Mentor and Protégé | KQED Arts

When Michael Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, works with precocious young musicians, they generally show up with an entourage of parents, teachers, coaches and publicists. But not Yuja Wang. “What was so different about her, she simply appeared,” the conductor says of the first time he met and started working with the world renowned pianist, who was then just 17. “She said, ‘Hi. I’m here! What do we do?’”
The resulting years have led to a fruitful artistic collaboration between Tilson Thomas and Wang. The conductor, who’s long been a mentor as well as close friend of Wang’s, sees his role as a supportive one. “It's my responsibility to make the soloist comfortable because that will create a situation in which they can make the most brilliant and delightful contribution for the listeners,” Tilson Thomas says.
Besides being a one of the most in-demand soloists working in classical music today, Wang is a social media sensation who manages to appeal to young people who might not otherwise be drawn to classical music. She is also vivacious, attractive and known for her vibrant onstage outfits - including a dress decorated entirely with silver sequins which Wang says makes her look like a mermaid. She likes to wear it when playing Beethoven.
Once the pianist takes her seat at the keyboard though, it’s all about the music. As Wang puts it: “The music speaks, everything else goes away. The music itself speaks to the soul, it connects humanity.”
Some of the footage in the video comes from PBS Sound Tracks.
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[@cageynerd]

Let's be clear. She might wear skimpy clothing and she might be addicted to social media -- but this is the most important and greatest pianist to come out of her generation. One of the greatest pianists of all time. She single-handedly pushed the technical possibilities of the piano to new heights in the last decade. She is the most gifted pianist since Argerich.

[@jponz85]

Ooooooookay bro now you're going way off. Single handedly? Lmao wtf. Kissin, marc Andrew hamelin, volodos, Yundi Li, zimmerman are all there if not even better. Shes definitely better than Lang Lang that's for sure. Go watch other people play ffs she's ONE of the greats, most def not the greatest of our generation.

[@michaelschefold3299]

You are absolutely right! No other pianist has this range from Bach to Adams, from recitals to chamber music, playing all important piano concertos at her young age - some of them as a pianist/conductor. Artists like Claudio Abbado, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Gautier Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Andreas Ottensamer, Martin Grubinger....prefer her as an artistic partner. John Adams and Teddy Abrams wrote fantastic piano concertos especially for her.......

[@chickenflavor9880]

No.

[@cageynerd]

@@jponz85 Even Kissin and Argerich stated at Verbier that she is the greatest of her generation and one of the greatest of all time. You want to argue now?

[@jponz85]

@@cageynerd who gives a fuck what you THINK they said kid. Idgaf... she's ONE of the greats, THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME? Pass w.e tf drugs you're on dude

[@nemo227]

Refreshing, delightful, increases one's faith in the future. Yuja got a new fan today.

[@johntlew]

I’m so excited that she’s played with SF Symphony every year, I’m a new fan and just found out that she’s going to be here in San Francisco this coming January.

[@Virtualmuzyk]

She is my best piano performer in the world. For my 67 years I did not found so versatile piano player who like she is saying "when music starts she is in different world .

[@Transition333]

I would watch Yuja all day long.

[@harryboggon3438]

What can one say Yuja is just one fabulously talented beautiful young lady I for one love Her to bits 😘😘

[@khoslar1]

Amazing talent...so glad I found on KZbin!

[@germanbigdaddy]

If you sit at any piano together with Yuja, you're bound to learn a couple of things. Be glad for that.

[@artsylovelylady]

Such a storied pair and Yuja is so special

[@mr555harv]

She dresses like a rock star, and plays like a goddess - what more could you want.

[@eddund6932]

Tout est dit , Bravo!

[@t555ize]

She's amazing!!!

[@MedtNERD]

+Mark Robertson I think the piece, yuja plays first in this video, is the gershwin piano concerto.

[@q.taylor2921]

Yuja is beautiful...in so many ways.

[@alanwitton5039]

Absolutely wonderful!

