Pianist Joyce Yang has a lot of packing to do in coming weeks – and not just because she’s heading to Australia. She’s also moving house.

“We’re moving to California,” she says. “Things are going to get a little bit chaotic around here.”

‘Here’, is Birmingham, Alabama, where Yang and her husband, contrabassist Richard Cassarino, have lived for the better part of a decade. Cassarino has just been made Principal Bass of Pacific Symphony, based in Orange County, California.

“We’ve gotten to know this place pretty well and we really like it here,” says Yang. “But Richard is originally from California and he’s happy to move somewhere nearer to the ocean. There will be a lot more concert opportunities there but I’m going to miss this place.”

As well as boxing up her home, Yang is also packing her suitcases for a trip to Australia for a series of Piano+ solo recitals in Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, and a performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with Simone Young conducting.

“I’ve always felt most comfortable in a chamber setting,” says Yang. “If there’s other musicians around me, I can feed off their energy, so it’s much easier. But solo recitals are one of those very special things a pianist gets to do – even though it’s the most difficult of all the formats. It keeps me in tip-top shape because there’s nowhere to hide. You have to be totally honest and draw all of the inspiration from within.”

Joyce Yang. Photo © KT Kim

Yang has chosen technically and emotionally demanding works for her Australian recitals: selections from Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons; Rachmaninov’s Three Preludes; Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

“I like it when I get to work with all of my voices,” Yang says. “I feel more vulnerable when I’m showing every single thing I have going on to the audience. To me, it’s more exciting than playing a program where I just stick to the one character throughout. I like the zig-zagging energy.”

Her solo program also allows Yang to show off her formidable virtuosity. “Oh yeah, it’s going to be a fireworks kind of program, no dull moments,” she laughs. “I want it to be more than fireworks.  I want it to a very active listening experience for the audience where they have to come on a journey with me, rather than drift off into their own imagination. We’ll take the sharp corners together!”

That kind of audience engagement take away the sense of ‘solo’ from the event, Yang explains. It becomes a collective experience – and that’s the way she likes it.

“I’m one of those players who is very conscious of the audience,” Yang says. “I can tell right away if it’s the kind of audience that is eager for an adventure. If they are, I get take more chances or, climb a little bit higher. How much they’re react to my spontaneity is, maybe, all in my head, but I really feel there’s a sixth sense that links me to the people listening.”

“Sometimes I feel like there’s all these open, vulnerable hearts waiting to be filled, waiting to accept the music and that’s when I play my best.”

Joyce Yang. Photo © KT Kim

It’s a feeling Yang profoundly missed during the COVID years, when live performances opportunities dried up to nothing. She didn’t play to a live audience for 15 months, she recalls.

“I got to that point where I was thinking ‘why am I even practicing; who am I performing for? What is the point of all this?’ It started to wonder if I would be able to play when I stepped on stage again.”

“But when I did – and it was with just a few people – hearing them clap … I couldn’t believe how overwhelming that sound was. From then on, that moment between my last note and the breaking of the silence by applause became so precious to me. It made me realise how poignant and special it is to be in a space breathing together and experiencing something with somebody else. That whole experience kind of redefined me as a musician.”

When concert halls reopened and touring became possible again, Yang hurled herself into the fray. “I just said yes to everything because I was just, like, ecstatic,” she says. “I ended up playing something like 11 different concertos in a row when normally, I would switch between two or three. I totally forgot how scary it is to play something on stage for the first time and so that was a very dramatic, difficult period in a way. But I think now that just now I’m getting you feeling like oh, yes, this is what I do. I’m happy and comfortable.”

Yang has played in Australia several times. In 2023 she played a program of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Smetana with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She toured the country with Musica Viva in 2018. Her first visit was in 2014.

This time, she says, she’s bringing her parents along for their first trip to Australia. “They’re coming along for the entire tour and I want to be a meticulous tour guide for them, so I’ve been researching everything like crazy. They won’t have a spare minute.”

High on the must-see list are the art galleries.

“I like to go to art museums because there’s always something I see that ultimately changes the way I play. I am synaesthetic in that I hear certain colours, see colours as tones. I often memorise music as squiggly, zig-zagging colourful lines. It’s more natural to me than trying to memorise a black-and-white score. Looking at art wakes me up as a musician.”

Joyce Yang (International Piano+ Recital Series): Melbourne Recital Centre 10 May; Queensland Symphony Orchestra Studio, Brisbane 12 May; Snow Concert Hall, Canberra, 4 May.