MARIE FRANÇOIS / TONY YIKE YANG

20th Century Extravaganza

By Marie François

Moving the audience is an indispensable vocation for the extrovert Belgian pianist Marie François: you can meet her on coveted European stages or appreciate her as a podcast host on the web. She is regularly invited to write and speak about music for newspapers, radio and television. She was musically formed in Maastricht and then perfected in Belgium with Alan Weiss and Polina Leschenko. She also studied in Fiesole with Elisso Virsaladze and in Siena with Lilya Zilberstein. Acclaimed by CBC Music as one of Canada’s best young musicians, pianist Tony Yike Yang was the youngest honoree in the history of the Warsaw Chopin International Piano Competition, winning the 5th prize at age 16 in 2015. Born in Chongqing and raised in Toronto, he graduated in Economics from Harvard and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Ingesund Piano Center in Sweden under the guidance of Prof. Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist.

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