February and April, 2010

I recently played with both orchestras in my home province of Saskatchewan. The Saskatoon show was my second performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (the first being in Paris, which you can read from an earlier blog). It had been a while since that memorable moment playing the Rach 3, so many of the notes had to be relearned. Trying to do so can be challenging, as your last memory of a piece is one that is performance-ready. Your mind wants to hear something your body cannot yet produce. Thankfully, Maestro Earl Stafford was helpful in holding everything together. I felt like it was a good performance, and there were some really special moments. It’s always nerve-wracking to play at home, but it’s only because I care that much more.

I was treated to a very receptive audience, who I felt were with me on every page. If you can bring people along for the ride, you have done your job. The audience should be as exhausted when the piece finishes as you are! The review from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix is below.

Next was the performance of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with the Regina Symphony Orchestra. This piece was new to me, so the approach here was different compared to the Rachmaninoff. Because my teachers don’t live in Calgary, I had the help of a few key coachings and good recordings to guide me. I have to say that Regina really knows how to treat a musician! I was taken around by limousine, had a great hotel room and again was treated to a packed house. The performance went really well, thanks to the great baton of Maestro Victor Sawa. I never followed anyone’s baton as closely as his...it was so easy to feel connected with the orchestra under him. I appreciated the standing ovation from the audience so much, partly because I felt like this was one of the first performances I have done without the constant guidance of a teacher. I remember thinking how lucky we are as musicians to receive praise after a performance. What the audience didn’t know was that after intermission I was back in the green room practicing already for my next concert. Not that glamorous of a life, ha! I have also included the preview from this concert below. I thought both articles were so well-written and very complimentary. Hope you enjoy!

“For those about to Rach, we salute Yu”

BY SHANNON BOKLASCHUK FEBRUARY 15, 2010


Saturday night’s Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra (SSO) concert had it all – excitement, drama and romance.

The sold-out performance at TCU Place – suitably called Love Across an Ocean, as it took place one day before Valentine’s Day – kicked off with an announcement that the Frank & Ellen Remai Foundation will participate in a matching challenge to raise funds for the city’s orchestra.

“A community that makes music is a healthier cultural community compared to one that does not,” said local music icon David Kaplan, whose speech was followed by enthusiastic applause from the crowd.

Following the announcement, the concert began with a pleasing performance of Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings in E Minor. As the name of the piece suggests, the music highlights the beauty of the stringed instruments, and the SSO did a fabulous job of playing it, thus setting the romantic tone for the evening.

For the second piece, Johannes Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn, additional musicians joined the string players on stage. The SSO played the majestic-sounding music with intensity, and the dramatic ending was appropriately powerful.

Following a brief intermission, the string players were front and centre again, with a performance of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. The pretty, and relatively short, piece was the perfect appetizer for the evening’s main course: The highly anticipated performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, by guest artist Thomas Yu.

Colloquially called the Rach 3, the piece is both revered and feared; it is famous for the technical and physical demands on the pianists who attempt to play it.

On Saturday night, 32-year-old Yu – a former Saskatoon resident who now runs a periodontal practice in Calgary – was certainly up for the challenge. His performance was, in a word, amazing.

Members of the audience could sense the excitement in the air as Yu calmly stepped onto the stage and took his place at the piano. From the first note to the last, as Yu’s fingers furiously moved up and down the keys, the crowd was spellbound. Yu was in complete control of the music and the piano, the mark of a true virtuoso.

You could say he really rocked the Rach.

As soon as Yu’s performance ended, TCU Place was filled with explosive applause, as audience members jumped to their feet for a lengthy standing ovation. Cheering and shouts of “bravo” could be heard throughout the auditorium.

After the clapping subsided and two little girls brought Yu flowers, the pianist returned to the stage for a brief encore, which he played in celebration of Chinese New Year.

“Thank you so much for making my dreams come true,” Yu said to the crowd.

Thank you so much for the absolutely incredible performance.

It was certainly a night to remember.

sboklaschuk@sp.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

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“Yu, RSO to play Gershwin”

BY JOE COUTURE, LEADER-POST APRIL 8, 2010

RSO: MUSIC OF THE AMERICAS

At the age of 32, Saskatchewan-product Thomas Yu has achieved success that many individuals only dream about—and he has done so in not one, but two, arenas of pursuit.

Yu, born and raised in Saskatoon, has won piano competitions at the national and international levels; has studied with top music teachers; and has performed for audiences around the world. At the same time, he has completed a degree in dentistry at the University of Saskatchewan and specialized in the field of periodontics, completing a masters degree at the University of Toronto. He is now back west, pursuing both his passions from Calgary.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be able to achieve goals I set when I was a little kid,” a humble and down-to-earth Yu said. “One of the first biggest goals was to play with an orchestra. The first orchestra I ever played with was the Regina Symphony, when I was 19. ... I’ve always needed to set new goals. I guess it’s an inner drive mixed with a little bit of insanity and the reluctance to say ‘no’ that has forged this life that I’ve had so far ... I have certainly had very few regrets.”

That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges and sacrifices. Balancing “two heavyweights”—music and dentistry—has often caused people to worry that he would not be able to do both, he said. “(But) You’re never too busy to do the things you love. I’m fortunate to have two passions. “Contrary to assumptions, I’m definitely lazy,” Yu added, with a laugh, noting people would be worried if they knew how much knowledge he had about television programming. (Though that really speaks to his incredible level of balance.)

Yu will be back in Saskatchewan on Saturday, performing as a guest artist for the Regina Symphony Orchestra’s “Music of the Americas” Mosaic Masterworks series concert, a goal of which is to illustrate that not all great composers come from overseas. Yu will be playing George Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F,” which he described as “a ton of fun to play.”

“It’s full of just that tap-your-feet, snap-your-fingers, sort of jazzy rhythms. It’s going to take you back to a sort of 1920s New York City feel,” he continued. “Whenever I hear this piece I think of that era and the new skyscrapers being built.”

Yu stated that the orchestra is the highlight in the dynamic work and he’s eagerly anticipating enjoying the collaboration. Playing for a home-based audience does not come without some nerves—even for a musician as accomplished as Yu.

“I’m always more nervous when I come home to Saskatchewan, because I’ve tried so hard, and I’m very, very proud to represent Saskatchewan,” he said. “It makes me so proud to be able to say where I’m from. I get a little bit extra nervous for shows back home—I just care that much more.”

That is especially true of Regina, he said. He recalled sitting with his parents at a VIP dinner for a concert he was playing in Paris, France—the family all acknowledged they would never have imagined being in such a position, but also noted that it was not as exciting as the first time he played with an orchestra, the RSO, when he was 19.

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post