16-year old Alex Yang is in Grade 11 at the Halifax Grammar School. This year he was accepted into the Juilliard Pre-College in New York where he now studies with Emanuel Ax and Yoheved Kaplinsky. Previous studies include private studies with Lynn Stodola; 2023-2024 Phil and Eli Taylor Academy with Michael Berkovsky; and masterclasses with André Laplante, Robert McDonald, John O’Conor, Jane Coop, John Perry, David Jalbert, Stephen Beus, Marilyn Engle, Henry Kramer, and Charles Richard-Hamelin. In 2023 he was the youngest of 10 pianists invited to a week-long masterclass with Angela Hewitt in the Trasimeno Music Festival Masterclasses (Italy). In the final concert, Alex was praised by critic Christopher Axworthy for his “remarkable clarity and sense of line on a dynamic rhythmic base of great nobility” and “remarkable sensitivity.”

Included on CBC’s “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30” list of 2023, Alex has won top prizes in competitions, recently the 2024 Kaufman International Piano Competition; 2024 Spotlight International Piano Competition; Grand Prizes in the 2022 Federation of Canadian Music Festivals Competition (where he won a 90-minute recital at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance) and 2019 Canadian Music Competition; the Chopin Society Prize, Most Promising Artist Award, and Third Prize in the 2023 CFMTA Competition.

Alex has performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall (Kaufman Music Center), Ateneo de Madrid, Auditorium Maranium (Perugia, Italy), Mazzoleni Hall (Royal Conservatory), Paul and Morse Recital Halls (Juilliard), and the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium where he was featured soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia. He also performed with Chebucto Symphony Orchestra, Nova Sinfonia, Toronto Sinfonietta, Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, and institutions Cecilia Concerts, Musique Royale. Alex also plays violin and likes badminton, swimming, debating, and computer programming. He has regularly received Nova Scotia Talent Trust scholarships since he was 8.