Yau Young Artists Orchestra presents; Alexander conducts Mozart and Beethoven

Experience an afternoon of great classical music with the newly formed Yau Young Artists Orchestra, presenting a programme celebrating the timeless brilliance of Mozart and Beethoven. The idea behind this program is to prepare Beethoven's 200th anniversary of his death in 2027, by culminating in one Beethoven's idol's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We will begin the program with Mozart’s final piano concerto, his Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595, full of yearning and long melodies, I like to describe it as his 'swan song'. After that we spring into the youthful first Symphony of Beethoven in C minor Op. 21. His unusual musical talent for composition and structure, and most importantly his innate energy and fighting spirit personality is shown evidently in his early works. Led by eminent pianist and conductor Alexander Yau, the orchestra brings together talented young musicians, united by their passion for music making. Past performances About Alexander Yau Alexander Yau, an eminent young Australian pianist, has developed himself into a multifaceted musician incorporating his many musical talents as a chamber musician, conductor and composer. Pianist Balazs Szokolay describes "his artistic taste is good enough not to make any kind of "show" even in the most brilliant parts of great masterworks". His major concerto appearances as soloist include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no.3, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra with Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no. 1 and a major tour with the SBS Youth Orchestra in Australia, with Rachmaninov’s Concerto no. 2, various concertos performances with the Festival Orchestra Sinfonica “Duchi d’Acquaviva” and the Budweis Philharmonic Orchestra, finally the Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra with Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2. He has given solo and chamber music performances at the FOCUS Festival in Lincoln Centre NYC, Villa Reale and Teatre Commune di Atri in Italy, Troldhaugen (Grieg's home), Oslo Museum, Rexxam Hall in Takamatsu, as well as at the Australia International Canberra Music Festival, Polish Embassy of Australia, Phoenix Central Park and City Recital Hall in Sydney. In 2022 he released his first album in collaboration with clarinettist Deborah de Graff, featuring his own compositions and works by other Australian composers. He has been awarded numerous prizes such as 6th Prize at the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, 3rd Prize at the Teresa Carreno International Masters Piano Competition and special prizes at the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition. He was the winner of the Sydney Kawai Piano Scholarship, top prize winner of the Australian National Piano Award and the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition.He is currently an Associate Lecturer of Collaborative Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, a Casual Principal Pianist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and previously a music staff on contract at the Opera Australia. Previously he graduated his Masters of music from the renowned Juilliard School studying with prof. Matti Raekallio. He completed his Bachelor of Music piano performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, with first class Honours studying with Daniel Herscovitch and Elizabeth Powell. Other than the piano, Alexander is an emerging conductor. He studied conducting with Christopher Seamens and Jeffery Milarsky at the Juilliard School. He served as an assistant conductor for the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s Production of Madama Butterfly in 2023. He has assisted conductors such as Michelango Mazza, Carlo Montanaro, Brian Castles-Onion and Tahu Matheson and in Europe worked with Maestro George Pehlivanian and Norbert Baxa, on Puccini’s La Boheme and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. This year he has been invited to return to Czech Republic to work on Dvorak’s Symphonies 7, 8 and 9 with Norbert Baxa. On the side he has founded the Medtner Chamber Orchestra with his colleague Ching Pong Ng, and conducted Shostakovich Piano Concerto no. 1 and Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings in its inaugural concert. He has also served as a jury member for many Sydney Eisteddfod Piano Competitions and Sydney Catholic Schools. He is a highly sought after instrumental performance coach and regularly gives masterclasses for younger piano students. He studied composition with Dr. Trevor Pearce and was awarded the James Easton Memorial Award for composition. His work "Grand Passacaglia for Clarinet and piano" is performed and recorded by his clarinet teacher Deborah de Graaff and himself, notably in the Australian Sax and Woodwinds conference. In recent years he turned to focus on music arranging. He gave the Australian premiere his newly written virtuosic transcription of “Dance of the Seven Veils from Richard’s Strauss’ Salome” for solo piano at the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition, as one of the 3 Australian competitors.