Charlie Albright

Charlie Albright ( ko, 찰리 박 올브라이트) is an American pianist, composer, and improviser. He is an official Steinway Artist, 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant Recipient, 2010 Gilmore Young Artist (2010) and former Young Concert Artist. He graduated from Harvard College (AB) and the New England Conservatory (MM) as the first classical pianist in the schools' five-year AB/MM Joint Program, was named the Leverett House Artist in Residence for 2011–2012, and was one of the 15 Most Interesting Seniors of the Harvard College Class of 2011. He graduated from the Juilliard School of Music with his post-graduate Artist Diploma (AD) in 2014.

Albright is a frequent collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma. ''The New York Times'' has praised "the accomplished pianist Charlie Albright" and his "jaw-dropping technique," describing his playing as "virtuosity with a distinctive musicality throughout." ''The New York Concert Review'' wrote that Albright's playing is "as good as it gets."''The Washington Post'' declared that "Albright is among the most gifted musicians of his generation." The Philadelphia Inquirer published that "his personality was evident in his way of shaping a phrase with a kind of extravagance that had showmanship but never felt cheap. With a fresh, clean, crystalline sound, he played with a kind of ease and smoothness that refuses to airbrush the music, but animates it from within. ebrought the art of classical-music improvisation to a new level." Albright lives in Seattle and in New York City.

Childhood

Albright was born in the U.S. Army hospital within Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington. His mother, Hyesoo, was a computer database specialist who was born in Seoul, and his father, Jeff Albright, was a U.S. Navy serviceman; the two married in Korea and then settled in Washington. Albright was born and his family moved to Centralia where he was raised. Albright has a younger sister named Lillian. Albright says he began to play the piano at age three-and-a-half, starting with "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" played by ear. From the age of four he appeared on state and national television. He began formal training in 1996, studying with Nancy Adsit of Olympia, Washington.

During his years with Adsit, Albright was selected five times as an Olympia Chapter representative to the Washington State Music Teachers Convention (WSMTA) and received a Beaux Arts Society scholarship. In 1998, he made his orchestral debut with the University of Puget Sound symphony. In 2000, he won prizes at the Central Washington University Sonatina/Sonata Festival and won the Olympia Chapter Concerto Festival, which led to a guest artist appearance with the Capital Area Youth Symphony in 2001.

Continuing to develop his performance career, Albright performed as part of the "Wonder Kids" concert in the Elsinore Piano Series in Salem, Oregon, in 2001 and performed in a concert with Tanya Stambuck of the University of Puget Sound the following January. Other performances throughout Washington included solo debuts with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Philharmonic in 2002.

Albright's success continued as a prizewinner in the Northwest Chopin Festival on February 1, 2003, and first prize winner in the 2003 Washington State MTNA Senior Piano Competition. Other concerts that year included appearances on the Steinway Young Artists Series in Seattle, and a guest artist appearance with the Port Angeles Symphony in Port Angeles, Washington.

High school/early college

Albright attended Centralia High School, where he graduated in 2007. He also attended Centralia College as part of the Running Start Program, earning his Associate of Science Degree with Highest Honors in 2007.

2004

Albright was selected as the youngest pianist in the Young Artist program of the 2004 TCU/Cliburn Piano Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. Additionally, he won the Washington State MTNA Senior Piano Competition a second time, the Northwest Division MTNA Senior Piano Competition in Missoula, Montana, and the Olympia Music Teachers Association Concerto Competition.

2005

Albright was among the five winners in his division at the Northwest Chopin Competition held in February 2005. He played in the festival's Prizewinners' Concert at the Community Concerts Series in Centralia, Washington, and a concert with the Northwest Wind Symphony.

He was one of seven competitors in the 2005 National MTNA Senior Piano Competition.

Albright was the First Prize winner in the 2005 International Institute for Young Musicians (IIYM) International Piano Competition in Lawrence, Kansas.

