Dr. Yu-Jane Yang (2012)

Article from WSU Today, March 14, 2012

Weber State University music professor Yu-Jane Yang has been named the 2012 John S. Hinckley Fellow.

Yang, an accomplished pianist who has performed in concert on three continents, joined the WSU music faculty in 1992. Known for her ability to train award-winning performers, she not only has grown WSU’s Piano Program, she has elevated its renown on the national and international stage.

That heightened awareness has helped Yang successfully recruit piano students from around the world to Weber State, in some cases eschewing famed conservatories like Julliard and Oberlin in favor of WSU. Under her tutelage, these young pianists have gone on to win prestigious competitions at the national and international level.

Yang is the author of numerous articles on piano teaching published in leading piano pedagogy journals. She is a sought-after teacher of both piano workshops and master classes as well as a judge of national and international piano competitions.

Yang was one of three national winners of the 1991 distinguished D.H. Baldwin Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in Piano. She received WSU’s Lowe Innovative Teaching Award in 2000 and was honored by the Utah Symphony Ballet Association with the Women in the Arts Award in 2008.

In addition, Yang was chosen to receive the Utah Music Teachers Association’s highest honor in 2010, the UMTA Legacy Award, and in 2011, the Music Teachers National Association named her a Foundation Fellow.

Yang, who is the 2010–12 Endowed Scholar/Artist in the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities, spearheaded the Steinway Project at WSU. She worked to attain the prestigious “Steinway School” designation, which the university received in 2011. She was also named a WSU Presidential Distinguished Professor in 2011.

“Professor Yang’s superior teaching skills have been acknowledged through a stellar record of student evaluations, and her reputation as a teacher able to combine high — indeed, world class — expectations with a comfortable, yet rigorous, classroom atmosphere,” wrote a colleague in nominating her for the Hinckley Award. “Her achievements have gained WSU a truly international reputation and made her a tireless advocate for our institution.”