Excerpt
SUMMARY: Pianist Yuja Wang has evolved from prodigy to international superstar, with some help from one of her mentors, music director of the San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas. In collaboration with KQED, Jeffrey Brown talks with the 28-year-old Chinese virtuoso and the classical music veteran about their collaboration.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): We take a look now at a very different Chinese-American collaboration, this time in the world of the arts.
Ever since a ban on Western music was lifted in China almost 40 years ago, the country has produced a number of artists for elite music conservatories in the West.
Jeffrey Brown has the story of one such pianist who’s taken the leap from prodigy to international superstar with the help of an American mentor and a former prodigy himself.
This story was produced in collaboration with public TV station KQED.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): He is 70, the grandson of Yiddish theater stars, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and a major figure on the classical music scene for five decades. She is 28, a virtuoso from China and a spectacular new presence on the international circuit.
Michael Tilson Thomas and Yuja Wang have been collaborators, as conductor and pianist, for 11 years now.
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS, San Francisco Symphony & News World Symphony: This is a little part of a Schubert Rondo, which is subtitled, “Our Friendship is Unchanging.” It’s forever.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: Up close, it’s clearly a relationship based on musicianship and a sense of humor.
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS: There is an element of excitement and danger to it, because it reminds me sometimes as if you were watching the circus and you’re watching a trapeze act. Somebody is jumping and doing flips in the air, but also somebody is catching the person who is doing that.
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