The 2026 Festival

American-born and Vienna-based violist Alessandra Yang is the recipient of the Chamber Music Prize at the 2025 Concours de Genève International Viola Competition and First Prize at the MuK 2025 Concerto Competition. She is also a recipient of the Villa Musica Scholarship.

Alessandra has performed alongside distinguished artists including Corina Belcea, Stella Chen, and Peter Bruns, and she appears regularly at leading festivals such as Open Chamber Music (IMS Prussia Cove), Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and the Poor Richard Chamber Music Society.

Her musical development has been shaped by participation in renowned programs including the Verbier Festival Academy, Nume Festival, Seiji Ozawa Academy, and Accademia Chigiana, where she has worked closely with musicians such as Tabea Zimmerman, Kim Kashkashian, Kirill Gerstein, and Gábor Takács-Nagy.

Deeply engaged in historically informed performance, Alessandra plays both baroque viola and viola d’amore. In this sphere, she has collaborated with esteemed conductors John Eliot Gardiner and Stefan Gottfried, as well as violinists Lina Tur Bonet, Cynthia Roberts, and Elisabeth Wiesbauer. She is a frequent guest at the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival and has recorded with the orchestra Tempesta di Mare.

As an orchestral musician, Alessandra has worked with conductors including David Robertson, Ermanno Florio, and Kazuki Yamada, and performs regularly as a substitute with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Currently, Alessandra is completing her Bachelor’s degree with Jennifer Stumm and a Certificate of Performance in Historical Violin Instruments with Ulrike Engel at the Music and Arts Private University of Vienna (MuK). She previously studied at Juilliard Pre-College with Hsin-Yun Huang and Carol Rodland and has been coached by members of the Juilliard, Berg, Borromeo, Brentano, Danish, Tokyo, and Jupiter String Quartets.

She performs on a 2017 viola by Philadelphia-based luthier Hiroshi Iizuka, as well as an 1801 viola d’amore by Viennese maker Michael Stadlmann.

Outside of music, Alessandra enjoys cooking, exploring science fiction in books and film, and is a certified permaculture designer.