Charlie Albright

CHARLIE ALBRIGHT, piano

Winner of the prestigious 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions while at Harvard, pianist Charlie Albright made his Kennedy Center debut  to critical acclaim, hailed as “among the most gifted musicians of his generation” in the Washington Post.   About his New York debut, the New York Times praised his “Jaw-dropping technique and virtuosity meshed with a distinctive musicality."

Continuing his blazing successes, he has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony with conductor Alondra de la Parra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra with conductor Gerard Schwarz, and The Boston Pops with its Music Director, Keith Lockhart.  Upcoming highlights of the season include the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Phoenix Symphony, a performance with the Lansing Symphony as part of the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, and solo recitals at New York’s Morgan Library and Museum, at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, at the Palladium Theater at St. Petersburg College, and at Missouri State University, among many other venues.  The Vivace label released Albright’s debut CD in February 2011 including the music of Haydn, Menotti, Schumann-Liszt, Janácek, Chopin and Albright!

At the age of 18, Mr. Albright performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma: at a ceremony at which Senator Ted Kennedy received an honorary degree from Harvard University and in an event commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, honoring Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison.   Winner of the 2011 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts from Harvard University, Mr. Albright was also named Artist in Residence for Harvard University’s Leverett House, a position once filled by another Harvard-education musician, cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

At the 2009 Vendome Prize Piano Competition in Lisbon, Portugal, he was awarded a Vendome Virtuoso Prize and the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award. 

Charlie Albright’s YCA honors include the Paul A. Fish First Prize, the Ronald A. Asherson Prize, the Summis Auspiciis Prize, the John Browning Memorial Prize, the Sander Buchman Special Prize, the Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, and four concert prizes: the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize, the Friends of Music Prize for an engagement at Sleepy Hollow NY), the Embassy Series Prize for a concert in Washington, D.C. and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival Prize (Germany).
 
Born in Centralia, Washington, Mr. Albright began piano lessons at the age of three.  He has studied with Nancy Adsit and has participated in master classes with Richard Goode, Leif Ove Andsnes and Abbey Simon.  Mr. Albright earned an Associate of Science degree at Centralia College while he was also in high school, and was the first classical pianist accepted to the new Harvard College/New England Conservatory joint program, completing his Bachelor’s degree as a Pre-Med and Economics major at Harvard in 2011.  He is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the New England Conservatory with Wha-Kyung Byun.

Mr. Albright is a Steinway Artist.