Peiyao Yu and Yi Zhang

Peiyao Yu and Yi Zhang, are both pursuing their doctoral degree in piano at the University of Kansas. As both of them showed interests in new music, they decided to play together as a piano duo, and focus on contemporary music for two pianos.

Peiyao began playing the piano at the age of five. In 2018, she soloed with orchestra, performing Tchaikovsky piano concerto No.1 in Italy. She has successfully held recitals in China, USA and Europe. She was the first prize winner at International Music Competitions in 2021 for Best Schumann Performance and Best Prokofiev Performance. She was also the recipient of the Yamaha Music Scholarship and won Yangtze River Piano cup Youth Piano Competition in 2015.

Yi was a fellow at 2019 Cortona Sessions for New Music, and has premiered many new pieces in the US and Europe. Recently, Yi premiered Bonnie McLarty’s chamber opera Snow Angel with KU Symphony Orchestra and KU Opera. Yi was the first prize winner in 2020 KMTA Graduate Piano Competition and was named as Outstanding Musician in 2020 IBLA Grand Prize International Competition.

You can find the duet’s performance here.