Charlie Albright
Charlie Albright |
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Charlie Albright (Korean: 오철수) (born July 29, 1988) is an American-born classical pianist. He is a 2010 Gilmore Young Artist [1] and is under management with Young Concert Artists, Inc. [2][3] The pianist is currently a junior at Harvard College in the 5-Year Harvard University/New England Conservatory BA/MM Joint Program.
Childhood
Albright was raised in Centralia, Washington by a Korean mother and an American father. He began to play the piano at age three and a half.[4]
Albright began playing by ear and from the age of four was featured on state and national television. He did not receive formal classical training until age seven when he began his studies with Nancy Adsit of Olympia, Washington.
During his time 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 Dr. 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, Washington 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. In 2005, he attended the Centralia College as part of the Running Start Program, where he graduated with 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 continued to perform extensively throughout the Pacific Northwest, including the 2005 Northwest Chopin Foundation 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.[5]
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.[6] Other prizes included the "Audience Prize," the "Best Performance in a Master Class" prize, and the "Best Performance of a 21st Century Work" prize. He was described as a "keyboard wizard" who "played like an angel...with a level of polish pianists twice his age would envy."[7]
Albright won the 2006 Washington State MTNA Senior Piano Competition for the fourth time, in November.
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 won Third Prize as the youngest pianist at age 18 and one of four Americans in the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition in South Carolina against pianists through age 30.[8]
He participated in the 2007 Paris Piano Institute in August 2007.
College career
Albright is the first classical pianist in the Harvard/New England Conservatory 5-Year BA/MM Joint Program, where he is pursuing an bachelor's degree in economics and completing a pre-medical curriculum at Harvard College (Class of 2011). He is also a Masters of Music student in Piano Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music (Class of 2012).[9] He continues a rigorous worldwide concert schedule of about twenty-eight concerts per year (twenty-six during the school year) despite being a full-time student.[10]
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 was a semi-finalist (top 12) and won the "Prize for the Best Performance of a 21st Century Work in Stage 1." [11][12]
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, who was quoted telling Albright "If I did my job as well as you do yours, I'd be President."
2009
Albright received the 2009 Gilmore Young Artist Award, an award given to two pianists biannually after being anonymously considered for the award over the course of two years.
He performed twice more with cellist Yo-Yo Ma; once for the 60th Anniversary for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison (March, 2009) and once during a residency of the Silk Road Project (October, 2009).[13]
Albright was a semi-finalist (top 12) in the 2009 Top of the World International Piano Competition in Tromso, Norway [14][15] and won the "Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award" at the 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition in Lisbon, Portugal.
In October, Albright gave a concert and taught his first masterclass at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA as a guest artist for the Sanford Piano Series. [16][17]
In November in New York City, 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. As a result, he is now signed with YCA for management.[18][19]
Albright performed approximately twenty-eight times in the 2009-2010 Concert Season. Concert venues included those in Paris, Los Angeles, Boston, Michigan, and New York. He gave six concerts as a 2010 Gilmore Young Artist at the 2010 Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Michigan where his playing was described as "Poetry in motion." [20][21]
Charlie Albright Scholarship and The Charlie Albright Piano
During September 2009, 7 students at the Centralia College received the "Charlie Albright Scholarship," organized by the Centralia College Foundation from funds raised by a concert Albright gave in 2008.
In December 2009, the Centralia College purchased the "Charlie Albright Piano" as a result of the "Charlie Albright Piano Project." Albright gave the inaugural performance on the 9-foot Model D Steinway, purchased for Corbet Hall, on March 27, 2010.[22][23][24][25][26]
2010
On July 22, 2010, Albright will make his San Francisco Symphony debut with the Duke Ellington "New World A-Comin'" with conductor Alondra de la Parra.[27] Albright will make his Seattle Symphony debut with the Beethoven Piano Concerto, No. 3 with conductor Gerard Schwarz on September 10, 2010. [28][29]
Performances in Albright's 2010-2011 Concert Season also include 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 will also give masterclasses and have residencies throughout the country. [30]
References
- ^ http://www.thegilmore.org
- ^ http://www.yca.org
- ^ http://www.thegilmore.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=187:charlie-albright&catid=30:2010-young-artists&Itemid=7
- ^ http://www.CharlieAlbright.com
- ^ http://www.stecherandhorowitz.org/
- ^ http://www.esm.rochester.edu/news/?id=310
- ^ http://www.charliealbright.com
- ^ http://www.hhipc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=65
- ^ http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/3/4/doing-double-time-charlie-albright-11/
- ^ http://harvardarts.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/we-must-have-done-something-good-in-a-former-life-charlie-albright-solo-piano-concert/
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IX_Sydney_International_Piano_Competition
- ^ http://www.sipca.com.au/
- ^ http://www.listal.com/video/101194668
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_World_International_Piano_Competition
- ^ http://www.topoftheworld.no/about/resultater/albright.html
- ^ https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/1538/322724/&printerfriendly=1
- ^ http://www.wwu.edu/cfpa/sanford.shtml
- ^ http://www.allbusiness.com/humanities-social-science/visual-performing-arts/13463838-1.html
- ^ http://www.yca.org/albright.html
- ^ http://www.gilmorekeyboardfestival.org/artist/detail/93/
- ^ http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/04/gilmore_young_artist_charlie_a.html
- ^ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Charlie-Albright/104516037245
- ^ http://foundation.centralia.edu/givingplans.html
- ^ http://charliealbright.com/Documents/Articles/The%20Chronicle%20Online%20%3E%20News%20%3E%20A%20Merry%20Musical%20Christmas%20(12-24-09).pdf
- ^ http://www.chronline.com/blogs/on_deadline/article_46af6743-1049-5488-b23d-84a6a41e2b40.html
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk8fjMFBjk4
- ^ http://www.sfsymphony.org/season/Event.aspx?eventid=41848
- ^ http://www.charliealbright.com/
- ^ http://www.seattlesymphony.org/symphony/buy/single/production.aspx?id=9652&src=t
- ^ http://www.CharlieAlbright.com