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“Mr. Yang is a true crossover artist, a pioneer who can hop between classical and popular music and bring fresh ideas to fans of both genres. Rather than maintaining an insular focus and simply assuming that an audience for classical music will always exist, he wants to actively create that audience, to persuade and seduce others into enjoying a type of music as passionately as he does.”
Charles Yang, recipient of the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award has been described by the Boston Globe as one who “plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star.” He is a member of the genre-defying trio, Time for Three.
Not confined to classical violin, Yang's improvisational crossover abilities as a violinist, electric violinist, and vocalist have led him to feature in performances with a variety of artists in festivals such as The Aspen Music Festival, The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival, The Crested Butte Music Festival, The Cayman Arts Festival, The YouTube Music Awards, The Moab Music Festival, TED, Caramoor, The EG Conference, Google Zeitgeist, and Interlochen as well as onstage at venues such as Carnegie Hall; Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, David H. Koch Theater, Alice Tully Hall, Dizzy’s, and David Rubinstein Atrium; The Long Center; The Wiener Musikverein; Rudolfinum; The Royal Danish Theatre; Le Poisson Rouge; Highline Ballroom; Ars Nova; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and The Forbidden City in Beijing among many others. He has performed in the presence of two former U.S. Presidents and the Queen of Denmark and has shared the stage in collaborations with artists including Peter Dugan, CDZA, Steve Miller, Jesse Colin Young, Jake Shimabukuro, Ray Benson, Michael Gordon, Marcelo Gomes, Savion Glover, Twyla Tharp, Misty Copeland, and Jon Batiste.
As a soloist and as a member of Time for Three, Yang has collaborated with the some of the world’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, with which Time for Three recorded their latest album, Letters for the Future, released on the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Charles Yang’s career has been followed by various news media including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Financial Times, The Austin-American Statesman, The Austin Chronicle and The Strad. Yang is featured in Nick Romeo's book Driven as well as Discovery Channel's Curiosity.
On June 9, 2005, the Mayor of Austin presented Yang with his own “Charles Yang Day.”