[@daviddemers9093]

She is playing a recital soon at Tanglewood in Ozawa Hall. The program is so interesting, consisting of Shostakovich etudes AND the wonderful Barber piano sonata which Horowitz premiered all those years ago. Alas, there are no tickets in the hall - only lawn seats!

[@ronl7131]

Wonderful collaborators

[@germanbigdaddy]

The relation between a master and his disciple is something rarely understood.

[@Yadeehoo]

What do you think is rarely understood in this relation?

[@kendallevans4079]

And unfortunately often exploited.

[@deeb.9250]

I think they're co workers... The music director is just much older

[@jponz85]

Idc what anyone says, she's super fiiiiiine to me...

[@IamSuperEffective]

Schubert piece played at 0:35 is Rondo in D Major D. 608 Op. 138

[@johnsmith-mo1yc]

How I would love her play the full Beethoven concerto and hear what she "had to say"

[@ludibinoinprogress]

I L O V E Y O U YUJA WANG 😍

[@daskritterhaus5491]

some are . . . . soooooo . . . . . . GIFTED, there is ZERO pretention and 100% performance.

[@tornadodestruction8517]

Start of the video: George Gerwish Piano Concerto in F major. 2nd - Strauss' Polka - Yuja Wang.

[@DarthYannious]

Thanks! I never understood why these videos never provide any information regarding the music they use...

[@charleswahlert3353]

Is there a complete recording of Yuja playing Beethoven 4? My soul needs it.

[@raphinyo]

Noto cierta envidia en algunos comentarios con respecto a su apariencia. Sinceramente me parece genial que si tiene ese cuerpo espectacular se vista en plan discoteca para salir a tocar y dejar a todos admirados con su música. ¿por qué lo hace? Simplemente porque puede, son muchas las pianistas que tienden a disimular lo que no les gusta debajo de metros de tela.

[@Mikex0123]

I liked the album he did with John McGlaughlin called Apocalypse. What she played briefly at the end of the video sounded familiar. I can remember what it is.

[@zuhairbakdoud7863]

They should add piano technique to the olympics, she would the gold medal.

[@julia-hj8rb]

Yuya doesn’t need MTT as a mentor!

[@exploityourinsight4014]

The differences in both hands is proof of mentor and protégé.😂 See those veins!🙆‍♂️

[@Lumilumixo]

i love yuja :)

[@meggiel.512]

Lovely Yuja !

[@mauriciodealencar8496]

Yuja wanderful!

[@markrobertson2267]

What is the piece of music Yuja first plays in this video?

[@williamknight8410]

Mark Robertson George Gerwish Piano Concerto in F Major

[@cageynerd]

I personally think she should wear more Versace and Cavalli. I think these color-blocking numbers are too plain. I mean LVMH would make clothes for her if she wanted. Tons of brands right there...

[@alyssan1488]

I don’t understand why Herve Leger don’t see the sponsorship opportunity right there. Also Louboutin obviously.

[@cageynerd]

@@alyssan1488 She has a direct relationship with LVMH.

[@cageynerd]

@@alyssan1488 Ouuu, someone told me Versace doesn't travel well in luggage...

[@alyssan1488]

@@cageynerd her Rimowa luggage from her LVMH sponsorship gig 🤣 don't forget the Fendi sunglasses

[@ransomcoates546]

In this case the word should be ‘protégée’.

[@TheRabbitpaws]

My subtitles aren't working but I don't need captions to understand the language of LOVE. The mutual admiration and respect as well as sexual tension is truly felt between the older gentleman and the younger pianist. I hope that they don't let society dictate their age or race for LOVE knows NO boundaries. I hope they decide to mate and then have beautiful musical prodigies together.

[@thomasgill223]

Well, if he should decline, I might be talked into it.

[@wolfgangresch1650]

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️

[@abhaykhurana2871]

Does anyone one the name of the concert that begins at 3:12?

