Curriculum Vitae
Charlie Albright, Pianist/Composer
www.CharlieAlbright.com
860 United Nations Plaza, Apt. 35C
New York, NY 10017
Updated 10/26/2015
Bill Capone, Arts Management Group
Education:
Juilliard School of Music, 2014 Artist Diploma (A.D.)
New England Conservatory of Music, 2012 Masters of Music (M.M.)
Harvard College, 2011 Bachelors of Economics (B.A.)
Centralia College, 2007 Associate of Science (A.S.)
Centralia High School, 2007 Diploma
Principal Instructors:
Yoheved Kaplinsky 2012-Present
Wha-Kyung Byun, 2007-2012
Nancy Adsit, 1995-2007
Awards and Distinctions:
2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant
2014 Ruhr Klavier Festival Young Artist Award, Presented by Marc-André Hamelin
2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award
2009 Young Concert Artist International Auditions/Competition
*First Prize
Official Steinway Artist
2013 Arthur W. Foote Prize – Harvard Musical Association
2011 American Public Media/National Public Radio Performance Today Artist-in-Residence
2011 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, Harvard University
2011 Harvard Class 15 Most Interesting Seniors
2011-2012 Harvard University Leverett House Artist-in-Residence
2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition (Lisbon, Portugal)
*Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award
*Semi-Finalist Award (Top 15 of 1250+)
2009 Top of the World International Piano Competition (Tromso, Norway)
*Semi-Finalist Award (Top 12)
2008 Grand Prix Animato International Piano Competition (Paris, France)
*Semi-Finalist Award (Top Six)
2008 Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia (Sydney, Australia)
*Best Performance of a Study by Liszt in Stage I
*Semi-Finalist Award (Top Twelve)
2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition (Hilton Head Island, SC, USA)
*Third Prize
2006 Schimmel International Piano Competition (Phoenix, AZ)
*Second Prize
2005 IIYM International Piano Competition (Lawrence, KS)
*First Prize
Charlie Albright Piano Spokesman
Charlie Albright Scholarship Spokesman
Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Financial Aid Recipient
Rotary Scholarship Recipient
Centralia Community Concerts Scholarship Recipient
Performance Experience:
Continuous - Repeated engagements with major orchestras, including with the San Francisco
Symphony Orchestra (twice), Boston Pops, Seattle Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and the BBC
Concert Orchestra.
October 3, 2012 – Fifth Performance with Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
September 27, 2011 – Performance with Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
October 22, 2009 - Performance with Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project
March 3, 2009 – Performance with Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project for Witness, a
commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
December 1, 2008 – Performance with Cellist Yo-Yo Ma for Senator Ted Kennedy’s Honorary Harvard
Degree Ceremony. Guests included Vice President-Elect Joe Biden, Supreme Court Justice
Stephen Breyer, and Senator John Kerry.
2003-2008 - Various Guest Artist Performances with Orchestras, including the Hilton Head Symphony
Orchestra, the 2007-2008 Harvard Bach Society Orchestra, the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, the Northwest Wind Symphony Orchestra, and the
Olympia Symphony Orchestra
2005-2008 – Various Solo Engagements in New York City, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Washington, D.C.;
Lawrence, KS; White Plains, NY; Seattle, WA; Olympia, WA; and Centralia, WA
Teaching:
Continuous – Private piano instructor for elementary through post-university-graduate students.
2007-Present – Frequent masterclass Instructor at US universities, including Western Washington
University
2007-Present – Frequent Student outreach speaker for elementary through college level, for small to
large groups (10-1500 students)
Festivals:
2007 Paris Piano Institute
2005 International Institute for Young Musicians
2004 TCU/Cliburn Piano Institute
Press and Reviews:
“Albright is among the most gifted musicians of his generation.” “An impressive range of differently
colored sounds was matched by overwhelming virtuosity. Albright leapt the most outrageous technical
hurdles…with a sense of dangerous self-abandon that was thrilling to hear.” “At the same time, musical
shape was never sacrificed to showmanship.”
–The Washington Post, 2/15/11
“The soloist in the concerto, the young American pianist Charlie Albright, made quite an impression. He is
full of ideas…and has a dazzling natural keyboard affinity. He does not have an overpowering sonority
(fingers more velvet than steel) but a lot of nuance.”
–The Washington Post, 4/26/15
“Jaw-dropping technique.” “Virtuosity meshed with distinctive musicality.” “Intelligently wrought
interpretation.”
–The New York Times, 3/8/11
“(If Albright) is not indisputably first among equals, he seems to me unsurpassed, anyway, and on the top
tier. I will be surprised to hear another performance at this level very soon. It was gripping, frankly, both
spellbinding and spellbound, quite unlike most such solo recitals I’ve heard over the decades. It was
entirely evident that Albright got it, has important viewpoints, can impose without effort his will to say what
he wants to say, never missing those subtler breaks with aching modulations. Albright contrasted lyricism
of the greatest beauty with drama and portent, all in an unobvious, unobtrusive, unrushed and again
cannily pedaled way. This was rare keyboard musicianship, interior, also remote, full of unease, a lonely
wanderer in outer space sending back messages from other worlds. Albright was fully present and on top
of things, attentive to his own performance, in complete command and control of his fingers, able to make
things go just as he decided. Pedaling remained expert, a perfection of smudges; rubato was integral, any
momentary overinflection likewise integral; likewise possibly excessive arpeggiation. Feathery touch was
never employed for its own sake.”
