Praised as a "magnificent pianist” who "offers compelling insight" (Fanfare Magazine) and for her “breathtaking performance…executed with extreme mastery and precision” (Music City Review), Chinese American pianist Susan Yang maintains a multi-faceted career as a performer, pedagogue, and advocate for diversity in the arts. Her performances exemplify a commitment to balancing the traditional canon with repertoire that reflect today’s culture. A champion of historically excluded composers, Yang has an affinity for curating programs that feature the music of women and BIPOC composers. Her thoughtful programming has led to many unique projects, including her solo album, DOORWAYS: Half Remembered Music, which juxtaposes miniature piece pairings from centuries apart that explore sources of inspiration from the past and other cultures.

 

Yang maintains an active schedule both as a soloist and chamber musician, and she has appeared with orchestras such as the Ann Arbor, Delta, and Nashville Symphonies, performing a wide gamut of concerti from C. Schumann and Price to Beethoven and Rachmaninoff. A recipient of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award, she has captured top prizes at competitions such as the National Federation of Music Clubs, International Keyboard Odyssiad, Naftzger Young Artist, and the New York Competition and Festival, among others.

Yang is currently Assistant Professor of the Practice in Piano at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music. A dedicated pedagogue, she was named the 2022 Teacher of the Year by both the Nashville Area and Tennessee Music Teachers Associations. She is a co-founder of A Seat at the Piano (ASAP), an internationally recognized resource that promotes the piano music of marginalized composers. ASAP was the 2023 recipient of the Music Teachers National Association-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award for its significant contribution to the discipline of keyboard music pedagogy. In 2024, Yang was appointed Translator in Mandarin by the Frances Clark Center, with the mission of expanding the Center’s international reach by translating a broad range of content from English to Mandarin. She is frequently invited to lecture and adjudicate across the US, and her presentations have been featured at numerous institutions as well as multiple state and national conferences of MTNA. Outside of her regular teaching, she has served on the artist faculty at several summer programs, including the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro Piano Festival, and the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan.
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A proponent for community engagement and addressing social issues through music, Yang is the immediate Past President of the Nashville Area Music Teachers Association and currently serves on the board of the Nashville Chamber Music Society and the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville. She is also the Director of Vanderbilt’s inaugural Community Scholars Program, a full-scholarship and social impact program for undergraduate music majors that cultivates community leaders through the arts, fosters cross-cultural understanding, and supports socioeconomic mobility.
 
Yang holds degrees from the University of Michigan, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Vanderbilt University. Her primary teachers include Logan Skelton, Elisabeth Pridonoff, and Amy Dorfman. Additional studies with Helen Gleason and Jerome Reed.