Star-Crazy
An unassuming Curtis grad seems poised for success.
Take it to the bank: The latest Curtis Institute of Music phenom with a sensational career at hand is pianist Yuja Wang. The Gary Graffman student graduated last year, but is still at Curtis to study chamber music performance and singer accompaniment. When I chatted with her earlier in the year, the 20-year-old Beijing native had no prospects for local performances besides the possibility of student chamber music at Curtis. "It's very weird. I haven't played much in Philly. My friends tell me I have to leave the city to get asked to play here."
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She is planning to head to New York next year, but impromptu circumstance has led to two opportunities for local music lovers to experience her amazing music-making. Murray Perahia, another Curtis alum, was to have led the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields here, from the piano, but is recovering from a skin ailment and had to cancel. None other than Sir Neville Marriner, legendary founder of the ensemble, will fill in (Wed., April 9, Kimmel Center), and Wang will play the magnificent Piano Concerto No. 24 of Mozart. She will also participate in a memorial concert for Richard Doran (Tue., April 8, Church of the Holy Trinity), the civic leader and patron of music who mentored many young talents, including Wang and another young Chinese pianist, Lang Lang, who will also perform at the benefit. Wang will play music of Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn and Gluck.
The music she has selected for the Doran concert will showcase many of her extraordinary talents. For starters, these pieces include piles of notes — Wang seems to drink them in and spit them out as naturally as most people breathe. She is petite but completely subsumes the piano, as a mouse would tame a lion. There is no apparent technical limit to what her fingers can produce. Far more importantly, she is clearly imbued with the touch of a poet. When she played Liszt transcriptions of Schubert songs at a Kimmel Center tribute to Graffman, the music danced and shimmered with a grace and fluidity that defied the percussive nature of the piano. In our conversations, she exhibited a giddy enthusiasm for continuing to discover and learn (she will première Jennifer Higdon's first piano concerto next season).
The sky is the limit for Yuja Wang. Catch this shooting star while you can.
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