Christopher Richardson

Christopher was the featured soloist with several orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra, Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra, Peninsula Symphony, Federal Way Symphony, Pacific Orchestra and Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra.

He was one of the top prizewinners in numerous national and international piano competitions, including the 2015 International Keyboard Institute and Festival Competition, Kaufman Young Artist Piano Competition, 2013 & 2015 International e-Piano Competitions, 2011 Lennox International Young Artists Concerto Competition, 2011 Virginia Waring Concerto Junior Division, Tureck International Bach Competition, and 2012 LA Liszt International Competition. In recent years, he has won First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the 2016 National MTNA Competition, Audience Favorite Award at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition 2017 for ages 18-30, First Prize at the 2017 MTAC State Concerto Competition, First Prize at the 2017 CA State Young Artists MTNA Competition, and 3rd Prize at the Carmel Music Society’s Piano Competition for Ages 18-30.

He has participated in many music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival, Sejong International Music Festival, and the Oberlin International Artists Recital Series Festival. Selected as one of the scholarship winners at the National Chopin Foundation of the US in 2013 and 2015, and a winner at the National YoungArts Foundation, he has performed in prestigious venues, including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Field Concert Hall, Benaroya Hall, Harris Concert Hall, Aspen’s Music Tent, and McCallum Theater.

He appeared on NPR’s “From the Top”, TV program PIE on KCTS 9, and King FM 98.1. He spoke about and performed piano at a TEDx conference in Washington. Christopher was accepted to the Juilliard School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory under Leon Fleisher. He currently is a UC Berkeley pre-med student pursuing a triple major in Music, Economics, and Biology. He studies piano privately with Mack McCray, and is the official blog writer for the Steinway Society of the Bay Area, where he details his experiences and thoughts on the various aspects of classical music.

“An enthusiastic audience greeted… Christopher Richardson as he came out on stage to perform Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole, the first movement of Beethoven’s Les Adieux Sonata and the Toccata, Op. 15, by Robert Muczynski. Exhibiting a self-confident mastery in all three works, we had the impression we were hearing three different pianists — a dazzling virtuoso who brought artistic dignity to a much maligned Liszt warhorse, a sensitive Beethoven player and a sincere advocate for 20th-century music who was totally convincing in his exciting performance of the Muczynski Toccata.” –

Review by Lyn Bronson from the Peninsula Reviews