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Biography

Yaël Weiss is Assistant Professor of Piano and serves as head of piano and chamber music at 91����. Praised for interpretations of surpassing depth, immediacy, and communicative power, she has performed at venues such as Wigmore Hall, London; the Seoul Arts Center, Korea; Bolshoi Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, USA. With playing that’s been described as “remarkably powerful and intense” (New York Times), Weiss has created audience experiences in which “every moment felt new” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

As curator of the commissioning and performing project 32 Bright Clouds: Beethoven Conversations Around the World, Weiss brings together new piano works from countries of conflict, all unified by Beethoven’s “Call for Inward and Outward Peace.” An advocate for the power of music in the service of peace, she has been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and presented a 12-hour live online marathon, including performances and interviews with composers from five continents.

With a discography of solo, concerto, and chamber works by over a dozen composers, Weiss has recorded for Koch International, Toccata Classics, and Bridge Records. In 2023, Bridge Records released The Complete Beethoven Piano Trios 3-CD set recorded by her trio, the Weiss-Kaplan-Stump Trio. The recordings received critical acclaim in the US and international press, including Gramophone magazine’s description of her sounding “…as if the composer were at the keyboard.” 

Inspired by collaborations that bridge musical traditions and cultures, Yaël Weiss has worked with composers from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Congo, Cuba, Myanmar, Syria, and Venezuela, bringing new voices to the concert stage. She has released premiere recordings of works by Lera Auerbach, Chen Yi, Joel Feigin, Paul Lansky, and Fred Lerdahl.

Equally at home as a soloist and chamber musician, Weiss has performed with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Slovak National Orchestra, the Brazil National Symphony Orchestra, the Brentano and Borromeo String Quartets, and violinist Midori. Festival appearances include Marlboro, Ravinia, and the City of London Festival. 

Yaël Weiss has served on the faculty of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and UC Santa Barbara. She has presented masterclasses at more than 50 institutions worldwide, including Oberlin Conservatory, Oxford University, Cleveland Institute, Tel Aviv University, Princeton University, and music schools in Japan, Korea, Brazil and Canada. She maintains a private studio in New York City.

Yaël Weiss’s teaching draws upon the traditions of her mentors, Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode, while fostering a creative approach that values independent thinking. She emphasizes the development of natural pianistic skills, joyful practice habits, interpretive confidence, and ease in performance. Encouraging students to discover solo, collaborative, and new music repertoire that resonates with their own artistic voice, Weiss is committed to helping each student find meaning and fulfillment through music.