SEPF Competition juror

Clara Yang

Clara Yang

Concert Pianist; Head of Keyboard Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill


Praised by critics for her sensitivity, intelligence, and excitement in her playing, Chinese-American pianist Clara Yang has performed in notable venues such as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), Auditorio Nacional de Música (Madrid), the Seymour Centre (Sydney), Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater (Rochester), the Sunset Center (Carmel), Memorial Hall (Chapel Hill), Meymandi Concert Hall (Raleigh), and on major series such as Carolina Performing Arts and Dame Myra Hess in the Chicago Cultural Center. She is currently Associate Professor of Piano and Head of Keyboard Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

As a concerto soloist, she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Long Yu, Carl St. Clair, Josep Caballe Domenech, Grant Llewellyn, Tonu Kalam, Laura Jackson, Jeff Tyzik, and George Jackson, among others. In addition, she also frequently collaborates with living composers. She performed alongside Philip Glass in the Glass at 80 festival. She performed the world premiere of renowned composer Chen Yi’s piano concerto with the top orchestra in China, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. She also performed the US premiere of the concerto on the Carolina Performing Arts series. Dr. Yang served on the artistic panel for New Music USA.

Her solo album Folding Time (Albany Records) won a Global Music Awards Gold Medal, and it was selected as one of the Best of 2016 by American Record Guide. She has been interviewed by distinguished publications in China. Her performances were broadcast on major radio stations in the US and abroad. She studied with Nelita True at the Eastman School of Music (DMA), Claude Frank at the Yale School of Music (MM, Artist Diploma), and John Perry at USC Thornton School of Music (BM). Her principal teachers in her pre-college years include Hans Boepple, Guangren Zhou, and Huili Li.