Angel Stanislav Wang Brings Solitude, Fire, and Soul to the Cliburn Stage

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As Angel Stanislav Wang sat before me in the depths of Bass Hall, he dropped a showstopper.

“I’m a little nervous,” the 22-year-old soft-spoken, lanky, devilishly handsome, warm and charming American said of this and a preceding interview.

Wang had just come off the stage after a remarkable semifinal performance on Thursday afternoon at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in front of a full concert hall and hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, more viewing worldwide. But this makes him nervous?

“It was really as though I was by myself in the concert hall,” Wang said. “That's such a great feeling. It’s thanks to the Cliburn team. I think they just created such a magical atmosphere for all the artists — the lighting, the cameras. You just feel a [powerful sense of] solitude. You're basically by yourself in the crowded room. And that is a really great feeling.”

The audience in Fort Worth, he said, is the greatest in the world. On Sunday, Cliburn officials announced that Wang was selected one of six finalists who will vie for the prestigious decoration as gold medalist this week. 

“I shouldn’t say that probably,” he jokes, fearful of causing offense to the audiences he has played for in the past. There have been lots of them.

A silver medalist at the 2023 Tchaikovsky Competition and winner of more than 35 international contests, Wang regularly performs across the United States and Europe, including Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Croatia. His appearances include prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, all three major halls of the Moscow Conservatory (Great, Small, and Rachmaninov), the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Halls in St. Petersburg, and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.

In the Cliburn semifinals, Wang treated us to Beethoven’s fiery “Appassionata,” a pair of bold pieces from Bolcom’s 12 New Etudes — “Fast, furious” and “Hymne à l'amour” — and Mussorgsky’s epic Pictures at an Exhibition.

“Bringing the drama is exactly what he does, right? I've noticed over the course of the competition, he really lights up in music in which he can animate characters or tell a story or something like that,” said Buddy Bray, who is serving as an analyst on the Cliburn webcasts. “That really gets him going. I also loved hearing those Bolcom [pieces]. I didn't know either one of them, but the second one sounded a lot like Messiaen to me, and, so, I was riveted.”

Wang also used his elbow in “Fast and Furious,” the first time he’s done that.

“I mean, it's a new experience,” he said of using his elbow, his eyes seeming to brighten as he explained. “It's very new. It's different, but I guess it's a very aggressive piece, and it's supposed to be that way. It's called ‘Fast and Furious,’ and there is no compromise. So, you have to go straight for it. It's meant to be aggressive, and that's the whole effect. I thought after the ‘Appassionata’ why don't I try this piece of music just to have this effect — the shock — and then kind of slowly make my way into a different era, a different world. And that is the Pictures of the Exhibition. It was kind of a bridge between the two periods of Beethoven and Mussorgsky.”

Wang was born in Los Angeles, surrounded by music from the start. Both of his parents are pianists — his dad from China, his mom from Russia. Both immigrants, they started a music school in California. Performing came naturally to their young son. Whether it was playing piano, dancing, or singing, he loved being on stage. As a little kid, he’d turn their living room into a full-on production, obsessing over everything from lighting and costumes to sound effects.

“Classical music was always around,” he said. “The first time I heard Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, I ran to the piano and tried to play those beautiful harmonies and endless melodies that had completely pulled me in.”

His mother began teaching him piano seriously when he was 5. It quickly became apparent he had something special. Wanting him to study the same rigorous tradition she had, she moved him to Moscow in 2013. There, he lived with his grandparents and enrolled at the prestigious Gnessin Special School of Music, studying under Tatiana Zelikman. He later joined Natalia Trull’s studio at the Central Music School and, in 2020, entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he continues his studies today.

“The education system is very intense,” Wang said. “My mom, who studied in the Central Music School as well, wanted the same system for me, the Russian piano school. It was very complicated. It was a very tough decision to make because I was 10 years old. My father was totally against it. He finally agreed in the last moment.”

Wang today speaks English, his native tongue, Russian — which he didn’t speak a lick of 11 years ago — and he has a strong familiarity with Mandarin.

Wang returns to the stage Saturday evening for his second semifinal performance: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

He and the other 11 semifinalists are vying to be one of six to advance to the finals net week. In the end, a total of $265,000 in cash will be awarded, including $100,000 for the gold medalist, $50,000 for the silver medalist, and $25,000 for the bronze medalist. Medalists also receive three years of comprehensive personalized career management and concerts.

Winning here would be a dream come true for Wang, who called Van Cliburn “my hero.”

In fact, Wang has more than a passing resemblance to the iconic pianist, who stormed onto the classical stage as a 23-year-old after winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958. Wang is all arms and legs, with long, nimble fingers made for piano, jumping across the keyboard like a leaping spider.

And he’s a sweetheart of a guy. You can’t help but fall in love with him. (He was offering to get us all a cup of coffee by interview's end.)

“I listened to him when I was 5 years old for the first time, the recording of the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition,” Wang said of Cliburn. “As a young child, I didn't think I would cry, but I did. When I heard Rachmaninoff 3 there's something above that he does that he communicates to the audience. That is something that I aspire to have a little piece of. Just to have this pure essence of music and enjoyment on stage and truly not playing yourself, playing the composer and delivering the composer's soul to the audience. That is something that I really work on. And I think that's the most important thing for a musician. The soul of the composer is always in the concert hall.”