Yau Young Artists Orchestra presents; Alexander conducts Mozart and Beethoven

Experience an afternoon of great classical music with the newly formed Yau Young Artists Orchestra, presenting a programme celebrating the timeless brilliance of Mozart and Beethoven.

The idea behind this program is to prepare Beethoven's 200th anniversary of his death in 2027, by culminating in one Beethoven's idol's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We will begin the program with Mozart’s final piano concerto, his Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595, full of yearning and long melodies, I like to describe it as his 'swan song'. After that we spring into the youthful first Symphony of Beethoven in C minor Op. 21. His unusual musical talent for composition and structure, and most importantly his innate energy and fighting spirit personality is shown evidently in his early works.

Led by eminent pianist and conductor Alexander Yau, the orchestra brings together talented young musicians, united by their passion for music making.

Past performances

About Alexander Yau

Alexander Yau, an eminent young Australian pianist, has developed himself into a

multifaceted musician incorporating his many musical talents as a chamber

musician, conductor and composer. Pianist Balazs Szokolay describes "his artistic

taste is good enough not to make any kind of "show" even in the most brilliant parts

of great masterworks".

His major concerto appearances as soloist include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

in Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no.3, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra with

Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no. 1 and a major tour with the SBS Youth Orchestra in

Australia, with Rachmaninov’s Concerto no. 2, various concertos performances with

the Festival Orchestra Sinfonica “Duchi d’Acquaviva” and the Budweis Philharmonic

Orchestra, finally the Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra with Brahms’ Piano

Concerto no. 2. He has given solo and chamber music performances at the FOCUS

Festival in Lincoln Centre NYC, Villa Reale and Teatre Commune di Atri in Italy,

Troldhaugen (Grieg's home), Oslo Museum, Rexxam Hall in Takamatsu, as well as at

the Australia International Canberra Music Festival, Polish Embassy of Australia,

Phoenix Central Park and City Recital Hall in Sydney. In 2022 he released his first

album in collaboration with clarinettist Deborah de Graff, featuring his own

compositions and works by other Australian composers.

He has been awarded numerous prizes such as 6th Prize at the Hastings

International Piano Concerto Competition, 3rd Prize at the Teresa Carreno

International Masters Piano Competition and special prizes at the Australian

International Chopin Piano Competition. He was the winner of the Sydney Kawai

Piano Scholarship, top prize winner of the Australian National Piano Award and the

Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition.He is currently an Associate Lecturer of Collaborative Piano at the Sydney

Conservatorium of Music, a Casual Principal Pianist with the Sydney Symphony

Orchestra, and previously a music staff on contract at the Opera Australia. Previously

he graduated his Masters of music from the renowned Juilliard School studying with

prof. Matti Raekallio. He completed his Bachelor of Music piano performance at the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, with first class Honours

studying with Daniel Herscovitch and Elizabeth Powell.

Other than the piano, Alexander is an emerging conductor. He studied conducting

with Christopher Seamens and Jeffery Milarsky at the Juilliard School. He served as

an assistant conductor for the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s Production of

Madama Butterfly in 2023. He has assisted conductors such as Michelango Mazza, Carlo

Montanaro, Brian Castles-Onion and Tahu Matheson and in Europe worked with Maestro

George Pehlivanian and Norbert Baxa, on Puccini’s La Boheme and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene

Onegin. This year he has been invited to return to Czech Republic to work on Dvorak’s

Symphonies 7, 8 and 9 with Norbert Baxa. On the side he has founded the Medtner

Chamber Orchestra with his colleague Ching Pong Ng, and conducted Shostakovich Piano

Concerto no. 1 and Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings in its inaugural concert.

He has also served as a jury member for many Sydney Eisteddfod Piano

Competitions and Sydney Catholic Schools. He is a highly sought after instrumental

performance coach and regularly gives masterclasses for younger piano students. He

studied composition with Dr. Trevor Pearce and was awarded the James Easton

Memorial Award for composition. His work "Grand Passacaglia for Clarinet and

piano" is performed and recorded by his clarinet teacher Deborah de Graaff and

himself, notably in the Australian Sax and Woodwinds conference.

In recent years he turned to focus on music arranging. He gave the Australian

premiere his newly written virtuosic transcription of “Dance of the Seven Veils from

Richard’s Strauss’ Salome” for solo piano at the 2023 Sydney International Piano

Competition, as one of the 3 Australian competitors.