Art of Piano: James Anagnoson & Micah Yui

Described by the Los Angeles Times as playing with "blazing enthusiasm, power, and technical  assurance,” Canadian pianist, Micah Yui, has had a versatile performance career.

Yui made her solo recital at the age of ten and orchestral debut at the age of thirteen in Canada.  She has given solo recitals around the world, including venues in Zurich, Tokyo, New York,  Toronto and Copenhagen. Yui has given radio performances on CBC, NHK, and WQXR and  orchestral performances with the Syracuse, Edmonton, Victoria, Montreal Metropolitan, Asheville, and Baltimore Chamber orchestras. As a chamber musician, Yui has performed with many of the preeminent performing artists in the country. She is the recipient of three Canada Council grants, two Ontario Arts Council grants, the Alberta Achievement Award and the Edmonton Civic Award. Her recording with the London Symphony of Ernest Bloch’s concerto  symphonique and scherzo fantasque won “Record of the Year” from Stereophile Magazine.

Yui is passionate about impacting the lives of young people of all ages and levels through music. She has been on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Peabody Institute, Music Institute of Chicago, and the Heifetz Institute. Her students have won numerous national and international competitions and have been accepted into prestigious music conservatories and schools of music around the country. Yui is currently on the piano faculty at the Colburn School in both the Academy and the Community School teaching studio piano and chamber music. At the Colburn School, she created the Piano Camp Intensive, a unique summer piano camp for young piano students ages nine to thirteen. She is also the founder and co-director the Colburn Summer Piano Seminar for advanced high school pianists which will be collaborating with Tonebase this summer. She is regularly invited to judge in competitions and most recently was on the screening jury for the Esther Honens International Piano Competition.

Born in Japan of Korean heritage, Yui immigrated to Canada at the age of eight. She is the graduate of the Juilliard School, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, University of Toronto, and the Peabody Conservatory. She has worked with many musicians who have impacted her playing and teaching. Her most influential private teachers were Leon Fleisher, Bella Davidovich, Marietta Orlov, and her first teachers, Boris Zarankin and Inna Perkis. She has also worked extensively with Giovanni Valentini in Pesaro, Italy. She spent six summers at the Banff Arts Centre where she worked on solo and chamber repertoire with Menahem Pressler as well as with John Perry. Her love of lieder has led her to work with renowned lieder pianist, Graham Johnson.

Yui currently lives in Los Angeles

James Anagnoson, Dean of The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, is one of Canada's best-known pianists and pedagogues. He has been on the piano faculty of The GGS since its formation in 1997 and has also taught at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario.

Mr. Anagnoson’s students have won prizes in International Competitions such as the Gina Bachauer, the Maria Canals, the International Franz Liszt, the Dublin International Competitions, and Germany's International ARD Competition for Duos, and repeatedly are prizewinners in Canada’s National Competitions such as the Canadian Music Competition and the Toronto Symphony Competition. He has given master classes in various parts of Europe, North America, and Asia, and he has been a juror for competitions such as the Dublin International Piano Competition, the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the Canadian Chopin Competition, Japan’s PTNA Competition, Canada’s JUNO Awards, the Marbella International Piano Competition, the Prix d'Europe, the International e-Competition, and the Canadian International Piano Competition.

In 1976, James Anagnoson began performing with Canadian pianist Leslie Kinton, and since that time the duo Anagnoson & Kinton have gone on to give "outstanding concerts...with formidable precision and panache" - to quote the New York Times - across Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia, receiving unanimous acclaim from both audiences and critics.

Anagnoson & Kinton's numerous recordings are heard regularly on America's National Public Radio and various European Radio networks and continue to be a mainstay of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's arts programming.  Their release of the Schubert f – Fantasy and other classical works on the Opening Day label was chosen by New York’s WQXR as a weekly feature. Reviews of their previous recordings include “…this is a singular performance of great lucidity and power, flawlessly integrated” from Fanfare Magazine and “…performances by both soloists and orchestra are virtuoso and exciting…” from the American Record Review.

In addition to their more than 1500 concert appearances around the world, which have included concerto appearances with Canada's leading orchestras, the duo has performed for the BBC, Czech National Radio, Hong Kong Radio, Hilversum Radio in Holland, and Radio Suisse Romande. Some recital highlights include appearances in London’s Wigmore Hall, Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall and the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall, as well as appearances in Poznan, Poland, St Petersburg, Russia, Martinu Hall in Prague, and at the Shanghai International Festival.

Anagnoson and Kinton have commissioned, premiered and recorded many original works for two pianos, piano four hands, and two pianos and orchestra. They also commissioned and gave the Canadian Premiere of Ray Luedeke’s Into the Labyrinth, a work for two pianos and narrator, in collaboration with the internationally renowned actor Colin Fox.

Their interest in the works of Stravinsky led to their performing the North American premiere of Stravinsky’s two piano version of his Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, a work they later recorded on a CD that includes their performances of the Francis Poulenc and Roger Matton two piano concertos.  They have also performed Stravinsky’s four hand version of Petrouchka and The Rite of Spring numerous times, both in concert and onstage in collaboration with innovative choreographers of dance companies such as Ballet BC.

Mr Anagnoson has over the years also found time for various chamber music collaborations with colleagues in universities and festivals. Performance highlights include Beethoven Cello Sonatas with cellist Tom Wiebe and Schubert's and Die Schoene Mullerin with Kevin MacMillan at Western University, the Dvorak E Flat + Piano Quartet with members of the Gryphon Trio and various Poulenc Songs with soprano Rosemarie Landry at the Festival of the Sound, and Schuman's Fantasiestucke Opus 73 with bassoonist Frank Morelli at the Royal Conservatory.

James Anagnoson has been heard nationally on the CBC radio as a guest host on This Is My Music and The Arts Tonight, and as a piano commentator for both the Esther Honens International Piano Competition and the CBC Young Performer's Competition.

Mr. Anagnoson received his Master's degree from The Juilliard School, and his Bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music, which he attended on scholarship.  His most influential mentor was the American pianist Eugene List, and he was also strongly influenced by his post graduate work with Claude Frank and Karl Ulrich Schnabel.

In May of 2019 Anagnoson & Kinton were awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Conservatory of Music.