Piano prodigy Tony Siqi Yun brings poetic expression to the keys
The Toronto-born Juilliard student performs with Vancouver Recital Society
Tony Siqi Yun, age 20, has already performed at some of the world’s greatest recital halls. Photo via Opus 3 Artists
Vancouver Recital Society presents Tony Siqi Yun in concert at the Vancouver Playhouse on October 24 at 3 pm PDT.
SIBLING RIVALRY CAN lead to all kinds of unexpected situations. For musician Tony Siqi Yun, it proved life-changing.
The 20-year-old Toronto-born pianist is a rising international star, having won the gold medal at the inaugural China International Music Competition in 2019 and taking home US$150,000 plus representation by Opus 3 Artists and Wray Armstrong Music and Arts.
It all started before he had even started elementary school when his sister took up the violin.
“It’s kind of a funny story,” Yun tells Stir on the line from New York, where he now studies at Juilliard School as a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship. “My sister—she’s a lawyer now at the University of Toronto—used to play violin. She’s four years older than me and is the one who started music in our family. when I was four and she was eight, we would always fight over the violin. One day I decided to ask for a bigger instrument to compete with my sister.”
Eventually, his mom gave in, and, his family having moved to Beijing when he was five, in came an upright piano.
“I remember when I was young it was a lot of fun,” Yun says. “I’d take five minutes or 10 minutes every day just having fun. But I think my very first love of music was when I was seven or eight. My teacher organized this recital, and I felt really good onstage. That’s really the first moment I interacted with music. I loved it.”
Yun has gone on to perform everywhere from the Third Polish Culture Festival and the Heidelberger Frühling Music Festival to the Salle Cortot Concert Hall in Paris to New York’s Steinway Hall. He’ll make his West Coast debut when Vancouver Recital Society (VRS) presents Yun in concert at the Vancouver Playhouse on October 24.
Pianist Magazine has described Yun as a “true poet of the keyboard. Expressive, and with his own distinct voice, yet elegant and poised.”
Pianist Magazine has described Yun as a “true poet of the keyboard”.
Yun received most of his training in China. He spent three years at Dulwich College, a British-run international school in Beijing, where he earned the nickname “the Lang Lang of Dulwich”. In response to his prodigious talent, the school bought him a piano.
He toured with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in 2015 then again during the 2018-19 season, which included a performance in China Central Television’s New Year’s concert. n 2018, Yun collaborated with the Cleveland Orchestra at the final round of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition and won first prize and the audience award.
When he competed in the First China International Much Competition, he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who has since invited him to perform across North America.
His upcoming debuts include Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, the Luxembourg Philharmonie, and Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, among others.
“The opportunity to share music with people in the audience is the best feeling in the world,” Yun says. “Being able to be in the same space enjoying the same music, reacting to my audience and having the audience reacting to me—especially after this pandemic—is the most wonderful feeling in the world. That’s the thing that motivates me most.
“If I didn’t have the piano, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the pandemic,” says Yun, who plays a Steinway grand piano. “When you’re alone with the piano, it gives you a lot of reassurance.”
When Yun appears with VRS, he will perform six pieces he selected himself. The concert includes works by Bach/Busoni, Beethoven, Bellini/Liszt, Wagner/Liszt, and Stravinsky/Agosti.
“This is a very personal program,” Yun says. “It lived with me during the pandemic. It’s a very special program.”
He’ll start with Bach’s Chaconne in D minor, a partita for violin arranged for keys by Busoni. “It’s a long piece to start a concert, which can be risky, but it’s really worth that risk,” Yun says. “It’s a very touching piece I would say.”
Among the other pieces on the program are Beethoven’s Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 “Pastorale” and Bellini/Liszt’s Réminiscences de Norma S. 394. Then there’s Firebird Suite (Danse infernale – Berceuse – Finale) by Stravinsky/Agosti, of which Yun says “I absolutely adore every note of it.”
In its entirety, the program travels from darkness to light, despair to triumph—a deliberate arc as we emerge from the pandemic. “Every piece is one of my favourites,” Yun says. “I created the program to reflect our times.”
For more information, see Vancouver Recital Society.
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