About Piano Cleveland

Yuanfan Yang

February 05th 2024

Born in Edinburgh, UK, Yuanfan Yang is a First Class Graduate of the Royal Academy of Music (BMus) and the Royal College of Music (MPerf) in London. He is now pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Yuanfan is the First Prize and Audience Prize Winner of the Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy (2022), and the UK Open International Piano Competition (2023).

Yuanfan also won Second Prize in the Hong Kong International Piano Competition (2022) where Yuanfan made his concerto debut with Marin Alsop. He also won Second Prize, plus three special prizes for Best Classical Sonata, Romantic Work, and Chopin at the First Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition in Slovenia (2023). Earlier achievements include First Prize in the Roma International Piano Competition (2018).

Yuanfan has performed throughout the world with leading orchestras including Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Romanian Radio National Symphony Orchestra, the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Cleveland, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Manchester Camerata.

Yuanfan is also a versatile composer and improviser. His “Piano Concerto No. 3 in Five Movements” and solo piano piece “Petite Partita” won First Prize and Gold Medal at the Rachmaninoff International Music Competition in the composition category (2022). October 2022 saw a concert at St John’s Smith Square in London devoted entirely to his own music, featuring the Berlin Metropolitan Orchestra, and including the world premiere of movements from his new “Piano Concerto No. 4,” some solo piano music and songs.

Yuanfan’s solo debut album Watercolour was released on Orchid Classics to critical acclaim, including a four-star review from International Piano Magazine.


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