As one of the most promising talents of her generation of young American pianists, Taiwanese-born Regina Yeh has delighted audiences with her performances throughout the United States and abroad, including France, the UK, Slovak Republic, and on tour in her native Taiwan. She has performed at major venues throughout the United States, including Benaroya Hall in Seattle and New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall. Highlights of her performances also include solo appearances at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, which was broadcasted on WFMT radio and channel 25 television, and with the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jersey Semkov. Her performances have also appeared on KING radio in Seattle and televised in the Slovak Republic and on North American Chinese Television. In the 2007-2008 season, amongst concerts and masterclasses throughout the Northwest and across the US, Ms. Yeh will be making her Weill Hall Carnegie Hall Debut as a winner of the Special Presentation Series of Artist International Auditions performing a program representative of her diverse personal heritage, with works ranging from composers such as Schumann and Chopin, to Chinese Folk Tune transcriptions, to works by Taiwanese composer Ma Shui-Long and Chinese American composer, Zhou Long. Immediately after, she will also make her Seoul, Korea debut as featured concerto soloist with the Korea Mozart Orchestra.
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 and workshops for youth and a scholarship competition in 2008-2009.
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 worked privately with 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 has taught masterclasses at colleges and universities across the United States. She has also taught at the Manhattan School of Music and the Brearley School in New York City. She is presently on the keyboard faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle since 2001, where she is frequently featured as a soloist and chamber musician. In demand as an adjudicator, Ms. Yeh has served as a jury member for numerous competitions throughout the United States. She is the current 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.
Dr. Yeh has been recently named the Head of Piano Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.
Read Article on Regina Yeh from International Piano Magazine, July, 2007
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