[@leqin]

You probably know this by now, but it is Beethovens Piano Concerto No 4 in G Op58 1st Movement Allegro moderato....... and yes it would be wonderful to hear Yuja play it all.

[@muhammadasshaamidayla4662]

What is the title that she plays at 2:40?

[@malouamelie]

C'est là que je regrette de n'être pas bilingue.

[@Desi365]

et moi je suis bilingue mais je regrette d'être incapable de jouer du piano.

[@malouamelie]

De plus en plus d'adulte s'y mettent. Lancez vous

[@Desi365]

Trop tard, trop tard, je manque du courage nécessaire, j'avoue. Mais j'ai ce don pour les langues et les mots qui me procure beaucoup de joie et de ravissement, sinon. Je peux vous poser une question ?? Amélie, je veux bien croire que ce soit votre prénom mais Malou, c'est quoi ?? Un surnom ?? Ou votre vrai état-civil, aussi ?? Si c'est le cas, c'est original et tout à fait ravissant, et rare. Pardon, je veux pas être intrusif mais il y a des détails, comme ça, qui piquent ma curiosité.

[@malouamelie]

Amélie est mon 2eme prénom. Mon 1er prénom est Marie-Line et mes parents m'ont toujours surnommé : Malou. C'est un surnom que j'ai entendu 2 ou 3 fois en Guadeloupe où je vis depuis 60 ans. Cependant depuis peu, des amis proches me surnomment spontanément : Marilou. 😊

[@lockjiang]

en fait, il n'y a rien de regretter. Je pense elle ne peut pas distiguer les differences entre le F major corde de Beethoven concerto et laquelle de Rachmaninoff. Toute ses touches son meme, soit Beethoven, Mozart, ou Schumann. Elle joue le touche sans differencier les epoque ou les histoires. Quelle honte.

[@joemug4079]

I follow Yuja regularly. I think the rarest thing she is.....is a gay woman who likes, inhabits, classical music. I would presume the only one in history.....

[@hsfpiano1989]

Is it ok to play with music??? No, YOU HAVE TO PLAY FROM MEMORY. But Look, YuJia is playing with music. Da, She is YuJia, and you are not...

[@jameshercals9651]

He looks like David Clark

[@pcmiffy07]

cute

[@deconcoder]

Schubert's 4 hand piano music is insanely great.. MTT looks like a cartoon with those ridiculous glasses on, and that hairdo that is too young for a 12 year old...

[@StephenJackson1958]

It's quite wrong to call Yuja Wang Michael Tilson-Thomas's "protege". As Tilson-Thomas admits here, "She simply appeared". She doesn't need a mentor, you see, not now. She just needs to be heard. Yet I am increasingly concerned about her choice of music, and the need to show off technique to a frankly (no; let's not say "ill-educated") uninitiated US audience. My heart sinks when I hear her churning out "Rhapsody in Blue" or some other meretricious, facile bilge for the hundredth time - yet another boogie-woogie finger-lickin' finger-snappin' skit on Mozart. Encores are fine and need to include some fun (what Thomas Beecham used to call "Lollipops") but the way this supremely gifted pianist is heading, encores will be all she ends up playing. In her European travels, too: Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto is fine for a flurry of scales but it is, ultimately, one of the most unrelentingly trivial pieces of the 19th Century. Good to see her tackle the "Hammerklavier"... please can somebody steer her back on the right path so that she leaves a legacy? She's too good for music's last refuge of the damned, Cross-over. Leave that to Andre Rieu and Richard Clayderman, Yuja: and give us instead something to remember you by. Is it too late to do a Murray Perahia and move to Europe? Tilson-Thomas speaks of content and his influence in this is what troubles me. And already, anyway, she has revealed a dozen times his limited talent. If she needed him once: due thanks, and now it is time to grow and move on.

[@piano1500]

Your comment is a contradiction. First you state she doesn't need a mentor. Then you ask for someone to steer her. So which is it? Either she's an independent artist, who just needs to heard as you say...or she needs to be mentored because she chooses to play music you don't approve of.

