Yuja Wang was born in Beijing, China, on February 10, 1987. She began piano lessons at six and had later studies at Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music. She was a prizewinner in the Sendai International Music Competition in 2001. That same year she moved to Calgary, Canada, for studies at the Mount Royal College Conservatory.
Wang won the 2002 Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, after which she relocated to the U.S. for studies at the Curtis Institute under
Gary Graffman. Her European debut was in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2003, when she performed the
Beethoven Fourth with the
Tonhalle Orchestra under
David Zinman.
In February 2005, Wang launched her career as a "fill-in" when she substituted for
Radu Lupu in Ottawa, Canada, for another performance of the
Beethoven Fourth. In 2006 Wang was the recipient of the Gilmore Young Artist Award. Wang graduated from Curtis Institute in 2008, and went on that summer to give acclaimed performances of the
Liszt B minor Sonata,
Brahms Horn Trio, and
Prokofiev First Piano Concerto at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The following year she was invited by
Claudio Abbado to play the
Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto at the Lucerne Festival. That acclaimed performance was issued on a
EuroArts DVD in 2010.