Hanzhi Wang who was the first accordionist to win first prize at the Young Concert Artists Competition performed with the Omer Quartet at the Morgan Library & Museum in NYC on January 29, 2020.

The program included: Scarlatti, “Keyboard Sonatas, K. 9, 146, 159”
Alfred Schnittke, “Revis Fairy Tale”
Moszkowski, “Étincelles”
Haydn, “String Quartet in G minor, Op. 20, No. 3
Katherine Balch (YCA Composer), “With Each Breathing”
Daniel Nelson, “My Inner Disco”

“The collaboration of the Omer Quartet and Hanzhi Wang was the real surprise of the evening, a genuine find and a genuine delight.” —Communities Digital News (Washington, D.C.)

Hanzhi Wang was awarded YCA performance prizes with the Candlelight Concert Society in Columbia, MD; the Sinfonia Gulf Coast in Destin, FL; the Tri-I Noon Recitals at Rockefeller University in New York City; the Vancouver Recital Society; Tannery Pond Concerts (NY), the Usedom (Germany) Festival; the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle (NC); the University of Florida Performing Arts Prize; and at the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Additional engagements include appearances for IRIS Orchestra in Tennessee, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and YCA alumnus Alexander Fiterstein’s Clarinet Academy in Minneapolis.

Hanzhi Wang won First Prize in the 40th Castelfidardo International Accordion Competition in Italy, has served on the jury for the Accordion Competition of Rome and Portugal’s International Accordion Festival, and inspired the next generation of accordionists with lectures, performances and master classes at the Manhattan School of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Tianjin Music Conservatory, Beijing’s Capital Normal University, Tilburg and Ghent Music Conservatories (Belgium), and the inaugural 2018 Nordaccordion Festival in Norway.

A Young Concert Artists Fellowship for Hanzhi Wang for the 2018-19 Season was sponsored by Alan & Judy Kosloff and Mike Lubin & Anne-Marie McDermott. In addition, she holds YCA’s Ruth Laredo Prize and the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists of YCA. Hanzhi Wang earned her Bachelor’s degree at the China Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and her Master’s degree at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen as a student of Geir Draugsvoll. She is now on her Spring 2020 tour.

Omer Quartet. Photography by Matt Dine.
Hanzhi Wang. Photography by Matt Dine.