Clara Yang

Cello Teacher

Clara Yang

Contact

Chapel Hill, NC
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Cellist Clara Yang has appeared in numerous solo, chamber music, and orchestral performances at major venues and festivals across the United States and internationally.

Dr. Yang began her cello studies at age 10, and made her concerto debut at age 12 with the Dong-A University Orchestra in South Korea under the baton of her grandfather Jong-Gu Bae. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Concord Orchestra, and the Brockton Symphony, among others. She gave her New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2008 and has given other performances in venues such as Lincoln Center’s Avery Fischer Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall, Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium, and the United Nations’ General Assembly Hall.  

As a dedicated teacher, Dr. Yang became a certified Suzuki cello teacher in 2005, and since then she served as a cello faculty at a number of music schools. Her past positions include cello faculty at the Colburn School’s Community School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, the Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Center, the Preparatory Center for Music at Brooklyn College, the Mozart Academy at John Jay College, and the Preparatory Studies in Music at Queens College in New York, as well as Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School and Providence College in Rhode Island. While at Providence College, she taught ear training and served as an interim director of the Providence College Orchestra in addition to teaching cello. Dr. Yang’s former students have won top prizes at numerous competitions such as Enkor International Music Competition, CalASTA String Competition, Great Composers Competition, Los Angeles Violoncello Society Competition, Satori String Competition, and have been accepted to top institutions such as The Juilliard School, Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music.

Chamber music has been an essential part of Dr. Yang’s career. She is the cellist and a founding member of the Ardelia Trio, with which she presents numerous educational concerts and performances for diverse audiences. The trio has appeared in venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kosciusko Foundation, the POSCO Center Art Hall in South Korea, and the Bar Harbor Music Festival, among others. In 2010, the trio was selected for the highly coveted opportunity to present a workshop at the 53rd Annual National Conference of the College Music Society. Dr. Yang is also a past participant of numerous chamber music festivals such as the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Yellow Barn Summer Festival, and the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. In 2007, Dr. Yang was invited by the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation to perform chamber music as part of a cultural exchange program on a tour of Central America. These concerts were also nationally broadcasted in Panama, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.

As a strong proponent and practitioner of community music, Dr. Yang performed and interacted with the residents of hospitals, hospices, and similar institutions in the New York metropolitan area through Juilliard’s Gluck Community Service Fellowship Program. In 2014-2016, Dr. Yang worked as a fellow at Community MusicWorks, a nationally acclaimed non-profit music organization that serves the youths in Providence’s urban neighborhoods. In 2012, Dr. Yang collaborated with the Watercolor Art Society in Houston and directed series of workshops and performances at the Texas Children’s Cancer Centers. In 2010, her piano trio was awarded a prestigious grant to partner with the Mécénat Arts organization, and established a community concert residency in Seoul, Korea. The Ardelia Trio was featured on EBS (Korea’s educational TV channel) with interviews and coverage of the June 2010 concert series. Having witnessed firsthand the positive influence music can have on individuals and their community, she believes that such form of teaching and outreach are an integral part of music education.

Dr. Yang earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Joel Krosnick. While at Juilliard, she was a recipient of the Victor Herbert Prize, the Leonard Rose Scholarship, and the Grunin Prize in Cello. After completing her education at Juilliard, she continued her cello studies with Timothy Eddy at the Mannes College for Music, where she received her Professional Studies Diploma. In 2014, Dr. Yang received her doctorate degree in Cello Performance at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under the guidance of Norman Fischer.  While at Rice University, she was the first doctoral cello candidate selected to design and teach Music Fundamentals course to undergraduates.