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 Join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as we welcome pianist Clara Yang for the Winter installment of our 2025/26 David L. Abell Piano Master Series, a concert series which features renowned artists visiting UCLA to perform and work with our piano students.
About Clara Yang:
Praised for her “breathtaking technical prowess” (Cultural Voice of North Carolina) and “probing emotional depth and daring individuality” (Peninsula Reviews), Chinese-American pianist Clara Yang has performed on some of the world’s leading stages, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York), the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), and the National Auditorium of Music (Madrid). Featured on prestigious concert series such as Carolina Performing Arts and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, she connects with audiences by creating deep emotional experiences through her musical storytelling.
She has appeared as soloist under the baton of distinguished conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Long Yu, Carl St. Clair, Josep Caballé Domenech, George Jackson, Laura Jackson, Tõnu Kalam, Grant Llewellyn, and Jeff Tyzik, with renowned orchestras such as the European Union Youth Orchestra, Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Madrid, Pacific Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony.
Yang is equally at home in the classical canon, new music, and interdisciplinary work. Known for her bold artistic vision, she has collaborated across genres with luminaries including pianist Aaron Diehl, new media artist Xuan, rock guitarist Yvette Young, and hip-hop artist Suzi Analogue. In 2024, she was named an Artist-in-Residence at the renowned Baryshnikov Arts for her multimedia project Ex Machina. A champion of new music, she performed alongside Philip Glass, Timo Andres, and other distinguished artists in The Complete Philip Glass Piano Etudes concert produced by Pomegranate Arts. She also gave the world and U.S. premieres of Chen Yi’s Piano Concerto Four Spirits—written for her—with the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the Forbidden Concert Hall in Beijing and on Carolina Performing Arts.
Her recordings have received critical acclaim and international media coverage. Her solo album Folding Time (Albany Records) was awarded a Global Music Awards Gold Medal and named one of the Best of 2016 by American Record Guide. Her collaborative albums—Mother Tales (Navona Records), with violinist Sunmi Chang, and Grieg and Prokofiev (Albany Records), with cellist Helen Xiao-Dan Zheng Altenbach—have been praised by Strings Magazine, Pizzicato, and Fanfare. Her performances have been broadcast worldwide, and she has been profiled by major media outlets and publications in both the United States and China. She was a national reviewer for the renowned YoungArts organization and served on the Artistic Panel for New Music USA.
Yang currently serves as the Head of Keyboard Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a DMA from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Nelita True an Artist Diploma and MM from the Yale School of Music, under Claude Frank and a BM from the USC Thornton School of Music, where she studied with John Perry. Her precollege mentors include Hans Boepple, Zhou Guangren, and Li Huili.
This event is made possible thanks to a gift from Barbara Abell who established the David L. Abell Piano Masters Series in honor of her late husband. Pianos were a passion for David, the owner of David L. Abell’s Fine Pianos in Los Angeles, which became a hot-spot for musical legends such as Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Andre Previn, George Shearing, Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, and Benny Carter. We are proud to celebrate this program as part of the 2025-26 David L. Abell Piano Masters Series.
Presenter / Producer: UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
Listed Categories
Music > Classical
Music > Recitals - Instrumental
Event Phone: 310-825-4761
Venue
Lani Hall
445 Charles E Young Drive East
Schoenberg Music Building
Los Angeles CA 90095
Regions:
LA - Hollywood / Westside
Performance Dates: 2/12/2026
Performance Times
6:00 PM
Ticket Information( FREE EVENT! ):
Like most of UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s programs, this event is FREE! Early arrival is recommended. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis. No RSVP required.
Web Link for ticketing
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Event Information
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