Carnegie Hall

Pianist Yuja Wang is celebrated for her charismatic artistry, emotional honesty, and captivating stage presence. She has performed with the world’s most venerated conductors, musicians, and ensembles, and is renowned not only for her virtuosity, but her spontaneous and lively performances, famously telling The New York Times “I firmly believe every program should have its own life and be a representation of how I feel at the moment.”

Her skill and charisma were recently demonstrated in a marathon Rachmaninoff performance at Carnegie Hall alongside conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra. This historic event celebrated 150 years since the birth of Rachmaninoff, including performances of all four of his concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in one afternoon. The 2022–2023 season also saw her perform the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the San Francisco Symphony, and further performances of the work across North America and Europe.

Yuja was born into a musical family in Beijing. After childhood piano studies in China, she received advanced training in Canada and at the Curtis Institute of Music under Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007, when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and recordings. She was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2021 received an Opus Klassik Award for her world-premiere recording of John Adams’s Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As a chamber musician, Yuja has developed long-lasting partnerships with several leading artists. This season, she embarks on a highly anticipated international duo recital tour with pianist Víkingur Ólafsson with performances in world-class venues across North America and Europe, which will once again showcase her flair, technical ability, and exceptional artistry in a wide-ranging program.

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has captured public and critical imagination to become one of the most sought-after artists today. His recordings have led to more than 1 billion streams and he has won numerous awards, including the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, BBC Music Magazine’s Album of the Year, and the Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year (twice). Other notable honors include the Rolf Schock Music Prize, Gramophone’s Artist of the Year, Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, the Order of the Falcon (Iceland’s order of chivalry), and the Icelandic Export Award given by the president of Iceland.

In a landmark move, Mr. Ólafsson devoted his entire 2023–2024 season to a world tour of a single work: J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, performing it 90 times to great critical acclaim. The 2024–2025 season sees him as artist-in-residence with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as artist-in-focus at the Vienna Musikverein. He tours to Europe with The Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, performs with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the BBC Proms, and returns to the New York Philharmonic. He also joins forces with Yuja Wang for a highly anticipated two-piano recital tour across Europe and North America. Last January, he gave the world premiere of John Adams’s After the Fall with the San Francisco Symphony, a piano concerto written especially for him. This spring, he performs his new piano recital—an exploration of Beethoven’s Op. 109—on multiple dates across the US and Europe.