October 02, 2006 -

ADDITIONAL DATES FOR SERIES ANNOUNCED

Ottawa, Canada -- The brilliant young Chinese pianist Yuja Wang will make her long-awaited “debut” on the opening concert of the 2006-07 Aber Diamond Debut Series presented by the National Arts Centre and CBC Radio Two on Friday, October 6 at noon in the Foyer of the NAC. The hour-long solo piano recital of music including Scarlatti, Haydn, and Chopin is hosted by Eric Friesen and will be broadcast on his Radio Two programme Studio Sparks. (Aber Diamond is pronounced “Abber” Diamond).

Admission to the recital is $4.00 with all proceeds going to the NAC Orchestra Bursary Trust Fund and the CBC Music in Schools Award. Additional donations are greatly appreciated.

Yuja Wang was supposed to make her debut on this series in 2005, but a blizzard forced a last-minute cancellation. However she had already made an unexpected NAC debut earlier the same month stepping in as a last-minute replacement for an ailing Radu Lupu, dazzling all those in attendance at those National Arts Centre Orchestra concerts.

Yuja Wang will perform Scarlatti’s Sonata in D major and Sonata in D minor; Haydn’s Sonata in C major; Chopin’s Waltz in C-sharp minor and Polonaise Fantasy in A-flat major; and Rachmaninov’s arrangement of Franz Behr’s Polka de W.R., de Lachtäubschen.

Born in Beijing in 1987, Yuja Wang began studying music in China and her early public performances took place in China, Australia, and Germany, where she was frequent competition prizewinner. Her Canadian connection began in 1999 when she was a student of the Morningside Music Bridge program at Mount Royal College in Calgary, and winner of its concerto competition. For the past four years she has attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a student of Gary Graffman, and was a recipient of the prestigious 2006 Gilmore Young Artist Award. Wang will make many important debuts in the 2006-07 season including with the New York Philharmonic, the Houston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Japan. She will tour to the Netherlands for the first time with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Yuri Temirkanov conducting, and will return to China performing with both the China Philharmonic in Beijing and the Guangzhou Symphony. This fall, she makes her first recital tour of Germany.

Yuja Wang will also perform as soloist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra led by Pinchas Zukerman earlier in the same week on October 4 and 5.

The Aber Diamond Debut Series showcases talented young musicians from Canada and around the world. The recitals take place in the Foyer of the NAC at noon, and each will be broadcast across Canada on Eric Friesen’s afternoon programme Studio Sparks on CBC Radio Two. Radio listeners can hear the full three hours of Studio Sparks from noon to 15:00 with the recital in the middle hour at 13:00.

The full 2006-2007 Aber Diamond Debut Series is as follows:

Friday, October 6
Yuja Wang, piano

Friday, January 12
Daniel Khalikov, violin (Uzbekistan; member of NAC Young Artists Programme from 2001 to 2005); piano, TBA

Friday, March 16
Sean Rice, clarinet (St. John, Newfoundland; member of NAC Young Artists Programme in 2005 and 2006); Teng Li, viola (Beijing; principal viola of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra); pianist, TBA

Thursday, April 5
Sara Hahn, flute (Winnipeg); Arnold Choi, cello (Calgary; former student of The Conservatory at Mount Royal College Conservatory); piano, TBA

Friday, May 4
Andrée-Anne Perras-Fortin, piano (Quebec City, member of NAC Young Artists Programme in 2004 and 2005) This concert will be part of the Quebec Scene.

The date and artist of the sixth and final concert of the Aber Diamond Debut Series remain to be confirmed.

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For more information please contact:
Jane Morris, Communications Officer,
National Arts Centre Orchestra
(613) 947-7000, ext. 335
jmorris@nac-cna.ca

Jill LaForty, CBC Radio National Music Producer
(613) 288-6461
jill_laforty@cbc.ca