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Susan Yang, piano
Praised as a "magnificent pianist” who "offers compelling insight" (Fanfare Magazine), Chinese American pianist Susan Yang maintains a multi-faceted career as a performer, pedagogue, and advocate for diversity in the arts. A recipient of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award, she has captured top prizes at many competitions such as the National Federation of Music Clubs, International Keyboard Odyssiad,Naftzger Young Artist, and the New York Competition and Festival, among others.Yanghas appearedthroughout the US and Europe as a recitalist andchamber musician, as well as a concerto soloist with orchestras such as the Nashville, Ann Arbor, and Delta Symphonies. A champion of historically excluded composers, Yang has an affinity for curatingprograms that feature the music of women and BIPOC composers. Equally at home with the traditional canon, she released the album DOORWAYS: Half-Remembered Music on Blue Griffin Records, which features miniature pairings that explore the subtle connections of music across four centuries.
Yang is currently Assistant Professor of the Practice in Piano at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music.A dedicated pedagogue, she was named the 2022 Teacher of the Year by both the Nashville Area and Tennessee Music Teachers Associations. She frequently lectures and adjudicates across the US, and her presentations have been featured at various institutions andorganizations, such as the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogyand the state and national conferences of Music Teachers National Association. Outside of her regular teaching, she has served on the artist faculty at severalsummer programs, including the InterHarmony International Music Festival in AcquiTerme, Italy, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro Piano Festival, and the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan.
A proponent for engaging with the community and addressing social issues through music, Yang dedicates her time to two nonprofit organizations: the Nashville Chamber Music Society and A Seat at the Piano, the latter of which she also co-founded and aims to broaden public knowledge of marginalized composers. Yang oftenpresents on topics such as incorporating social justice into the piano studio and revamping the teaching repertoire with undervalued works.Other outreach projects she has initiated in the past include an all-studentconcertcelebrating women’s suffrage and teaching free lessons to low-income students.
Yang holds degrees from the University of Michigan, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Vanderbilt University. Her primary teachers include Logan Skelton, Elisabeth Pridonoff, and Amy Dorfman. Additional studies with Helen Gleason and Jerome Reed.