Curtis Institute’s new hire is superstar Yuja Wang
"I could teach at Juilliard, but Curtis for me holds something special," said the pianist who will be returning to her alma mater, which she joined when she was 15.
Yuja Wang, one of the very few superstars in classical music today, has been named to a new position at her Philadelphia alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, the school announced Tuesday.
Wang, 38, is not becoming a piano professor — her title will be “artistic collaborator.” She won’t be giving weekly studio lessons the way members of the Curtis piano faculty do.
“I think it’s really natural and organic that this happens, but at the same time I have done some master classes there and I went to school there for six years and have great memories,” said Wang.
The pianist, who came to Curtis at age 15, says she remembers classes where literature and psychology were discussed, “and a great environment — questions about life. And I really enjoyed that. Once I graduated, the community was constantly changing with whoever you’re touring with.
“Maybe subconsciously I want to belong,” she said of her decision to take the Curtis position, “and to collaborate in a fun way.“
She said she sees it as her job “to inspire, and hopefully I’ll get inspired, like in my student days.”
Born in Beijing, Wang came to Curtis to study with Gary Graffman, the school’s onetime director who was also Lang Lang’s teacher. But by that time she was already winning piano competitions, and after stepping in for Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2007, she quickly developed a major career.
She grabbed headlines in 2023 for playing all of the Rachmaninoff piano concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia and, in a single concert, at Carnegie Hall. One of her standard encores is Art Tatum’s arrangement of “Tea for Two.”
She is the soloist for this season’s Philadelphia Orchestra opening concert Thursday night in Marian Anderson Hall, in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major.
In addition to likely leading master classes at Curtis, Wang, a proponent of contemporary music, might play works of Curtis composers, or collaborate in chamber music sessions. Exactly what the job entails will develop after the pianist gets there, she said.
“It’s all going to be a playground — whatever I want to do.”
She is slated to take up the new post with the start of the 2026-27 school year.
“I live in New York, so I could teach at Juilliard,” Wang said. “But Curtis for me holds something special, and there’s something endearing about that.”