Pianist Jessica J. Yam, DMA is active as soloist, chamber artist, pedagogue, and director of various artistic programs. Together with pianist Elias-Axel Pettersson, she formed duo Æterna Sirius in 2017; the pair has given masterclasses and toured across North America. Jessica has collaborated with numerous other instrumentalists, singers, and conductors, and has performed as guest artist with orchestras like New England Philharmonic, Baltimore, Young People’s Symphony, among others. She has won several accolades including the Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship as one of two national recipients of her year. Since elected Artistic Director of the nonprofit Arizona Piano Institute, she expanded its premier annual Summer Festival with internationally-acclaimed artists to include a Concerto Competition and other season programs. She has furthered her artistic outreach and collaboration with many prominent arts organizations in the community including MusicaNova Orchestra, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Phoenix Youth Symphony, and the like. She also joined the faculty at Adamant Music School in Vermont in 2019, teaching gifted students alongside faculty-artists of global renown at their summer festival. Jessica has taught at various institutions including Arizona State University, Southwestern College, throughout the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona, as well as many other schools. She has created curricula and taught various courses in piano, pedagogy, repertoire, song literature, and vocal diction, and guest presents seminars on myriad topics involving theory and analysis, performance practice and technique, and pedagogical practice.
Dr. Yam received training at New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Arizona State University under Faina Kofman, Douglas Humpherys, Yoshikazu Nagai, and Robert Hamilton. She has taught for over 20 years and maintains a private piano studio in Tempe, AZ.