Lend a hand, save the band! During Hurricane Helene, the Avery High School Band lost all its instruments. The NCBach Festival and Bach and Beyond are playing a kickoff fundraiser for the Band at Ruggero Piano on Dec. 7, 2024 at 7 PM to raise money to get them back on their
feet.
Masterclass
This masterclass will feature four piano students and works from Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Lyapunov.
Dr. Clara Yang Bio
Praised for her “breathtaking technical prowess” (Cultural Voice of North Carolina) and “probing emotional depth and daring individuality” (Peninsula Reviews), Chinese-American pianist Clara Yang has performed on some of the world’s leading stages, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York), the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), the National Auditorium of Music (Madrid), the Seymour Centre (Sydney), and Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre (Rochester). Featured on prestigious concert series such as Carolina Performing Arts and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, she connects with audiences by creating deep emotional experiences through her musical storytelling.
She has appeared as soloist under the baton of distinguished conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Long Yu (余隆), Carl St. Clair, Josep Caballé Domenech, George Jackson, Laura Jackson, Tõnu Kalam, Grant Llewellyn, and Jeff Tyzik, with renowned orchestras such as the European Union Youth Orchestra, Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Madrid, Pacific Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony.
Yang is equally at home in the classical canon, new music, and interdisciplinary work. Known for her bold artistic vision, she has collaborated across genres with luminaries including pianist Aaron Diehl, new media artist Xuan, rock guitarist Yvette Young, and hip-hop artist Suzi Analogue. In 2024, she was named an Artist-in-Residence at the renowned Baryshnikov Arts for her multimedia project Ex Machina, will be presented by Baryshnikov Arts as part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival. A champion of new music, she performed alongside Philip Glass, Timo Andres, and other distinguished artists in The Complete Philip Glass Piano Etudes concert produced by Pomegranate Arts. She also gave the world and U.S. premieres of Chen Yi’s Piano Concerto Four Spirits—written for her—with the China Philharmonic Orchestra (中国爱乐) at the Forbidden Concert Hall in Beijing and on Carolina Performing Arts.
Her recordings have received critical acclaim and international media coverage. Her solo album Folding Time (Albany Records) was awarded a Global Music Awards Gold Medal and named one of the Best of 2016 by American Record Guide. Her collaborative albums—Mother Tales (Navona Records), with violinist Sunmi Chang, and Grieg and Prokofiev (Albany Records), with cellist Helen Xiao-Dan Zheng Altenbach—have been praised by Strings Magazine, Pizzicato, and Fanfare. Her performances have been broadcast worldwide, and she has been profiled by major media outlets and publications in both the United States and China.
A committed educator and mentor, she has presented masterclasses, lectures, and coaching sessions at leading institutions and festivals across the globe, including the China Conservatory of Music, Central Conservatory of Music, Piano Academy in Gulangyu, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory’s Musical College, King’s College London, Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona, and the Southeastern Piano Festival. Her students have garnered top prizes in national and international competitions. She was a national reviewer for the renowned YoungArts organization and served on the Artistic Panel for New Music USA. Recipient of the prestigious Institute of Arts and Humanities Fellowship and the Schwab Academic Excellence Award at UNC-Chapel Hill, she currently serves as the Head of Keyboard Studies at the university.
Yang holds a DMA from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Nelita True; an MM and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, under Claude Frank; and a BM from the USC Thornton School of Music, where she studied with John Perry. Her precollege mentors include Hans Boepple, Zhou Guangren (周广仁), and Li Huili.