Albright won the 2005 Washington State MTNA Senior Piano Competition for the third time, in November.

2006

Albright won Second Prize in the 2006 Schimmel Senior International Piano Competition in Tempe, Arizona.

In June, he was the first pianist ever to win both the Solo and Ensemble Divisions of the 2006 New York Biennial National Piano Competition in New York, New York.

In August, he won first prize and all other prizes in the 2006 Eastman Young Artists' International Piano Competition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Other prizes included the "Audience Prize," the "Best Performance in a Master Class" prize, and the "Best Performance of a 21st Century Work" prize.

Albright won the 2006 Washington State MTNA Senior Piano Competition for the fourth time, in November. He won in his age group at the Chopin Northwest competition.

Albright gave a concert at the 5-year memorial of the 9/11/01 World Trade Center Attacks at New York's Trinity Church, a concert with the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble, and other concerts in Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts.

2007

Albright was the youngest participant in the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition held in South Carolina, where he placed third.

College/graduate school career

Albright was the first classical pianist in the Harvard/New England Conservatory 5-Year BA/MM Joint Program, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics and completed a pre-medical curriculum at Harvard College (Class of 2011). He was also simultaneously a Master of Music student in Piano Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music (Class of 2012). He was named the Harvard University Leverett House Artist in Residence for 2011–2012. He also played upwards of 77 concerts worldwide per year while in college. In addition to piano, he pursued his business and finance interests while working on Wall Street.

2008

Albright won the 2007-2008 Harvard Bach Society Orchestra Competition as a freshman and performed the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, No. 1 with the group in February 2008.

During the summer, he competed in the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition in Sydney, Australia, where he finished as a semi-finalist and won the category for playing a Franz Liszt study piece (''étude''), and was given a prize for the "Best Performance of a 21st Century Work in Stage 1."

On December 1, the pianist performed for the first time with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the Harvard ceremony presenting the late Senator Ted Kennedy with an Honorary Doctorate degree. At the ceremony, guests included Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Senator John Kerry, and then Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden.

2009

In February, Albright competed in the IV Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition, performing at a piano salon in New York City. Albright competed at the Top of the World International Piano Competition in Norway in June 2009, where he competed through the semi-final round. He competed in the Vendome Prize International Piano Competition in Vienna and, though he was not selected among the top five finishers, he was given a special award by pianist and jury member Elisabeth Leonskaja.

In October, Albright gave a concert and taught his first master class at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, as a guest artist for the Sanford Piano Series.

Albright was one of four winners of the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions where he won the Paul A. Fish First Prize, the Ruth Laredo Award, the Sander Buchman Prize, the Ronald A. Asherson Prize, and the Sander Buchman Prize, as well as four performance prizes.

Albright performed approximately 28 times in the 2009-2010 Concert Season. Concert venues included those in Paris, Los Angeles, Boston, Michigan, and New York.
In November 2009 Albright received the 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award, given to two pianists biannually. Albright was granted $15,000 with an additional $10,000 for the commissioning of a new composition for piano.

He gave six concerts as a 2010 Gilmore Young Artist at the 2010 Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Michigan, where he received a review describing his playing as "Poetry in motion... with flair as well as fireworks... Maturity might be a given for a Gilmore Young Artist. But Albright's professional polish was evident, not simply in the way he played the piece, but in the manner he played with the orchestra, as opposed to against or merely alongside it." The review concluded that "This college kid... is going places in music," and that "In Royce Auditorium on Thursday, Albright was number one all the way."

2010

In Salt Lake City in June, Albright competed in the XV Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, but he was not among the six finalists. On July 22, 2010, Albright made his San Francisco Symphony debut with the Duke Ellington "New World A-Comin'" with conductor Alondra de la Parra. He ended with an encore of Liszt's La Campanella to a standing ovation.

Albright made his Seattle Symphony debut with the Beethoven Piano Concerto, No. 3 with conductor Gerard Schwarz on September 10, 2010.

