Professor named endowed scholar

It was announced last month that Dr. Yu-Jane Yang, professor of piano at Weber State University, has been selected as the Endowed Scholar of the College of Arts and Humanities.
“It was a really big surprise,” Yang said, “and I feel really honored to get this recognition because there are so many good people in our colleges.”
The Endowed Scholar Award, established in 1993, is an award “intended to recognize outstanding accomplishments of faculty in the College of Arts and Humanities in the areas of scholarship/scholarly and artistic accomplishments and excellence in teaching and professional contributions.”
The award gives the recipient $15,000 over three years in support for continuing their learning, research and dedication to their field.
“I can’t really think of anyone right now as deserving as Dr. Yang,” said Dr. Candadai Seshachari, former Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at WSU. “She is a remarkable professor of music — of piano — all of her students have received national awards.”
Dr. Yang began learning piano at the age of five, and has performed and taught throughout Asia, Europe, Canada and the United States. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the National Taiwan Normal University, two masters degrees from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. with the highest honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
“I have always enjoyed sharing things with people,” Yang said. “I think it helps me to be able to summarize, make it clear to me about what I have learned when I teach it to other people, and I just enjoy very much being able to share this gift of knowledge with all kinds of ages and all kinds of levels.”
Over the years, Dr. Yang’s teaching and performances have led to many national and international awards for herself and her students. Her classes range from beginners around six years old to students and adults of all skill levels and disciplines.
“The most important thing she gave me; I learned how to really listen to music,” said Fan-Ya Lin, piano student at WSU. “That helped me to pursue my career. The way that she dedicates herself to music — she really cares about it and is passionate. She taught me to give each note a different character so your music becomes very colorful for your audience to listen to. She’s a really good model for me.”
Dr. Yang said she considers herself very lucky to have had the opportunities to perform and teach around the world, but prefers to focus on teaching at WSU for now. Her teaching style and dedication to consistently learning have helped to keep her in touch with her students.
“The performance aspect still keeps you in contact with the performing art,” Yang said. “I think it makes your comments to the students have even more credibility … they see you going through the same struggles and everything brings you closer to the students and you would be able to serve as a better model by doing that.”
She has become an in-demand clinician and master class teacher nationally and internationally. She regards her position at WSU with great esteem and excitement for the future.
“We have a great music program and I just want to make sure that everybody in the world knows about it,” Yang said. “My colleague and I thought we’d have a slogan for people who are coming to Weber State for their piano studies. We just say, ‘Come to Weber State. We can take you from where you are to where you can be.’ We really hope that we will be able to bring the level of Weber State to the very top.”
She continues to perform regularly, most recently in the “Formosam Duo Violin and Piano Recital” with her husband, Shi-Hwa Wang earlier this week.