Yang was awarded the silver medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of 19.

[3] Joyce Yang performed as soloist with the Kansas City Symphony for the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's Piano Concerto in 2019.

[citation needed] At age nine, Yang went to New York with her mother and aunt to play for Yoheved Kaplinsky.

[citation needed] In 1997 Joyce moved to New York and began studying in Juilliard's pre-college division with Kaplinsky.

On November 28, 2017 Yang and Italian violinist Augustin Hadelich's 2016 album Works for Violin and Piano by Franck, Kurtág, Previn, Schumann was nominated for the 60th Annual Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in the Classical Music category.