SAMANTHA YANG
Samantha Yang is a fifteen-year-old cellist living in Toronto, Canada. She began playing piano at the age of four, and her love for music only grew from there. At six years old, she began the cello, studying with Ashley Choi, and ultimately decided to focus solely on the instrument at the age of 12 after joining The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists. In her fourth year of the Academy, Samantha now studies with David Hetherington.
She has taken part in many competitions and festivals, winning 1st Place at the Ontario Music Festival Association provincials, and several awards in Canadian Music Competition, Toronto Kiwanis, Newmarket Lions Club and North York Music Festival. At 13, she joined the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, working with Joseph Johnson and Earl Lee, and playing in the orchestra’s side-by-side concert. Samantha has also participated in a number of masterclasses, studying with musicians such as Zvi Plesser, Andreas Diaz, Winona Zelenka, and Igor Gefter.
Samantha’s competition piece was the fourth movement of the Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor.
Samantha’s solo debut will take place in an upcoming performance with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra, playing the first and second movements of the Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor.