Four Portraits

Richard Danielpour has been commissioned by many international artists, including soloists Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax, Gil Shaham, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Hampson, Anthony McGill, and Gary Graffman; the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets; and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. He has also received commissions from the New York City, Pacific Northwest, and Nashville ballets; the Philadelphia and Stuttgart Radio Symphony orchestras; the Mariinsky and Vienna chamber orchestras; the New York Philharmonic; Orchestre National de France; the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, among others.

Dr. Danielpour has received a Grammy Award, two Rockefeller Foundation grants, the Berlin Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin, two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Joseph H. Bearns Prize in Music from Columbia University.

Recent works include Carnival of the Ancients for piano and orchestra, String Quartet No. 8, and The Passion of Yeshua, a passion oratorio in Hebrew and English.

Dr. Danielpour has recorded for the Naxos and Sony Classical labels. His music is published by Lean Kat Music and Associated Music Publishers.

Dr. Danielpour served on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music from 1993 to 2017, and has served as professor of music at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA since 2017. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1997.

Praised by the Washington Post as a “jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show…with effortless finesse,” pianist Amy Yang balances an active career as soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. Among Ms. Yang’s numerous collaborators are Yefim Bronfman, Roberto Díaz, Miriam Fried, Richard Goode, Kim Kashkashian, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Anne-Marie McDermott, Tito Muñoz, and Joseph Silverstein; the St. Paul and Mahler chamber orchestras; Third Coast Percussion; A Far Cry; members of the Guarneri String Quartet; and the Dover, Jasper, and Aizuri string quartets. She has appeared as a soloist with the Houston, Tuscaloosa, and Mansfield symphony orchestras; the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata de la UNAM. Ms. Yang has also performed in solo and chamber recitals for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society—including a solo recital and collaborations with Jasper String Quartet in piano quintets by Tania Léon and Joan Tower for their 35th season. She was also featured in a full episode of Emmy® Award-winning producer Jim Cotter’s Articulate, which aired on PBS in 2021.

At the Curtis Institute of Music, she is the Associate Dean of Piano Studies and Artistic Initiatives. She previously held the roles of Program Director and piano faculty of Curtis Summerfest’s Young Artist Summer Program for nine summers. She will make her debut playing Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä at Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center in April 2023.

Ms. Yang has premiered music by Caroline Shaw, Avner Dorman, Michael Hersch, Ezra Laderman, and Hua Yang. She has appeared in such prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall; at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Aldeburgh, Bravo! Vail, Chelsea, Olympic, and Ojai music festivals; Verbier Academy; Cal Performances; Caramoor; IMS Prussia Cove; Music from Angel Fire; and Chamber Music Northwest, among others. Ms. Yang’s discography includes a debut solo album (MSR Classics); recordings with violinists Tessa Lark (First Hand Records) and Itamar Zorman (BIS Records) and clarinetist José Franch-Ballester (iTinerant Records); and a live recording of music by Michael Hersch, performed at the Aldebergh Festival (New Focus Records).

Ms. Yang is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Yale School of Music, and joined the Curtis faculty in 2011.