HEADLINES
“A Triumph for Seattle Opera.” (CityArts)
“Dream Revisits Nightmare of Japanese in U.S.” (Classical Voice America)
"Tricky Stravinsky piece beautifully rendered by assured Merola singers and fluent conducting" (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Yan teases out best of The Rake's Progress." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Judith Yan's performance made the score's sharp edges sound natural and even commonsensical, like poetry recited in the speaker's own language." (San Francisco Chronicle)
REVIEWS
“The superb conducting of Judith Yan was finely balanced - sensitively accompanying the vocalists, and at the same time allowing the orchestra (the always excellent Louisiana Philharmonic) to soar when called for by the music.” George Dansker (New Orleans Opera, Madama Butterfly, Opera News 2023)
“Judith Yan, in her Opera Omaha debut, conducted masterfully. The orchestra maintained tonal integrity even when playing delicately and softly, providing a secure foundation of support for the singers. Yan knew exactly when to pull the orchestra back and when to let it loose.” Kevin Hanrahan (Opera Omaha Suor Angelica, Opera News 2023)
“In her VO debut, Canadian conductor Judith Yan really shone in the pit, bringing extraordinarily lyrical and expressive playing from the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. Yan held the musical thread firmly but synched the ebb and flow of Puccini’s score perfectly with the onstage drama unfolding before the audience’s eyes. The applause swelled noticeably when she appeared onstage to take her bows at curtain.” Robert Jordan (Vancouver Opera, La Boheme, Opera Canada)
“The Edmonton Symphony played splendidly under Judith Yan...coaxed many vivid, dramatically transparent moments from the players.” (Edmonton Opera, La Traviata, Opera Canada 2019).
“But, for all the onstage energy, the guiding intelligence of the performance is plain to see in the pit. The coiled, compact figure of Judith Yan, diminutive in her black frock coat, drives the her musicians with nuanced control, milking all the tuneful sweetness of Puccini’s score while elegantly limning the deft tone-painting of his orchestration.” (Vancouver Opera, La Boheme, Vancouver Observer)
“The other star of this production is conductor Judith Yan, and the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. She draws out the lyrical beauty of Puccini’s music, easing gradually into, say, Mimi and Rodolfo’s goodbye duet in Act 3, and never rushing its shifting emotions.” (Vancouver Opera, La Boheme, City Arts Magazine)
"Under the baton of Judith Yan, the music just came to life." (Kentucky Opera, Orfeo, Arts-Louisville Reviews).
“Judith Yan conducts a chamber orchestra in an admirably well-paced performance supporting but never overwhelming the singers.” (Seattle Opera, An American Dream, CityArts)
“Judith Yan, in her Seattle Opera debut, conducted the orchestra of 15 players with vigor and deep sympathy for the score.” (Seattle Opera, An American Dream, Classical Voice America)
“Under the direction of Canadian conductor Judith Yan, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra is simply wonderful.” (West Australian Ballet, Don Quixote, Greg Ross, 2018)
“With this performance, and the closing of her second season as Artistic Director with the GSO, Yan is quickly earning her title as Guelph’s Kapellmeister and the orchestra is growing in leaps and bounds.” (Guelph Symphony Orchestra, Guelph Mercury)
"...the evening's principal hero was conductor Judith Yan, who led this daunting score with astonishing precision and fluency...the rhythmic language is full of dislocations and sudden U-turns, and too many performances - even by first-tier conductors - end up lurching drunkenly from one downbeat to the next. Yan's performance, by contrast, moved as fluidly and securely as any I've ever heard. She never downplayed or regularized the score's sharp edges, but she made them sound natural and even commonsensical, like poetry recited in the speaker's own language" Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Opera Merola, The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky, San Francisco Chronicle)
"...Anne was a really exciting, flesh-and-blood character. That made her interaction with Baba all the more poignant. It's not that these things aren't in the score already - it's just that you seldom witness them, leaving the mistaken impression that Stravinsky's only full-length opera is a dry, desiccated bore. I know it isn't, because the first performance I ever heard with Richard Lewis in 1962 - moved me to tears.