[@timothybolshaw]

Yuja's mentor was (and to some extent still is) Gary Grafman. However, it is fair to say that Michael Tilson-Thomas worked hard to promote Yuja, and is a large part of the reason why Yuja never had to subject herself to the piano competition circus to become established. Besides Gary Grafman, there were others who influenced Yuja musically, but I do not think Tilson-Thomas was one of them. For all his fame, and his recognition of real talent when he hears it, he is really not in the same league as Yuja. If you want Yuja to become less of an audience pleaser and a more "serious" artist, I predict that you are destined to be disappointed. Yuja sees it as of primary importance to delight audiences. I think that is the right attitude by the way. The audience's willingness to spend money to attend performances and buy recordings is what provides professional musicians the opportunity to pursue careers they generally love. Besides, I do not think a very wide repertoire, mixing heavier and lighter works is bad for an artist like Yuja. It stretches her, and insights can be drawn from all manner of well constructed works, and can positively influence approaches to the meatier works you prefer.

[@reallynotpc]

I agree with you. And she is still young. At her age she can expect to be performing for decades yet, and from what we have seen so far, she likes to grow musically. I look forward to seeing what she is doing in twenty years. I am confident it will be interesting and a joy to watch.

[@kristinethomas4806]

I agree with you, Mr Jackson, for the most part. Do yourself a favor and listen to her play Scriabin!

[@chenwu9867]

给自己留些不找借口的尊严吧

[@asterixe1]

I don't get her taste in dresses, clothing, and hairstyles. Just not my style. She's wearing some of her most conservative dresses in this video. I saw her in SF around 2008, and her dress was short but nothing special. She's gotten much crazier with the dresses over the years. I stood near her in the afterparty after the concert, and she was shorter than me even in tall heels. I think she's about 4'11". She's really independent and has been living by herself in North America since she was 14. It's true she's not a protege of Michael Tilson Thomas - she has her own unique playing style, even back then. She's a real character in the classical music world, which is still boring overall. I've come across some really good players who are little-known because they seem boring and don't wear interesting clothes. :)

[@q.taylor2921]

MoonInSky Soooo...what's your point? And regarding her 'style'...what's to 'get'?? You said it yourself...in the very next sentence, no less...'not my style'!?

[@SarahBertaglia]

Whatever Yuja Wang wants to wear, is fine with me. She's miraculous - the most musical, intelligent pianist alive. You don't like that, I suspect.

[@Smaug1]

The whole video was blah-blah-blah, then at the end, Beethoven starts and it cuts out. Booo.

[@99Grigor]

Why is she using music for Beethoven 4 IN CONCERT???? Wow, if I used music, I'd be laugh off the stage.Her opening theme did not grab me. I am sure her fleet fingers did the work justice though.

[@curaticac5391]

What about a swimsuit? Or a bikini; that would resolve all the wardrobe torments!

[@marthajane6617]

YAWN, two overrated musicians imo.

[@bloodgrss]

Yawn-you are never an overrated poster.....

[@mariodisarli1022]

GIDON KREMER Die Geigenlegende GIDON KREMER : ...die Tage der "verwegenen Burschen und wunderschönen Mädchen", die das Publikum verführen, sind gezählt. Sie werden schon bald abgelöst werden von ... ihresgleichen! Früher oder später wird auffallen, dass "der Kaiser ja nackt" ist! Ein in der Öffentlichkeit zum "Superstar" promovierter Künstler verleiht der vorgetragenen Musik keine zusätzlichen Feinheiten.Sein Name, dekliniert, konjugiert, geschätzt, verkauft, gefeiert, zu Lebzeiten lautstark bejubelt, wird ...in VERGESSENHEIT geraten. ...Welch großer Unterschied besteht doch zwischenden "Diener" der Musik und ihren "Benutzern"! So wie in der Kirche zwischen den wahren Hirten und den von der Religion schmarotzenden Kuttenträgern! ... Ah, übrigens : Kunstpreis für Martin Scorsese und Gidon Kremer Einer der wichtigsten Kunstpreise der Welt kommt aus Japan: Den Praemium Imperiale erhalten in diesem Jahr Hollywoodregisseur Martin Scorsese, Violinist Gidon Kremer und Fotografin Cindy Sherman.

