We are delighted to welcome Chetham’s Alumnus Yuanfan Yang » Profile – Chetham’s International Piano Summer School to teach improvisation and composition on part one. Yuanfan Yang is establishing himself as one of today’s most interesting and distinctive voices, as an award-winning multi-faceted pianist, composer, and improviser. His interpretations of Schumann and Liszt ‘rivalled those of the young Ashkenazy’ (International Piano Magazine), and his own compositions have been praised for their ‘soulful poignancy’ in The Observer.
Alongside instrumental and vocal music (not limited to classical), Yuanfan has composed four full-scale piano concertos which have been performed throughout China, France, Russia and the UK. Yuanfan’s improvisational craft features regularly as concert encores, where audiences are invited to suggest any theme/tune (e.g., famous film/tv themes, folk songs, pop, opera or other classical themes) and a style (e.g., Beethoven, jazz, musical, rock, waltz) and Yuanfan would create an original piece of music on the spot based on those suggestions. 2025 saw the debut of his first ever fully improvised concert in London, featuring an hour of improvisations, was livestreamed on YouTube.
As a composer, Yuanfan draws inspiration from his fascination with allegories and cultures, thus his music is often narratively driven, portraying imagery to varying degrees of vividness. His work has been broadcast on BBC 2, BBC 4 and BBC Radio 3. Earlier works were winners in the BBC Proms Young Composers’ Competition, the Golden Key International Composition Competition, the EPTA UK Composers Competition, the National Centre for Early Music Composers’ Award 2013, and the Royal Academy’s Alan Bush Composition Competition 2016.