Daniel Yu, winner of the University of Redlands 2017 Concerto Competition, will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in concert. Maestro Ransom Wilson conducts the Redlands Symphony in an evening of music that also includes the music of Felix Mendelssohn. The concert will be performed in Memorial Chapel on the campus of the University of Redlands.
“Like Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn was a musical prodigy of astonishing gifts,” notes Maestro Wilson, “By age 9, he was composing prolifically, and by 16 he was a mature composer! Our concert highlights two of his most beloved works, along with Tchaikovsky’s iconic Piano Concerto No. 1, performed by Daniel Yu, a young and talented pianist who recently won the University’s annual Concerto Competition. It will be quite a night of fantastic music.”
In addition to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, the evening’s program will include A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and Symphony No. 4 Italian (revised), both by Mendelssohn.
Twenty-year-old pianist DANIEL YU of San Ramon, California, already has a long list of solo performances to his credit. Yu is the 2017 winner of the University of Redlands Concerto Competition.
Yu, whose formal piano lessons began at the age of six, was just eleven when he was named a prizewinner for his performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C, K. 245 in the sixteenth annual United States Open Music Competition held in Oakland, California (February ‘08).
Additional honors and prizes followed in competitions from Texas to California: from the Music Society’s Musicians of the Future Solo Competition in El Paso, to the Contra Costa Solo Piano Competition in northern California. At the age of thirteen, under the baton of Music Director LeAnn Isaac, Daniel Yu performed George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for the El Paso Independent School District's orchestra competition. Also, as a high school student and winner of the MTAC Panel Competition, he was invited to perform Ravel’s piano masterpiece, Jeux d’eau, in San Jose at the annual convention of the Music Teacher’s Association of California.
“It has always been a dream of mine to perform this work with a symphony, says Yu, “Now that dream will come true with the Redlands Symphony.”