Dazzling Pianist Returns To Perform Timeless Bernstein With NZSO

One of the world’s best pianists returns to perform a landmark work with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in September.

Joyce Yang; Giancarlo Guerrero

Joyce Yang, praised by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune, performs Leonard Bernstein’s captivating Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety in Wellington and Auckland.

Yang mesmerised New Zealanders when she made her NZSO debut in 2017.

“The ideal soloist” – New Zealand Herald

“Power and skill” – The Post

“Very exciting” – The Press

“Unbelievable virtuosity.” – Otago Daily Times

The Orchestra will be led by six-time Grammy Award winner Giancarlo Guerrero, making his NZSO debut after conducting the NZSO National Youth Orchestra this year.

Yang began playing piano at age 4 and won several national piano competitions in South Korea, before moving to the United States at age 11 to study at the prestigious Julliard School. By age 12 she was performing with symphony orchestras and by age 16 was profiled in The New York Times.

“I was completely overwhelmed when I first listened to it,” says Yang on Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety.

She came to fully appreciate the work by learning about the legendary composer and conductor’s obsession with WH Auden’s poem The Age of Anxiety, which inspired his musical interpretation.

“Bernstein really identified with the characters in the poem. He reflected himself in the piano parts and utilised the orchestra around him as the world he had to face. It’s orchestrated and planned extremely well, and it reflects Bernstein’s sincerity towards this poem and talking about what he thinks of himself. He puts his whole self into this piece. I hope this resonates with the audience that comes to hear it.”

Maestro, a much-anticipated feature film on Bernstein starring Bradley Cooper as the composer, premieres at the Venice Film Festival from 30 August.

The NZSO concert Bernstein & Copland Til Time Shall End, in association with Summerset Retirement Villages, also features fellow American composer Aaron Copland’s monumental Symphony No. 3.

Considered by many as “the Great American Symphony” for expressing the nation’s hopes, joys and anxieties at the end of the Second World War, Bernstein later declared that Copland’s Third Symphony had “become an American monument, like the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial.”

Bernstein & Copland Til Time Shall End opens with a special treat: New Zealand composer Eve de Castro-Robinson’s mesmerising Len Dances, inspired by pioneering New Zealand kinetic artist, sculptor and film-maker Len Lye.

Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.

Bernstein & Copland Til Time Shall End

in association with Summerset Retirement Villages

GIANCARLO GUERRERO Conductor

JOYCE YANG Piano

EVE DE CASTRO-ROBINSON Len Dances

BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety

COPLAND Symphony No. 3

TE WHANGANUI-A-TARA WELLINGTON | Michael Fowler Centre|Friday 1 September| 6.30pm

TĀMAKI MAKAURAU

AUCKLAND

| Town Hall|Saturday 2 September| 7.30pm

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