I've been searching for that human feeling ever since. A good deal of credit goes to conductor Judith Yan, who made the astringent score sound as lyrical as Puccini ( not a bad thing, no matter what critics more austere than I want you to believe), and supported her singers like few main-stage conductors ever do." Stephanie von Buchau (San Francisco Opera Merola, The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky, Bay Area Reporter)
"It's a tricky blend to sound smoothly, but conductor Judith Yan led her musicians with great power and style." ( San Francisco Opera Merola, The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky, San Francisco Classical Voice)
“Yan's leadership, both passionate and precise, created wonders from the Conservatory student orchestra, with long passages of exceptional playing.” Janos Gereben (San Francisco Conservatory, Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart, San Francisco Classical Voice, April 2006)
"Conducted with understated verve by Judith Yan, Mozart's vibrant score sounds brisk and nuanced, its blend of ornate seriousness and plain-spoken melody melding superbly." Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Opera, La Finta Giardiniera, Mozart, The San Francisco Chronicle, April 2002)
"The music glistened under the baton of conductor Judith Yan…textures were lucid and the lyric line convincingly sustained." John Bender (San Francisco Opera, La Finta Giardiniera, Mozart, Opera Canada, Fall 2002)
"COC conductor-in-residence Judith Yan conducted the company's Ensemble Studio orchestra authoritatively in a sensitive reading that encompassed both the lyricism and brutality of Britten's great score." Paul Baker (Canadian Opera Company, The Rape of Lucretia, Britten, Opera Canada, March, 2000)
"The chamber orchestra under Judith Yan's energetic conducting skillfully projected the score's rhythmic variety and its striking harmonic shifts, always allied to and furthering the action on stage." Peter Dysan (Canadian Opera Company, The Rape of Lucretia, Britten, Opera, March, 2000)
"The second excerpt was conducted by Judith Yan, making up for her lack of years with an assured technique." Warren Wilson (Canadian Opera Company, Altamira Concerts Harbourfront, The Globe and Mail, August 27th, 1998)
“A Triumph for Seattle Opera.” (CityArts)
“Dream Revisits Nightmare of Japanese in U.S.” (Classical Voice America)
"Tricky Stravinsky piece beautifully rendered by assured Merola singers and fluent conducting" (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Yan teases out best of The Rake's Progress." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Judith Yan's performance made the score's sharp edges sound natural and even commonsensical, like poetry recited in the speaker's own language." (San Francisco Chronicle)
REVIEWS
“The superb conducting of Judith Yan was finely balanced - sensitively accompanying the vocalists, and at the same time allowing the orchestra (the always excellent Louisiana Philharmonic) to soar when called for by the music.” George Dansker (New Orleans Opera, Madama Butterfly, Opera News 2023)
“Judith Yan, in her Opera Omaha debut, conducted masterfully. The orchestra maintained tonal integrity even when playing delicately and softly, providing a secure foundation of support for the singers. Yan knew exactly when to pull the orchestra back and when to let it loose.” Kevin Hanrahan (Opera Omaha Suor Angelica, Opera News 2023)
“In her VO debut, Canadian conductor Judith Yan really shone in the pit, bringing extraordinarily lyrical and expressive playing from the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. Yan held the musical thread firmly but synched the ebb and flow of Puccini’s score perfectly with the onstage drama unfolding before the audience’s eyes. The applause swelled noticeably when she appeared onstage to take her bows at curtain.” Robert Jordan (Vancouver Opera, La Boheme, Opera Canada)
“The Edmonton Symphony played splendidly under Judith Yan...coaxed many vivid, dramatically transparent moments from the players.” (Edmonton Opera, La Traviata, Opera Canada 2019).