Performances in Albright's 2010-2011 Concert Season also included concerts in Boston (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra), New York (Merkin Concert Hall), and Washington, D.C. (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts). He also gave master classes throughout the country.

After Albright's debut at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on February 14, 2011, ''The Washington Post'' wrote that "Albright is among the most gifted musicians of his generation." It continued that "An impressive range of differently colored sounds at the keyboard was matched by overwhelming virtuosity" and that 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."

Albright was named the Harvard University Leverett House Artist in Residence for 2011-2012. Previous Artists in Residence at Leverett have included the likes of cellist Yo-Yo Ma (1979–1981). In December 2010, he was named one of the 15 Most Interesting Seniors of the Harvard College Class of 2011.

2011

On May 26, 2011, Albright graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in economics.

Albright released his first commercial album, ''Vivace'', in February 2011.

He performed with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra at Boston's Jordan Hall on May 14, 2011, and with the Boston Pops Orchestra at Boston's Symphony Hall on May 17–18, 2011.

In June, 2011, Albright was accepted to the roster of Steinway Artists.

Albright was the first Artist-in-Residence of the 2011-2012 season of American Public Media's ''Performance Today'', hosted by Fred Child. As such, he gave a weeklong series of performances and interviews for the national radio program.

2012

On May 20, 2012, Albright graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with a Master of Music (M.M.) degree in Piano Performance, having studied under Wha-Kyung Byun. He traveled to Spain to compete in the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition, but he did not move past the first round. He was accepted as one of three pianists to the Juilliard School of Music's Artist Diploma (AD) program, where he studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky.

2013

In 2013, Albright was named the recipient of the Arthur W. Foote Award of the Harvard Musical Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Albright was invited to give three All-Schubert solo concerts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2013, to which the Boston Musical Intelligencer wrote that the pianist was "unsurpassed" and "on the top tier." The author continued by writing that "It was gripping, frankly, both spellbinding and spellbound, quite unlike most such solo recitals I've heard over the decades."

The second of the three Schubert-cycle concerts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was met with praise, with reviews hailing that "Albright is a born Schubert player. 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. His interpretation sounded spontaneous, but this was also heartfelt, mature playing. Everything had been thought out by a mind brimming with musical intelligence."

2014

On March 18, 2014, Albright was awarded the 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The award is "designed to give professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists...who the Recommendation Board and Executive Committee of the Avery Fisher Artist Program believe to have great potential for major careers," and included a $25,000 grant. The Executive Committee consists of such artists as pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

2011-2023 Concert Seasons

Albright's 2011-2012 concert season included about 30 concerts and residencies throughout the United States. Highlights included a concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project commemorating the 10-year remembrance of the 9/11 attacks (September, 2011); guest artist appearances with such orchestras as the Phoenix Symphony (November, 2011) and the Lansing Symphony Orchestra in the 2012 Gilmore Keyboard Festival (May, 2012); masterclasses at universities; and solo concerts.

Albright's 2012-2013 concert season included about 38 concerts and residencies, including a fifth concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a roundtable discussion with dancer Damian Woetzel by the Aspen Institute Arts Program; guest artist appearances with the San Francisco Symphony (CA, 2nd time), Fort Smith Symphony (AK), Whatcom Symphony (WA), Great Falls Symphony (MT), Lafayette Symphony (IN), Fargo-Moorhead Symphony (ND), Olympia Symphony (WA), and Hilton Head Symphony (SC); and solo concerts at the Phillips Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Mondavi Center at UC Davis.

Albright performed 77 concerts and outreaches/residencies during the 2013-2014 season. He made his orchestral and solo Canadian debuts with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and on the Vancouver Recital Society series. He also made a solo debut in South Korea at the Kumho Art Hall as part of the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation's Rising Stars Series.

