Overview
Richard Valitutto is a Grammy-nominated piano soloist, chamber musician, vocal accompanist, and composing/improvising creative with an active performance schedule that spans both coasts of the U.S., across the country, and abroad. Described as a “vivid soloist,” “vigorously virtuosic,” “quietly dazzling,” and “all around go-to new music specialist” (LA Times), his soloistic charisma and flexible collaborative artistry have distinguished him for his tenacity in bringing dynamic life to scores in the spirit of integrated collaboration and informed understanding.
With a focus on contemporary keyboard performance, including repertoire for organ and harpsichord, Richard is particularly committed to exploring and performing the extended palette of piano techniques and the prepared piano. Equally at home in the standard classical canon as well as the far reaches of the ever-diversifying contemporary music landscape, Richard has cultivated a stylistically omnivorous taste and dexterous technique that have enabled him to work with numerous composers including John Adams, Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, Sofia Gubaidulina, John Harbison, David Lang, George Lewis, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, and Rebecca Saunders. He has premiered or been the dedicatee of works by Timo Andres, Christopher Cerrone, Nicholas Deyoe, Daví∂ Brynjar Franzson, Andrew Greenwald, Ted Hearne, Michelle Lou, Missy Mazzoli, Andrew Nathaniel McIntosh, and Wolfgang von Schweinitz, among many others.
Richard is a founding member of both the chamber orchestra/creative collective wild Up – named in the “Best Classical Music of 2015” by the New York Times – as well as the new music quartet, gnarwhallaby, called “as impressively gnarly as its name” (LA Times) in their Disney Hall debut and “startlingly versatile” (NY Times) in their Carnegie Hall debut. He regularly performs modern and contemporary art song with various singers and concert series and is one half of a composed-improvisation duo with saxophonist, musicologist, and composer Dave Wilson.
He has collaborated and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Martha Graham Dance Company, PBS Great Performances, Monday Evening Concerts, LA Dance Project, Opera Omaha, Piano Spheres, wasteLAnd, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Dilijan Chamber Music, MicroFest, People Inside Electronics, and Jacaranda Music series. Additional projects include productions by Beth Morrison Projects and LA Opera, The Industry, The Hammer Museum, LACMA, and the Green Umbrella series. He is featured on critically acclaimed recordings of solo, chamber, and ensemble music – both composed and improvised – for Kairos, Bridge, New World, hat[now]ART, Populist, pfMENTUM, Bôłt, and The Industry Records labels.
Richard is a Sage Fellow in Cornell University’s Keyboard Studies DMA program. He holds degrees in piano performance from the California Institute of the Arts (MFA) and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (BM, summa cum laude). More information at www.richardvalitutto.net.