“But, for all the onstage energy, the guiding intelligence of the performance is plain to see in the pit. The coiled, compact figure of Judith Yan, diminutive in her black frock coat, drives the her musicians with nuanced control, milking all the tuneful sweetness of Puccini’s score while elegantly limning the deft tone-painting of his orchestration.” (Vancouver Opera, La Boheme, Vancouver Observer)
“The other star of this production is conductor Judith Yan, and the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. She draws out the lyrical beauty of Puccini’s music, easing gradually into, say, Mimi and Rodolfo’s goodbye duet in Act 3, and never rushing its shifting emotions.” (Vancouver Opera, La Boheme, City Arts Magazine)
"Under the baton of Judith Yan, the music just came to life." (Kentucky Opera, Orfeo, Arts-Louisville Reviews).
“Judith Yan conducts a chamber orchestra in an admirably well-paced performance supporting but never overwhelming the singers.” (Seattle Opera, An American Dream, CityArts)
“Judith Yan, in her Seattle Opera debut, conducted the orchestra of 15 players with vigor and deep sympathy for the score.” (Seattle Opera, An American Dream, Classical Voice America)
“Under the direction of Canadian conductor Judith Yan, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra is simply wonderful.” (West Australian Ballet, Don Quixote, Greg Ross, 2018)
“With this performance, and the closing of her second season as Artistic Director with the GSO, Yan is quickly earning her title as Guelph’s Kapellmeister and the orchestra is growing in leaps and bounds.” (Guelph Symphony Orchestra, Guelph Mercury)
"...the evening's principal hero was conductor Judith Yan, who led this daunting score with astonishing precision and fluency...the rhythmic language is full of dislocations and sudden U-turns, and too many performances - even by first-tier conductors - end up lurching drunkenly from one downbeat to the next. Yan's performance, by contrast, moved as fluidly and securely as any I've ever heard. She never downplayed or regularized the score's sharp edges, but she made them sound natural and even commonsensical, like poetry recited in the speaker's own language" Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Opera Merola, The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky, San Francisco Chronicle)
"...Anne was a really exciting, flesh-and-blood character. That made her interaction with Baba all the more poignant. It's not that these things aren't in the score already - it's just that you seldom witness them, leaving the mistaken impression that Stravinsky's only full-length opera is a dry, desiccated bore. I know it isn't, because the first performance I ever heard with Richard Lewis in 1962 - moved me to tears.
I've been searching for that human feeling ever since. A good deal of credit goes to conductor Judith Yan, who made the astringent score sound as lyrical as Puccini ( not a bad thing, no matter what critics more austere than I want you to believe), and supported her singers like few main-stage conductors ever do." Stephanie von Buchau (San Francisco Opera Merola, The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky, Bay Area Reporter)
"It's a tricky blend to sound smoothly, but conductor Judith Yan led her musicians with great power and style." ( San Francisco Opera Merola, The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky, San Francisco Classical Voice)
“Yan's leadership, both passionate and precise, created wonders from the Conservatory student orchestra, with long passages of exceptional playing.” Janos Gereben (San Francisco Conservatory, Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart, San Francisco Classical Voice, April 2006)
"Conducted with understated verve by Judith Yan, Mozart's vibrant score sounds brisk and nuanced, its blend of ornate seriousness and plain-spoken melody melding superbly." Joshua Kosman (San Francisco Opera, La Finta Giardiniera, Mozart, The San Francisco Chronicle, April 2002)
"The music glistened under the baton of conductor Judith Yan…textures were lucid and the lyric line convincingly sustained." John Bender (San Francisco Opera, La Finta Giardiniera, Mozart, Opera Canada, Fall 2002)
"COC conductor-in-residence Judith Yan conducted the company's Ensemble Studio orchestra authoritatively in a sensitive reading that encompassed both the lyricism and brutality of Britten's great score." Paul Baker (Canadian Opera Company, The Rape of Lucretia, Britten, Opera Canada, March, 2000)
"The chamber orchestra under Judith Yan's energetic conducting skillfully projected the score's rhythmic variety and its striking harmonic shifts, always allied to and furthering the action on stage." Peter Dysan (Canadian Opera Company, The Rape of Lucretia, Britten, Opera, March, 2000)
"The second excerpt was conducted by Judith Yan, making up for her lack of years with an assured technique." Warren Wilson (Canadian Opera Company, Altamira Concerts Harbourfront, The Globe and Mail, August 27th, 1998)