Albright was awarded the 2014 Ruhr Klavier Festival Young Artist Scholarship, presented by pianist Marc-André Hamelin and included a debut at the 2014 Ruhr Festival in Germany.
Albright gave a debut solo concert at the Rockport Music Festival on June 13, 2014 to critical acclaim (see "Reception" below). Highlights of the season include a 14-concert tour with conductor Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra, solo debuts at the Music Academy of the West, as well as debuts with vocalist/conductor Bobby McFerrin, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Tacoma Symphony, and the Victoria Symphony. Albright also made his debut in Finland with the Kymi Sinfonietta and conductor Alpesh Chauhan to critical acclaim. Tacoma Symphony was moved from the Rialto Theater to the larger Pantages Theater due to high demand for tickets.

Albright's 2015 BBC Concert Orchestra recording of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 with Keith Lockhart was chosen as among the "BBC Performing Groups Best of 2015." The tour was met with rave reviews, claiming that "the orchestra and Albright proceeded to demonstrate how much they deserve all their honors and awards" and that "The BBC and Albright (were) the best of the year."

Albright made his solo debut at Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Mostly Mozart Festival on August 11 and 12 of 2015. He also debuted as the guest artist with the Houston Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Alabama Symphony, and California Symphony; and again with the Seattle Symphony. He performed solo concerts in such venues as Detroit's Orchestra Hall, and also returned to begin a cycle of three theme-and-variations themed concerts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

In April 2016, Albright made his Chinese debut at the National Centre for the Performing Arts with the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing, performing the ''Starry Sky Concerto'' written by Xiaogang Ye, which premiered at the 2008 Beijing Olympics' Opening Ceremony.

Albright's 2016-2017 season included debuts and engagements with the Baltimore Symphony, the Colorado Springs Symphony, and the Mobile Symphony. Solo recitals include performances at the Portland Piano International Summer Festival, the Rockefeller University, the Society of Four Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for the conclusion of a ''Themes and Variations'' cycle (Albright's second 3-concert cycle and 7th appearance at the venue), and a benefit concert at the Centralia College, which raised nearly $15,000 for the ''Charlie Albright Scholarship'' and ''Charlie Albright Piano''.

In May 2017, Albright was asked last minute to perform at the Bergen International Festival at Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway after a cancellation by pianist Lang Lang. The reception was overwhelmingly positive with Albright giving five encores.

Albright's 2018/2019 Concert Season includes his Isaac Stern Auditorium main stage Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Leon Botstein on January 25, 2018, performing the New York City debut of the Vivian Fine ''Concertante for Piano and Orchestra''. The ''New York Classical Review'' praised his "tender phrasing," "Brahmsian sonorities," and improvised cadenza that "branched into "Lisztian extravagance." "The cherry on the sundae was the pianist's 60-second encore, hammering out a chorus of “Great Balls of Fire” in the rockin’est Jerry Lee Lewis style. Talk about ’50s American music


In May 2019, Albright returned to the Bergen International Festival where he gave both a solo concert at the historic Bergenhus Fortress, Hakonshallen with five encores, and also had the honor of performing the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor with conductor Berit Cardas and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra at Grieg Hall, a yearly tradition of the festival. The Bergensavisen newspaper's raving review of Albright published that "Albright can imagine complex musical structures and share them with the audience. Everything is woven together by crazy technical electricity and rare musical understanding. During a flash he can imagine complex musical structures - and share them with us."

In 2020 and 2021, Albright's appearances and performances included a return to the Newport Music Festival for his fourth concert on the series, a celebration performance of Bergen, Norway's 950th birthday at the National Nordic Museum, fundraising for the arts, podcasts, interviews, and recordings. He was a featured guest artist with the Philly Pops and conductor David Charles Abbell on ''A Philly Pops Christmas: Spectacular Sounds of the Season'', which was broadcast online, and ''I'll Be Home For Christmas: A Salute to the Military and First Responders'', which was broadcast both online and over the American Forces Network to "approximately 500,000 servicemembers domestically and 500,000 internationally at both military bases and seafaring vessels," performing with singer Mandy Gonzalez

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