Yuyan Wang (CN)
Yuyan Wang is an internationally active performer and educator based in China and Australia, Bergerault Percussions Artist, Adjunct Professor at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and Artistic Director of the Sonamus Chamber and Percussion Ensembles.
After completing her undergraduate degree at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and spending three seasons as percussionist with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Yuyan decided there was more to be learned and, on the advice of friend and mentor Alan Cumberland, decided to move to Australia to pursue postgraduate studies at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (QCGU). During this time, she regularly performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra both as percussionist and principal timpani, and eventually completed her Masters, Doctorate and Post-Doctorate. While predominantly working in the (Western) classical orchestral tradition, this is where Yuyan also got interested in contemporary avant-garde performance styles, as well as the – seemingly – exact opposite, traditional Chinese percussion practises (on which her Doctorate is based).
Wanting to return to the performance side of the industry, Yuyan left her post-doctoral research fellow position at QCGU and joined the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra percussion section, soon after also being appointed Adjunct Professor of Percussion at Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Forever torn between being on stage and passing her knowledge and expertise on to the younger generation, Yuyan left the orchestra after a few years and joined the faculties of Soochow University School of Music, Northwest University for Nationalities, and Zhaoqing University, only to return to the stage as Section Principal Timpani and Percussion with the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, all the while continuing her work at Shanghai Conservatory.
This wealth and diversity of experiences, intensely brought into focus through the pandemic years, led Yuyan to make the decision to forgo specialisation in favour of embracing all that the world of percussion has to offer. Now only employed by Shanghai Conservatory, Yuyan runs a music agency, an early childhood (percussion-based) training centre, and regularly performs solo, duo, ensemble, chamber and orchestral music throughout the country, as well as giving masterclasses, workshops, presentations, and sitting on juries. She also dabbles in composing, with several works published through Lucky Bell Publishing and featured on the International China TV Channel. A frequent collaborator with world percussionists, Yuyan has just presented a work for marimba and tabla, and is planning a 500-gong extravaganza in the home of gongs – Wuhan, China – with QCGU Professor of Percussion Vanessa Tomlinson in November this year.
Yuyan has won numerous awards and prizes, among them First Prize in the 2008 Australian Percussion Duo and Second Prize in the Australian Marimba Competition, Second Prize in the 2009 Fermo International Percussion (Timpani) Competition (Italy), Griffith University’s Postgraduate Award as well as two Awards of Excellence, full Doctoral Scholarship, and the Chinese government’s award for self-financed doctoral students abroad. She has also advanced to the further rounds in several prestigious competitions with her duo, among them the Universal Marimba Competition (2013), Luxembourg international Percussion Competition (2009) and Southern California Marimba Competition (2014). Yuyan is also on the committee of the IPEA International Percussion Education Association and Vice-President of the China Marimba Association.
After completing her undergraduate degree at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and spending three seasons as percussionist with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Yuyan decided there was more to be learned and, on the advice of friend and mentor Alan Cumberland, decided to move to Australia to pursue postgraduate studies at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (QCGU). During this time, she regularly performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra both as percussionist and principal timpani, and eventually completed her Masters, Doctorate and Post-Doctorate. While predominantly working in the (Western) classical orchestral tradition, this is where Yuyan also got interested in contemporary avant-garde performance styles, as well as the – seemingly – exact opposite, traditional Chinese percussion practises (on which her Doctorate is based).
Wanting to return to the performance side of the industry, Yuyan left her post-doctoral research fellow position at QCGU and joined the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra percussion section, soon after also being appointed Adjunct Professor of Percussion at Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Forever torn between being on stage and passing her knowledge and expertise on to the younger generation, Yuyan left the orchestra after a few years and joined the faculties of Soochow University School of Music, Northwest University for Nationalities, and Zhaoqing University, only to return to the stage as Section Principal Timpani and Percussion with the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, all the while continuing her work at Shanghai Conservatory.
This wealth and diversity of experiences, intensely brought into focus through the pandemic years, led Yuyan to make the decision to forgo specialisation in favour of embracing all that the world of percussion has to offer. Now only employed by Shanghai Conservatory, Yuyan runs a music agency, an early childhood (percussion-based) training centre, and regularly performs solo, duo, ensemble, chamber and orchestral music throughout the country, as well as giving masterclasses, workshops, presentations, and sitting on juries. She also dabbles in composing, with several works published through Lucky Bell Publishing and featured on the International China TV Channel. A frequent collaborator with world percussionists, Yuyan has just presented a work for marimba and tabla, and is planning a 500-gong extravaganza in the home of gongs – Wuhan, China – with QCGU Professor of Percussion Vanessa Tomlinson in November this year.
Yuyan has won numerous awards and prizes, among them First Prize in the 2008 Australian Percussion Duo and Second Prize in the Australian Marimba Competition, Second Prize in the 2009 Fermo International Percussion (Timpani) Competition (Italy), Griffith University’s Postgraduate Award as well as two Awards of Excellence, full Doctoral Scholarship, and the Chinese government’s award for self-financed doctoral students abroad. She has also advanced to the further rounds in several prestigious competitions with her duo, among them the Universal Marimba Competition (2013), Luxembourg international Percussion Competition (2009) and Southern California Marimba Competition (2014). Yuyan is also on the committee of the IPEA International Percussion Education Association and Vice-President of the China Marimba Association.
