Piano star Avan Yu returns home for Lunar New Year celebrations

Now based in Paris and Berlin, the artist looks forward to sharing the stage with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra again, and to sharing longevity noodles with his family

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      With bases in Berlin and now Paris, in-demand pianist Avan Yu doesn’t always get the chance to come home for Lunar New Year.

      After debuting with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at a young 14, Yu began his rise to international circles, and now, at 28, he performs in concert halls around Europe, Australia, and Asia.

      That’s why his return to the VSO for its festive Lunar New Year concert is so special to the artist.

      “I’ll be back for New Year’s Day, so it’s good that I can join in those celebrations, and in a way I feel I’m not only going back to my parents and family for that important time, but also to join my family at the VSO,” the affable artist tells the Straight over the phone from his place in the City of Lights before flying here. “We’ve been making music together for 14 years now, so it’s nice to spend Lunar New Year with my musical family, too.”

      Yu, who was born in Hong Kong and moved to Vancouver at nine, has fond memories of this time of year. He remembers the parades in Hong Kong and the rich traditions of family reunions and sharing good meals.

      “All New Year’s is sort of like what Christmas time is for a lot of people in Canada,” he says. “After we moved to Vancouver, we had relatives there who we would visit and have dim sum with them. It was a time to go to relatives’ homes and pay respect to elders—and maybe in return you would get a red pocket,” he says, referring to the traditional scarlet envelopes bearing money.

      For Yu, who loves to cook and is an enthusiastic foodie, it’s a time to enjoy Chinese specialties. “For the New Year’s Eve meal with the whole family, there are all these special dishes, and usually they have these long strands of noodles they serve at the end of the big banquet that symbolize longevity,” he says, talking about the longevity noodles that are either fried and served on a plate, or boiled and put in a bowl with their broth. “I think that’s my favourite dish. But actually there are a lot that I like!”

      Because of the significance of the time of year, he and the VSO put a lot of thought into what piece he should play at the concert, which will be conducted by the symphony’s associate conductor Gordon Gerrard. He settled on the demanding Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff, a piece that will not only showcase how far the artist has come technically and virtuosically since his appearances with the VSO as a teen, but the depth of feeling that critics are celebrating him for. It’s a chance for local crowds to see what this local success story can do with a truly monumental work. 

      “We thought, ‘There’s already a lot of Chinese music on the program, so it would be a nice contrast to have a well-known concerto that the Asian audiences would also know very well,’” he says of a work that’s been used in classic films like Brief Encounter and everything from Olympic figure-skating routines to ballets.

      But even for this now widely experienced artist, it is a huge amount of work, and he’s been turning his laserlike focus to it while in Paris. Playing the famous piano concerto is an impressive feat, with its rapid arpeggios and killer filigree patterns.

      Irene Zandel

      He adds, “When you have something this intense, everybody’s going to feel this in a slightly different way, and with Gordon Gerrard and the orchestra and me, maybe the biggest challenge is for the three entities to come up with a unified approach.”

      Lush and romantic, it’s an emotionally demanding piece—one that Yu feels he’s in just the right place to interpret.

      “This is what music is about: reaching into emotional places that normally in your daily life you don’t experience,” he says. “That’s why experiencing it live is so special: it moves us in a deep way.

      “Sometimes I’m walking through the streets of Paris and have this music running in the back of my head,” he adds. “And it’s a very good place to do that.”

      Immersing himself in gorgeous music in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Yu is clearly loving his life right now—one he admits he couldn’t ever have dreamed of when he first performed with the VSO and hadn’t even decided if he would become a concert pianist or not.

      But Yu, who’s so proud of his heritage and close to his family, never loses touch with his roots. “That’s just part of my makeup. This is the nice thing about being a musician: I feel like a citizen of the world.”

      For now, though, he’s just looking forward to returning to Vancouver at his favourite time of year, and headlining a VSO concert that will include lion dancers and other festivities. And while he’ll be immersed in rehearsals of the mammoth Rach 2, he also wants to fit in time to visit friends and family—and of course, feast on some of his favourite foods. “Maybe I need to do some exercising before I come,” he adds with a laugh.

      The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presents Lunar New Year With Avan Yu next Saturday (February 13) at the Orpheum Theatre.

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