–The Boston Musical Intelligencer, 3/26/13
“Albright has the requisite chops of a competition winner, but the beauty, sensitivity, and taste of a mature
artist. His Schubert was ravishing, imaginative, poetic—full of poignancy and lyricism. It would seem
Albright is a born Schubert player, whose taste is simply impeccable. His interpretation sounded
spontaneous, but this was also heartfelt, mature playing. Everything had been thought out by a mind
brimming with musical intelligence. Albright is a master of improvisation.”
–The Boston Musical Intelligencer, 9/29/13
“Albright is a pianist whose name music-lovers will be hearing more and more. Winner of a slew of
awards, most prominently a 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Albright is now in the company of
musicians who have become household names…Ursula Oppens, Richard Stoltzman, Joshua Bell, Hillary
Hahn, Yuja Wang, and many others who have made their marks. Mr. Albright will undoubtedly lend his
own additional distinction to this already illustrious group. This concert, an evening not to be forgotten. He
displayed a joy in his playing that was utterly infectious. Beethoven, for one, felt new, because as casual
as Mr. Albright was in his stage style and commentary, he was equally intense in his high-powered
performances. The finale…took on a fire of the master’s Op. 57 or 111. It was brilliant, precise, and
powerful. In fact, throughout the entire evening, he displayed a joy in playing that was utterly infectious.
He disarms jaded concertgoers with an openness and humility that for some reason we are not prepared
to expect. Albright brings a vibrant spirit and limitless range for performances. He possesses a kind of
intellect that doesn’t stop growing and will no doubt continue to surprise as his career progresses. The
Etude No. 11 (“Winter Wind”), was, as they say, “as good as it gets” – and so was No. 12 (“The Ocean”).
The improvisation was…spectacular, and the spontaneity, even with stylistic similarity to Chopin and
Rachmaninoff, kept one on the edge of one’s seat. The improvisation alone was worth the trip. Bravo –
and encore!”
–New York Concert Review Inc., 11/20/2014
“Charlie Albright captured its sound world and structures with unfailing mastery. His total immersion in
the composer’s innermost being continued in the dreamy, bubbling Andante, from which burst the
majestic Grande Polonaise for piano and orchestra. It is a most brilliant work of its kind. In the hands of
this soloist, the texture, bathed in full splendour, flowed along with an effortless virtuosity enlivened by a
primitive rhythmic drive and a refined piano tone. The arrangement of W.A. Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca
heard as an encore soared like a magnificent firework in which virtuosity knew no bounds.”
–Kymen Sanomet (Kotka, Finland), 1/16/2015
“What can’t the man do? He played…like a consummate actor whose pianistic skill was a mere
bonus…with tireless dexterity, split-second timing and booming power in the low register, but his polish
and poise disguised the hard work in a cloak of drama. His hands coursed down like white-hot bolts onto
the keys. He leaned back like a dignified matron and took everyone to finishing school…and jetted
through it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The crowd wouldn’t let Albright go.”
–Lansing City Pulse, Lansing, MI
“A level of polish that pianists twice his age would envy.”
–Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY
Albright galvanized a capacity crowd...not only with a superb technical display but also a level of
musicianship that could only be called poetically magical." "His program showed off some of the things he
does best: a frothy, fleet, effortless technique; a singing tone that is like a caress; phrasing that breathes
and lifts with exquisite nuances; and an exuberance that is as sunny as it is intense, passionate and
effervescent." Furthermore, "Albright's 12 Chopin Etudes were...perfect."
-Schenectady Daily Gazette, January, 2012
“Pianist Charlie Albright steals Phoenix Symphony show”
-The Phoenix Republic, 11/5/11
“Charlie Albright is poet of the piano, one of the most engaging, sensitive and thoughtful young artists I’ve
heard in years.”
–Robert Sherman, WQXR Radio, NY
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Whatcom Symphony Orchestra audience leap to its feet as fast as it did this
afternoon. The final thunderous chord of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bl-Flat
minor, Op. 23, hadn’t even begun to fade before bravos were being rained on 24-year-old pianist Charlie
Albright. It wasn’t raining nearly as hard outside and that’s saying a lot. The New York Times referred to
Albright’s technique as “…jaw-dropping.” It’s not even slightly hyperbolic. He took Tchaikovsky the way
Petruchio took Kate and it was simply electrifying. Albright had to perform an encore before the crowd
would let him go.”
–Entertainment News NW, 11/11/12
“The cost of a Lafayette Symphony Orchestra ticket Saturday night: Priceless. Charlie Albright dazzled in
front of the LSO with his brilliant technique and sensitive musicality. Albright played with flawless and
dazzling technique, great sensitivity and musicality, but also appeared to be engrossed in and enjoying
himself at the piano. His pleasure was reminiscent of the watching world-famous Chinese pianist Lang
Lang. Musicality and sensitivity were great companions and partners with Albright’s technique and
virtuosity. The greatest treat of the evening, following the standing ovation, was the encore Albright chose
to play. Even more dazzling in technical difficulty, young Albright played Russian pianist and composer
Arcadi Volodos’ arrangement of the Mozart “Rondo ala Turca.” It was a devilishly difficult piece and
Albright played it effortlessly.
–Entertainment News NW, 3/4/13