Jian Wang (cellist)

Jian Wang (born 1968) is a cellist from Shanghai. Born into a musical family, he began studying the cello with his father at the age of four. At the age of nine he was enrolled in the Shanghai Conservatory where he made rapid progress.

Wang came to worldwide fame at the age of ten, when the American violinist Isaac Stern featured him in his documentary "". Wang's youthful mastery of the instrument created a sensation. During the decade that followed, Wang went to the United States and studied at Yale University and also at the Juilliard School. His chief western teacher was Aldo Parisot (whose pupils also include Ralph Kirshbaum and Cecylia Barczyk). Isaac Stern remained Wang's friend until his death in 2001.

Wang is famous in China as well as in the West. At the age of eleven he performed the Saint-Saëns First Cello Concerto with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and at fourteen he was selected by China to perform with a select group of Chinese musicians for President Jimmy Carter at the White House. Wang performed with the Boston Symphony on its tour of China, and was declared by Seiji Ozawa to be a "world-class cellist." When the China Philharmonic Orchestra made its first US tour, Jian Wang was chosen to be soloist, performing the Elgar Concerto at the Kennedy Center, and in major cities across the USA.

Wang has released a recital CD on the Delos label, accompanied by pianist Carol Rosenberger, containing works by Chopin, Barber and Schumann. On the recording, Wang plays a David Wiebe cello, given to him by Aldo Parisot. Wang also plays a rare A & H Amati cello.

elected recordings

*"Presenting Jian Wang" (Delos Records, 1992)
*"Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time" with Gil Shaham, Paul Meyer and Myung-Whun Chung (Deutsche Grammophon, 2001)
*"The Baroque Album" (Deutsche Grammophon, 2003)
*"JS Bach: The unaccompagnied Cello Suites" (Deutsche Grammophon, 2005)
*"Reverie" with the guitarist Göran Söllscher (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007)

External links

* [http://www2.deutschegrammophon.com/artist/biography?ART_ID=WANJI Standard short biography of Jian Wang] on the site of Deutsche Grammophon
* [http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings91/CoverStory.shtml "Jian Wang: An Extraordinary Journey"] by Andrew Palmer, excerpted from "Strings" magazine, January 2001, No. 91
* [http://www.dimsum.co.uk/culture/a-night-to-remember-jian-wang-and-the-bbc-proms.html "A Night to Remember: Jian Wang and the BBC Proms"] by Pamela Yau, Dimsum.co.uk, October 2008