By Jason and Alisha Hagey
Tonight is the beginning of the 2025/2026 Bachauer Concert Series. The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation Presents Wynona Yinuo Wang in Concert: Adrift at the Jeanné Wagner Theatre of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Truly, it is an electric start to what will surely be a powerful season.
Wynona Yinuo Wang (Pianist) plays not just with her hands, but with her body. She infuses each note with emotion and intention. Her playing is evocative and intoxicating, and you finish the concert hoping for just one more piece. She mesmerises. You could feel the audience entirely focused on her and the music.
Wang is a pianist of striking presence, first catapulted to international attention after winning First Prize at the 2018 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Since then, she has performed with orchestras from Sydney to New York, leaving her mark on stages such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, and the Sydney Opera House.
Her artistry balances fire and restraint, which is evident in her collaborations with Garrick Ohlsson and Paul Neubauer. A Juilliard graduate honored with the Arthur Rubinstein Commencement Award, she continues her studies there with Robert McDonald while earning recognition with the 2024 Bachauer Bronze Medal.
She begins with soft and gentle notes, then transitions into her familiar and familial home, followed by a performance so astounding that she received a preliminary curtain call at the start of intermission. The second act is equally extraordinary. Her phrasing feels like there’s a profound understanding of the composer’s intent, balanced with her own artistic voice. She shares with us the historical context, thus giving the audience an emotional context for the beautiful texture of her playing.
Wang calls her program Adrift. Each piece drifts between memory, emotion, and sound shorelines while her playing shifts from gentle and caressing to confident and direct. She doesn’t embellish. Instead, she converses with and through her instrument.
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Lilacs comes off like petals scattered on water. Wang plays it soft, restrained, with a quiet confidence. She keeps the intimacy of the original song but gives it weight, letting the melody breathe without ever losing control.
In Daisies, she brightens the tone. The notes ripple like sunlight on the surface, impressionistic but grounded. Her touch is sensitive yet sure, never flashy. Wang lets the charm speak for itself, petals floating downstream, guided but never forced.
Zhang Zhao’s Kangding Love Song is all about distance and longing. Wang keeps it simple, tender, but polishes it with modern clarity. Her sound is sensitive but firm, turning folk melody into something timeless, like an old song carried by the wind.
With Zhao’s Pi Huang, Wang breaks the calm. Here, Wang shows power. She becomes dramatic, assured, and unshaken. She draws out the Peking Opera voices, Xipi (lively/funny) and Erhuang (sad/dramatic), and fuses them into one glorious melody. The music surges, storm-like yet playful. She never loses the timbre and never loses command.
Franz Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy is the big vessel. Continuous, impossible to pin down, but Wang steers it with cohesion. Her playing has orchestral breadth; her foreground sharp, background steady. Technique meets clarity. She gives the sense of travel, the horizon always there, never reached.
Through Leoš Janáček’s Sonata 1.X.1905, Wang subtly moves, but the intensity is there. Every note lands with conviction, stripped down and human. It feels like the witness of one figure afloat on a dark sea.
Sergei Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata sits in the middle of his three “War Sonatas,” written at the height of World War II. It’s a fight on the keyboard. There is violence against lyricism, steel against longing. The music punches, hammers, then suddenly opens into a fragile space. Wang fulfills it with assurance: sensitive in the quiet, confident in the storm. Her touch carries both the percussive bite and the fleeting moments of beauty, each phrase sharp and nothing wasted.
The Rose Wagner feels like an intimate experience, creating a warm environment where incredible artists can share their skills and sounds, helping the audience instantly engage with Wang. Playing a gorgeous instrument, courtesy of Daynes Music Co., is a special experience. Such rich tones played by expert hands are unmissable.
Wynona Wang delivers a technically astounding performance and plays with great emotional depth. Her compelling performance invites listeners to seek out more of her work. The Bachauer season is off to a resonant start, leaving audiences excited about what’s next.
Run time: 105 minutes including a 15-minute intermission.
Bachauer 2025–26 Concert Series
Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation Presents Wynona Wang in Concert
Friday, September 26th, 2025 at 7:30pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
138 Broadway, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Ticket prices begin at just $12 for students and $25 for single tickets, and $85 for season packages.
Tickets at: Salt Lake County Arts
Wynona Wang
Bachauer
Recommended for ages 8 and up. Infants not admitted. All patrons must have a ticket regardless of age.
Bachauer Concert Series 2025/2026
Celebrating 50 Years of Piano Excellence
UPCOMING SHOWS:
Arthur Greene
Friday, November 14, 2025 – 7:30 PM
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
Bachauer Gold Medalist and renowned pedagogue Arthur Greene returns with a deeply
expressive program featuring Chopin’s “Funeral March” Sonata, Liszt’s luminous Bénédiction, and Beethoven’s introspective
Op. 110 Sonata.
Mackenzie Melemed
Friday, March 13, 2026 – 7:30 PM
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, Young Artists laureate Mackenzie
Melemed presents Keys Across America—a vibrant program featuring music by Copland,
Ives, Beach, Gottschalk, Rorem, and other iconic American voices.
Lukas Geniušas & Anna Geniushene
Monday, April 13, 2026 – 7:30 PM
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
Bachauer Gold Medalist Lukas Geniušas and Cliburn Silver Medalist Anna
Geniushene—an electrifying husband-and-wife duo—perform a bold two-piano program
featuring Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Adams’ Hallelujah Junction, and
Copland’s El Salón México.
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