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Micah Yui, piano
Described by the Los Angeles Times as playing with "blazing enthusiasm, power, and technical assurance,” Canadian pianist, Micah Yui, has had a versatile performance career.
Yui made her solo recital at the age of ten and orchestral debut at the age of thirteen in Canada. She has given solo recitals around the world, including venues in Zurich, Tokyo, New York, Toronto and Copenhagen. Yui has given radio performances on CBC, NHK, and WQXR and orchestral performances with the Syracuse, Edmonton, Victoria, Montreal Metropolitan, Asheville, and Baltimore Chamber orchestras. As a chamber musician, Yui has performed with many of the preeminent performing artists in the country. She is the recipient of three Canada Council grants, two Ontario Arts Council grants, the Alberta Achievement Award and the Edmonton Civic Award. Her recording with the London Symphony of Ernest Bloch’s concerto symphonique and scherzo fantasque won “Record of the Year” from Stereophile Magazine.
Yui is passionate about impacting the lives of young people of all ages and levels through music. She has been on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Peabody Institute, Music Institute of Chicago, and the Heifetz Institute. Her students have won numerous national and international competitions and have been accepted into prestigious music conservatories and schools of music around the country. Yui is currently on the piano faculty at the Colburn School in both the Academy and the Community School teaching studio piano and chamber music. Her students have continued to win prizes in numerous competitions and awards. At the Colburn School, she created the Piano Camp Intensive, a unique summer piano camp for young piano students ages nine to thirteen. She is also instrumental in developing the Colburn Summer Piano Seminar for advanced pianists where she is the co-director with pianist, Fabio Bidini. She is also on the faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival.
Born in Japan of Korean heritage, Yui immigrated to Canada at the age of eight. She is the graduate of the Juilliard School, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, University of Toronto, and the Peabody Conservatory. She has worked with many musicians who have impacted her playing and teaching. Her most influential teachers were Leon Fleisher, Bella Davidovich, Marietta Orlov, and her first teachers, Boris Zarankin and Inna Perkis. She has also worked extensively with Giovanni Valentini in Pesaro, Italy. She spent multiple summers at the Banff Arts Centre where she worked on solo and chamber repertoire with Menahem Pressler as well as with John Perry. Her love of lieder has led her to work with renowned lieder pianist, Graham Johnson.
Yui currently lives in Los Angeles.