User:Petehartley/Yuanfan Yang

Yuanfan Yang (born 2nd January 1997) is an English pianist and composer of Chinese decent. Yang was born into a non-musical family in Edinburgh, which soon moved to Leeds. Yang started to play the piano when he was six, when he would play well-known nursery rhymes at the Piano by ear at parties to recieve chocolate. His parents soon recognised his talent, and he passed Grade 8 with distinction at the age of eight. Yang also passed DipABRSM when he was ten in 2007. He currently studies at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester with Mr Murray Mclachlan. He won first prize at the Manchester International Piano Concerto Competition (Aug 2009), first prize at Chetham’s Yamaha Piano Competition (May 2009) and first prize at the Ryszard Bakst Memorial Award (March 2009). He was a piano category finalist of BBC Young Musicians in 2010. In October 2008, he played at the BBC Radio 3 Pianothon at the Bridgewater Hall and his performance was recorded and played on Radio 3’s popular Performance on Three show. His performance with his own piece Fantasy in G was shown under the title of “Yuanfan the Piano Man” on BBC Two.