“Of all Ms. Yeh’s many virtues apparent,
including her interesting programming, her easy manner in speaking about the
music to her audience, and her obvious commitment to bridging East and West,
it was the passionate involvement in her playing that most struck this listener.
She tore into Schumann’s Sonata in G minor like a tigress, maintaining
intensity throughout…. Ms. Yeh’s fiery musicality is wonderful……
such communicative playing, meltingly beautiful.” – New York Concert
Review, Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall 2008
Taiwanese-born American pianist, Regina Yeh, has
delighted audiences with her dynamic performances throughout the United States
and abroad, including France, the UK, Slovak Republic, and on tour in her native
Taiwan. Amongst concerts and masterclasses throughout the Northwest and
across the US, Ms. Yeh made her Weill Hall Carnegie Hall Debut in 2008
to great critical acclaim. Immediately after, she also made her Seoul,
Korea debut with the Korea Mozart Orchestra where she was engaged the next year
again with the Guri Philharmonic in Seoul. She has been featured soloist
and in recital at major venues throughout the United States, including Benaroya
Hall in Seattle and New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall, at the Chicago Cultural
Center for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago and with the
Manhattan Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jersey Semkov. Her performances
have also appeared on KING radio in Seattle, WFMT radio and channel 25 television
in Chicago and televised in the Slovak Republic and on North American Chinese
Television.
Ms. Yeh has received numerous awards and accolades for her exceptional artistry
and compelling performances, She has earned recognition in many national
and international competitions, including the Newport International Piano Competition,
Chopin Foundation of the United States National Competition, the Olga Koussevitsky
Competition, the Virgina Waring International Piano Competition, the Bergen
Philharmonic Competition, the National Foundation for the Advancement in the
Arts Competition, the National Federation of Music Club’s Young Artist
Competition, and the Chinese-American Hennessey Cognac Music Competition.
She has won first prizes at the Pacific International Piano Competition, the
National Federation of Music Club’s Biennial Student Awards Competition,
and was the grand prize winner of the Allegro Music foundation/BAJ Classics
competitions in New York. She was also the recipient of scholarships from
the Chopin Foundation of the United States.
An active collaborative artist, Ms. Yeh has appeared at the Seattle Chamber
Music Festival, performed as a guest artist with the Adirondack Ensemble in
New York, and served as accompanist of the Harlem Boys’ Choir. Her
many chamber performances included unusual programming such as concerts featuring
music for piano six hands at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. An avid performer
and promoter of new music, Ms. Yeh is also the founder of the East-West
Piano Arts Series at the University of Washington, which highlights the
piano-related music of composers of Asian and Asian American descent and at
the same time, presents diverse, fusion-style programming with composers ranging
from Chen Yi and Wang Jian Zhong, to Faure and Chopin performed by artists from
both the Eastern and Western cultures, effectly building audiences and bridging
communities through music. The 2006-07 season included, among other notable
new works, the American Premiere of the new piano quintet, “La Foce”
by renowned Japanese American composer, Paul Chihara. In 2007-2008,
her interest in the EastWest fusion theme will be expanding into a new non-profit
and concert series in Seattle, sponsored by the National Association of Asian
American Professionals, Seattle, Collaborative Artists EastWest, for which she is the
artistic director. This series presents concerts of a wide variety of
musicians, workshops for youths, and scholarship competitions.
Ms. Yeh was accepted at age thirteen as a pupil of the renowned Hungarian
pianist and pedagogue, Bela Siki, with whom she eventually completed her Bachelor
of Music degree at the University of Washington, graduating with a Magna Cum
Laude distinction. She then attended the Manhattan School of Music in
New York City, where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2003.
Her teachers included the legendary pianist Byron Janis as well as the late
Constance Keene, and Dr. Marc Silvermann. She has also coached with late
Ruth Laredo, Jacques Lagarde of L’ecole Normale a Alfred Cortot de Paris
and Arnaldo Cohen at Indiana University. While at the prestigious Manhattan
School of Music, she was consistently recognized for her excellence as one of
its finest young pianists. She was the winner of the Graduation Concerto
Competition, a winner in the Chopin Competition, the Miezynsluw Munz Piano Competition,
and was awarded the Cohn award for excellence in chamber music.
A devoted Artist-Teacher, Ms. Yeh teaches masterclasses at colleges and universities
while maintaining a rigorous performing and teaching schedule across the United
States and abroad. She has also taught at the Manhattan School of Music
and the Brearley School in New York City and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.
In great demand as an adjudicator, Ms. Yeh is in demand as a jury member for
numerous competitions throughout the United States, including MTNA performance
competitions of New Jersey, Oregon and Washington. She was co-vice-president
for the Music Teachers’ National Association, Seattle Chapter, in which
position, she has brought in artists to SMTA programming of the highest international
and national stature. Her workshops for music teachers have met with great
reception and enthusiasm. Dr. Yeh served on the keyboard faculty at the
University of Washington School of Music until 2008, where she was frequently
featured as a soloist and chamber musician. Professor Yeh was then also
the Director of Piano Studies at Pacific Lutheran University.
Professor Yeh maintains a private piano studio in Seattle and welcomes inquiries
from student of all ages and levels.
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Yeh from
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