[@bloodgrss]

And, for a troll who professes to be violently disturbed by her-you sure seem to spend a lot of time at her video's. A repressed sexual interest in her? ;-)

[@mariodisarli1022]

GIDON KREMER , Braumüller : ..."Schauen wir uns doch um: Wie und wem applaudiert die Menge? An erster Stelle stehen heute oft die "Stars". Das sind jene, denen es gelungen ist, ihr Talent zu "beweisen", Wettbewerbe zu gewinnen und in die Riege derer aufzusteigen, die von Managern und Musikproduzenten zu den vielversprechendsten und zukunftsträchtigsten "Hoffnungen" gezählt werden. Der Großteil derer, die an diesem Prozess beteiligt sind (inklusive der Talente selbst), denkt weniger an die (klassische oder moderne) Musik als an die Anerkennung, im Sinne einer gewissen "Berühmtheit", die für den Umsatz notwendig ist. Die Konzentration auf die "Quantität" (der verkauften Eintrittskarten, CDs und Tourneen) ist ein gnadenloser Prozess. Es überlebt der, dessen Lächeln am überzeugendsten wirkt. Er wird in der Folge auch das Objekt von Nachahmung und Vergötterung. Der Name des Pianisten Lang Lang (sein Pendant in Russland wäre wahrscheinlich Denis Mazujew) drängt sich hierbei förmlich auf. Die jugendliche Dynamik mulipliziert mit dem Talent, Wunderdinge auf der Klaviatur vollbringen zu können, ist das große Los. Wer kümmert sich in so einem Fall schon darum, WAS gespielt wird? Die Hauptsache ist, WER spielt! Die vom Erfolg beflügelten Talente beginnen auf der Suche nach "Sponsoren" mit den Reichen und Mächtigen zu flirten, mit Politikern, mit Oligarchen, mit ihresgleichen. ...Was das alles mit der Musik zu tun hat? Überhaupt NICHTS! Mehr noch, es breitet sich eine Art "Verschmutzung des Umfelds" und der Seele aus. Jene Obertöne, denen der Musiker verpflichtet (und bisweilen fähig) ist zu dienen, füllen nicht mehr den Raum. Übrig bleiben "leere Klänge". Und auch wenn nicht alle Verehrer des "Stars" diese Veränderung sofort bemerken, kommt sie doch wie ein Bumerang zurück und zerstört mit der Zeit die Begabung des Helden sowie seinen (einstigen) Ruhm.....Wer der Musik dient, wird ihr immer treu bleiben. Er wird sich keine anderen Götter erschaffen. Früher oder später wird auffallen, dass "der Kaiser ja nackt" ist! ..." Ah, übrigens : Kunstpreis für Martin Scorsese und Gidon Kremer!!! Einer der wichtigsten Kunstpreise der Welt kommt aus Japan: Den Praemium Imperiale erhalten in diesem Jahr Hollywoodregisseur Martin Scorsese, Violinist Gidon Kremer und Fotografin Cindy Sherman.

[@bloodgrss]

Now your copy and paste comments are just getting boring Georges/Mario....why not troll on another less quality and spectacular musician? Or just go back to your favorite porn sites to get yourself off... By the way-why the two names Mario/Georges? You fool no one with them actually being one in the same sickly reactionary and sexist bigot you are...

[@talento398]

muppets show

[@martinforrester8249]

Love her totally❤

[@titanicwreck2191]

2:44 what's that song called?

[@convergency1068]

Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, Op. 214

[@ragnar0209]

It's not a song