Charles yang violinist biography

Recipient of the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award and described by the Boston Globe as one who "plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star", Juilliard graduate Charles Yang began his violin studies with his mother in Austin, Texas, and has since studied with world-renowned pedagogues Kurt Sassmanshaus, Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis and Glenn Dicterow. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in concert in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Russia, China, and Taiwan, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. On June 9th of 2005, the Mayor of Austin presented Mr. Yang with his own "Charles Yang Day".  In 2016 Mr. Yang joined the crossover string-band, Time for Three.

Not only confined to classical violin, Mr. Yang's improvisational crossover abilities as a violinist, electric violinist, and vocalist have led him to featured performances with a variety of artists in such festivals as The Aspen Music Festival, The Schleswig- Holstein Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival, The Crested Butte Music Festival, The Cayman Arts Festival, The YouTube Music Awards, The Moab Music Festival, TED, Caramoor, The EG Conference, Google Zeitgeist, Interlochen, and onstage at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, David H. Koch Theater, Dizzy’s and David Rubinstein Atrium; The Long Center, Rudolfinum, The Royal Danish Theatre, Le Poisson Rouge, Highline Ballroom, Ars Nova, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Forbidden City in Beijing among many others. He has performed in the presence of two former US Presidents, the Queen of Denmark and has shared the stage in collaborations with artists including Peter Dugan, CDZA, Steve Miller, Jesse Colin Young, Jake Shimabukuro, Ray Benson, Michael Gordon, Marcelo Gomes, Savion Glover, Twyla Tharp, Misty Copeland, and Jon Batiste. Mr. Yang recently made his solo debut with Marin Alsop and The Chicago Symphony at The Ravinia Festival. His career has be

American violinist, composer and singer

Charles Yang (born 1988) is an American violinist, composer and singer, who currently performs with the classically trained string trio Time for Three.

Born in Austin, Yang began his violin studies with his mother at the age of three and later went on to study with Kurt Sassmannshaus, Paul Kantor, and Brian Lewis. He received his bachelor of music and master of music degrees at The Juilliard School under Glenn Dicterow. Yang's improvisational crossover abilities as a violinist, electric violinist, and vocalist have led to performances across the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Forbidden City in Beijing and has collaborated with artists including Peter Dugan, CDZA,Marcelo Gomes,Jake Shimabukuro, and Jesse Colin Young. In 2013, Twyla Tharp selected Yang to be the violin soloist for the revival of her work "Bach Partita" with the American Ballet Theatre. In 2016, Yang joined Time for Three, where he combines classical violin, improvisation, and vocals.

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CY: I used to always think it was tough growing up with my mother as my violin teacher. She gave me a violin at the age of 3 and I was actively going to her concerts not long after that. In fact, I was born the day after one of her shows and she remembers me kicking during the Bruch Violin Concerto when I was still in her belly. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have music in my life, and I definitely took that for granted as a child. Looking back now, I am so grateful for all the hours she put in teaching me how to play and all the concerts I got to attend. At the time it just felt like the norm, but now I see how lucky I am to have gotten so much attention towards my musical upbringing.  

MSO: What is it like crossing over the different genres of music that you’ve performed in? Is it challenging switching back and forth?

CY: Learning a new genre in music is like learning a new dialect or language. For me, I have always been curious about learning new “dialects” and how I could tie that into my own voice. Having been exposed to so many great blues, country and rock artists in Austin, Texas (where I grew up), I became fluent in a lot of those genres because I was constantly thrown into situations where I had to collaborate with them. But just like any language, it took trial after trial before I actually was fluent. Because I’ve been lucky enough to play with so many great artists from different genres, I’ve collected so many “tools” to put in my musical “toolbox”. Just like within classical music, learning how to play Bach is stylistically very different from learning how to play Bartok, so with this in mind, I don’t find playing the blues to be that far off from playing the vast canon of “classical music”. Sure, the brain works in a different way when improvising, but just like in anything, it can be trained to feel natural.