New York-based pianist NING YU brings virtuosity and an adventurous spirit to a wide range of music, both in solo performances and in collaborations with some of today's most distinguished creative artists.
With the same vigor and dedication to traditional and avant-garde repertoire of the 20th and 21st century, Ning takes on some of the most demanding music ever written for piano, including pieces that incorporate extended techniques, multi-media and improvisation. Ning is the winner of the Boucourechliev Prize at the 2010 Ninth Concours de Orléans in France – a competition devoted to piano repertoire from 1900 to today.
Ning's new solo album Etude +, is a solo tour de force comprising etudes by composers ranging from Rachmaninoff, Ligeti to Unsuk Chin, and a live recording of her competition-winning performance of Archipel IV by Boucourechliev. The album was is released in April 2011 by the International Music and Arts Center in China (sound clips).
Ning has performed dozens of world premieres including the works of Terry Riley, Michael Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Glenn Kotche, and Evan Ziporyn and has worked closely with Steve Reich, David Lang, Martin Bresnick and Eve Beglarian. As a chamber musician, Ning has performed with leading ensembles in New York. With Bang On a Can All-Stars, she was the guest pianist from 2007 to 2009. She is a member of Ensemble Signal - a new music group led by conductor Brad Lubman. Ning has also joined forces with the percussion and piano quartet, Yarn/Wire, a forerunner in promoting and commissioning new works by young composers.
In theater, Ning performed the music of Edvard Grieg in more than 100 performances of Mabou Mines’ Dollhouse, an OBIE-winning production directed by Lee Breuer. She records and appears in the play's feature-film version, produced by ARTE France. Ning has also collaborated with director Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project on the development of his Tony award-nominated play 33 Variations.
Ning has performed worldwide in venues such as the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Köln Philharmonie in Germany, Kwai Tsing Theatre in Hong Kong, the Walker Art Center, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Arts, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, and many others, as well as at universities and colleges across the United States. Music and theater festival performances include Spoleto, Bang On a Can, Edinburgh, UCLA Live, Festival de Otoño in Spain, Athens Epidauru in Greece, Przeglad Piosenki Aktorskiej Festival in Poland, International Stanislavski Festival in Moscow and others in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.