on a recently restored 1820s Fritz fortepiano; and has recorded as a soloist in three of Mozart's double and triple concertos with Robert Levin and the Academy of Ancient Music in London.
Chuang's mastery of the most challenging solo and chamber music repertoire is complemented by her passionate commitment to contemporary music. She has premiered numerous works by international prize winners Thomas Oboe Lee, Alexander Müllenbach, Stanley Walden, MacArthur and Pulitzer Prize winner John Harbison and Pulitzer Prize winner Yehudi Wyner. She has presented contemporary music at many important venues, including in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, at the Ruhr Piano Festival, in New York, Boston, Salzburg, at Yale University; and she performed contemporary works as a soloist with orchestra for the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University. This summer she will teach and perform contemporary music at the Fontainebleau Schools in France
Ya-Fei Chuang has recorded for ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Le Palais des Dégustateurs, Naxos, and New York Philomusica Records. The Klavierfestival-Ruhr has released a number of her live recordings, including a solo recital distributed as a premium by Fono Forum Magazine in Germany. Her recording of Hindemith chamber works was awarded a special prize by the International Record Review.
Ya-Fei Chuang is visiting professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and has taught a piano performance seminar for nearly two decades at the New England Conservatory CE. She is a sought-after teacher of master classes throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Since 2008 she has given an annual two-week master class at the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She has served on the juries of international piano competitions, most recently at the Grieg Competition in Norway and the Beethoven Competition in Vienna.