Violist David Yang will be presenting a masterclass for the Department of Music's students on April 11, 2016 at 6pm in The Music Box (PAHB 151).
Recipient of an artist fellowship from the Independence Foundation awarded to a small number of exceptional artists in the region, violist David Yang has been described as "lithe and expressive" in the Strad Magazine and called “a conduit for music;” the all-around renaissance man has forged a career that is a unique blend of performing, composition, coaching, and storytelling. David has been heard in collaboration with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Cassatt, Lark, Miro, Pro Arte and Tokyo String Quartets and Apple Hill Chamber Players, Trio Solisti, and Cavatina and Eroica Piano Trios. Concert highlights include concertos in Canada and Great Britain along with recitals in Italy, the UK and throughout the USA. As an active advocate of new music he has premiered dozens of works. Currently Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Pennsylvania, in his role as leader of the storytelling music troupe Auricolae, he developed a residency program to foster the creation of new compositions by public school students in Philadelphia. He is a member of string trio Ensemble Epomeo based in the United Kingdom. Their premiere recording, "The Complete String Trios of Hans Gal and Hans Krasa," was designated “critic’s choice” in Grammophone Magazine ("A splendid disc I cannot get enough of"). Their second CD of the music of Schnittke, Penderecki, and Kurtag was released in Fall 2014 ("...remarkable intensity and elegant assurance throughout... bristles with detail -- there are finely balanced chords moving from glowing diatonicism to harsh dissonance, and carefully shaped melodies with beautifully expressive vibrato -- yet they never lose sight of the work's broader architecture, nor of its poignant, increasingly bleak mood" -- The Strad Magazine). The release of their third recording, Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht, received universal acclaim ("an impressive recording that exposes many details of the score that usually remain obscure" --Gavin Dixon).
