Yuanfan Yang: Review of the Year 2023

2023 promised to be an extremely busy year for Yuanfan, and it certainly did not disappoint, with nearly 50 concerts which included several important debuts, and quite a number of competition wins. It has been truly exciting and fulfilling...

In February 2023, Yuanfan was awarded 2nd Prize at the First Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition, in Slovenia. As part of this competition, Yuanfan performed two solo recitals, and culminated with a performance of Rachamninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra at the Cankar Centre, conducted by Ricardo Castro. Yuanfan was also awarded the most number of special prizes: for Best Classical Sonata, Best Romantic Work and Best Performance of Works by Chopin, the later of which came with a beautiful autograph of a rarely-performed Chopin Mazurka.

In June 2023, Yuanfan was awarded 1st Prize in the UK Piano Open International Piano Competition, held at the Menuhin Hall at the world-renowned Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey.

In July 2023, Yuanfan was awarded 4th Prize in the Sydney International Piano Competition, becoming the first British pianist to win any award at this competition since Martin Roscoe and David Owen Norris in 1981. After performing three solo recitals and a violin and piano sonata with Sydney Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Andrew Haveron, the competition culminated with Yuanfan making his concerto debut at the glorious Sydney Opera House, performing two concertos with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1.

Perhaps the most unusual and memorable part of the competition was when Yuanfan offered an entirely improvised encore for his semifinal solo recital, requesting the audience to suggest any theme and any style(s) for him to improvise on. With a knowledgeable audience present (as expected for a competition of this calibre), and where absolutely anything could have happened, some members shouted at 'Rach 3' in the styles of 'Baroque' and 'Prokofiev'. Yuanfan was somewhat unperturbed and gleeful by this imaginative suggestion, and the result was the following:

In terms of concerts this year, Yuanfan performed extensively across Britain for many high profile music societies and clubs, and throughout Italy and Poland in some truly glorious theatres. Yuanfan devised an inventively thematic solo programme that was performed in the latter part of the year, and featured a wide-array of piano pieces devoted to water, featuring music by Chopin, Debussy, Faure, Liszt as well as himself.

A highlight of his composition life this year was the world premiere in June 2023 of his 'Sonata Duo de Charme' for Violin and Cello - a 15 minute sonata commissioned and premiered by the New Classic Duo, consisting of Julia Smirnova and Konstantin Manaev, at the Kuhlhaus Berlin. They have subsequently taken this work on tour with them throughout numerous venues in Germany, and will continue to perform it next year. Further details can be found here.

In September 2023, Yuanfan started on the International Artist Diploma Course at the Royal Northern College of Music, a highly coveted and prestigious course with a maximum of four people across the entire conservatoire.

And perhaps the icing on the cake, in December 2023, Yuanfan signed to the Italian agency Calma Management for General Management, joining a roster of world-famous artists including Sa Chen, Igudesman & Joo and Eliso Virsaladze.

2024 already plans to be another exciting year with a number of auspicious debuts, including concertos appearances with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, a mini-tour in Italy with the Orchestra dell’Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese performing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat, Op. 73 'The Emperor' as well as solo concerts in Dorset and Manchester.

We hope to see you at a concert near you, and in the meantime, wish you the very best for a Happy New Year 2024!