Sunday, January 21, 2018
As the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung Heidelberger described, “Shijun Wang is a fascinating, serious and sensitive musician.” As a solo pianist and orchestral soloist, Shijun Wang has performed in California, New York, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, Utah, Connecticut and New Jersey, as well as Germany, France, Norway, China, Mexico and Japan. Under one of the most prestigious artist management companies, 100 arte, he plays concerts in most major cities in China each summer. He has held master classes, lectures and recitals in more than half of the major Chinese conservatories, including Shenyang Conservatory, Xi’an Conservatory, Haerbin Conservatory, Sichuan Conservatory and Jilin College of Arts. He was appointed as the youngest ever visiting professor of Xi’an Conservatory where he gave concerts and master classes for two months each summer. He also serves as piano faculty in the East/West International Piano Festival, held each summer in China.
His recent orchestral appearances include Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody On a Theme of Paganini with the Lafayette Symphony, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 with Tulsa Signature Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with Evening Stars Orchestra, Duxbury Music Festival Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and Music Academy of the West Orchestra.
He has won many national and international prizes for piano performance, including the Excellence Award in the 65th Steinway Children and Young pianist Competition (2002). He subsequently won the Excellence Award of the 8th Germany Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists in 2002. The same year he won the Bronze Medal at the Hong Kong Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. In 2008, he won the fifth prize in the Hamamatsu Piano Academy Competition. In 2010, he won the first prize and the audience prize in the Crescendo Piano Competition.
Professor Wang started teaching at Weber State University in 2015 where he teaches both piano major and non-major students as well as the Piano Preparatory Program, in which he helps train students majoring in piano pedagogy.
Professor Wang received his early music training in Shenyang, China. He began learning piano at the age of four. In 1999, he was accepted into the Music High School of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music and studied with Professors Dong-Dun Zhang and Dan-Wen Wei. He received both bachelor of music and master of music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Oxana Yablonskaya and Joseph Kalichstein. He received a doctorate of musical arts degree at Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Nelita True. His mentors have included Thomas Schumacher, Dan-Wen Wei, Alfred Brendel, Emanuel Ax and Richard Goode.
Learn more about Dr. Wang on his Weber State faculty page.
