viola

Wendy Richman has been hailed by The New York Times and The Washington Post for her "absorbing," "fresh and idiomatic" performances that have "a brawny vitality," appearing as a soloist and chamber musician across the US and Europe. Upon hearing her interpretation of Berio's Sequenza VI, The Baltimore Sun commented that she made "something at once dramatic and poetic out of the aggressive tremolo-like motif of the piece." She has performed at venues from American Repertory Theatre to Miller Theatre, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art to Washington, DC's Phillips Collection, and Symphony Space in Manhattan to the Gewandhaus. Other notable appearances include Boston's Jordan Hall and the American Academy in Rome, as well as the Edinburgh International Festival, Musica Nova Helsinki, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Morelia International Festival of New Music in Mexico.

The particular praise Ms. Richman has garnered for her interpretations of new music has led her to collaborate closely with a wide range of composers, including John Luther Adams, Pierre Boulez, George Crumb, Brian Ferneyhough, Sofia Gubaidulina, Lee Hyla, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Jeffrey Mumford, Matthias Pintscher, Bernard Rands, Roberto Sierra, Augusta Read Thomas, and Ken Ueno. She and her now-husband, percussionist Tim Feeney, gave the fully staged American premiere of Luciano Berio's Naturale in 2002; she also gave the American premieres of Kaija Saariaho's Vent Nocturne and Roberto Sierra's Viola Concerto. Ms. Richman can be heard on Albany Records, AURec, Between the Lines, Bloodshot Records, BMOP/sound, Mode Records, and NAXOS.

Ms. Richman has appeared at such summer festivals as Aspen, Bravo!, New Hampshire, Norfolk, Killington, San Juan, and Yellow Barn. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied viola with Jeffrey Irvine and Peter Slowik and voice with Marlene Rosen, Ms. Richman received her master's degree from the New England Conservatory, under the guidance of Kim Kashkashian and Carol Rodland. She lives in Ithaca, NY, where she maintains a large viola studio at Cornell University, and where she regularly performs chamber music. She is a member of the viola section of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Richman's most recent endeavor is called "Vox/Viola," combining her vocal training with her current viola career. The project involves commissions from 10 young composers to write pieces for her singing and playing simultaneously, loosely inspired by Giacinto Scelsi's Manto III.

Ms. Richman is a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), a New York- and Chicago-based collective of young musicians dedicated to promoting the music of our time.

Performances

Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory | November 14, 2008