David Yang (violist)

David Yang
David Yang
Born	David Yang; 1967; New York City
Nationality	American
Occupation	Musician
Known for	Playing the viola

For other uses, see David Yang.

David Yang is an American violist who was born in 1967 in New York City.

Biography[change | change source]

David Yang's main studies were with Martha Strongin Katz, Heidi Castleman, Karen Ritscher, and Stephen Wyrczynski. He is mainly known as a chamber musician and has worked with people who are part of groups such as the Tokyo String Quartet, Brentano String Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, Cassatt String Quartet, Miro String Quartet, Vermeer String Quartet, and Trio Solisti, Trio Cavatina, and Eroica Piano Trio. In 2009, he was awarded special status from from the Independence Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is awarded to a small amount of artists. David Yang is the person in charge of chamber music at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and is also the person in charge of art at the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival. He was one of the members of the string trio Ensemble Epomeo when it was founded. He has performed with Ensemble Epomeo all around Europe, Canada, and the USA. Because he advocates for new music, he has asked over twenty composers, such as Robert Capanna, Andrea Clearfield, Daniel Dorff, Cynthia Folio, Jeremy Gill, Gerald Levinson, David Ludwig, Robert Maggio, Jay Reise, Kile Smith, Dmitri Tymoczko, Anna Weesner, and Andrew Waggoner, to make pieces of music, and has performed the first performances of them. He is the person in charge of Auricolae, a group that tells stories and performs music. He composes music for Auricolae, and is on the list of members of Musicopia. He also holds a master's degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and worked in the studio of Aldo Rossi and for Hugh Hardy.

Yang plays a viola Johannes Tielka, a viola da gamba maker, made in 1670 and Joseph Joachim, who was a 19th-century violin virtuoso who was the best friend of Johannes Brahms. He records for the record labels New Focus, Somm, and Avie.

His father was John Yang, a notable landscape photographer. His mother is Linda Gureasko Yang, who was the garden columnist for the New York Times. His sister was Naomi Yang, who was the player of electric bass for Galaxie 500, which is a cult alternative band that started in 1987 and ended in 1991.