PORT ANGELES — Leo Yang, a national award-winning youth pianist, will perform at Field Arts & Events Hall on April 13 thanks to the generosity of a 1975 Port Angeles High School graduate.
Terry Correia, who is also scheduled to perform at the event, is donating the services of herself and Yang because of a desire to support Olympic Medical Center through the OMC Foundation.
“I know that this is a difficult time financially for most hospitals in the country,” Correia said in a press release, adding she wanted to do something for OMC.
“My mom has been treated there and has received excellent care.”
Also performing at the event will be the University of Washington Wind Ensemble, which will play as a group but also accompany Yang on “Rhapsody in Blue” to finish the show.
Brad McDavid, who recently retired as the University of Washington Husky band director after a 30-year stint, opened the door to bring the wind ensemble to Port Angeles. McDavid and the Husky band have performed at several Sonny Sixkiller Husky Legend Golf Classics, an event that benefits the OMC Foundation and is held at Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course.
Six local musicians – Jesse Ahmann, Nancy McPherson, Harley Names, Jim Janssen and Nathan and Samantha Rodahl will also play with Yang for “Camille St. Saens Septet, Opus 65.”
Tickets are $35 to $275 for the 5:30 p.m. show at the Field Hall, 201 W. Front St., and are available at fieldhallevents.org. For more information, call the OMC Foundation office at 360-417-7144.
Special tickets include VIP seating and a special dinner after the event: “Dinner With the Chefs,” to feature Toga Hertzog of Toga’s Soup House Deli & Gourmet and Toga’s Fine dining, and Michael McQuay, owner/chef of Kokopelli’s and Hook & Line Pub.
“Dinner With the Chefs” will feature a six-course meal with wine pairings.
“We want to create the finest dinner that has ever been served at an event on the Olympic Peninsula,” Hertzog said.
“The menu will be fine dining at its best,” said McQuay, and will include prime Newport beef striploin, cold-smoked halibut blinis with crème fraiche, seafood strudel of king salmon, cod, scallops and will conclude with a “death by chocolate” flour-less cake with raspberry couli.
Yang is one of the top youth pianists in the country. As a 16-year-old high school student in Chapel Hill, N.C., he won the Elite International Duet Competition, and he was featured in a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York in February 2022.
His many awards include first place in the South Carolina piano competition at Wingate University in January 2022, and the audience award in the 2022 Knabe finals in Maryland.
He is also the captain for the Piano Performance Team led by Correia, a group of three to five students from North Carolina who are selected by audition each year. It was created to give talented young pianists various opportunities to perform as well as provide a community outreach program in the arts. They have performed for military troops, colleges, churches, retirement communities, restaurants and many school systems in North Carolina and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.
Before graduating from Port Angeles High School, Correia played all over town. She was an elementary and middle school and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church accompanist. She was also the first full-time organist for First United Methodist Church and a percussionist for the Port Angeles Symphony.
In addition, she was the student conductor and pianist for the Port Angeles Youth Orchestra, and was in the high school orchestra, choir and pops choir.
