From his groundbreaking transcriptions of Radiohead to his unforgettably sublime interpretations of repertoire classic and contemporary, pianist Christopher O’Riley has redefined the possibilities of classical music. He has taken his unique vision to both traditional classical venues and symphonic settings, as well as to entirely new audiences on the radio, at universities and even in clubs.
As host of the most popular classical music radio show on the air today, National Public Radio’s From the Top, O’Riley works and performs with the next generation of brilliant young musicians, demonstrating to audiences, with humor and a lack of pretense, that these young artists are as full of character and diverse in their personal lives as they are in their music-making. In 2007 From the Top will be filmed for public television in Zankel Concert Hall at Carnegie Hall. As an interpreter and arranger of some of the most important contemporary music of our time, O’Riley lives by the Duke Ellington adage, “There are only two kinds of music, good music and bad.”
O’Riley’s first recording of Radiohead transcriptions, True Love Waits (Sony/Odyssey) received four stars from Rolling Stone and was as critically acclaimed as it was commercially successful. His second set of music from the British alt-pop outfit, Hold Me to This: Christopher O’Riley Plays the Music of Radiohead, was released on World Village/Harmonia Mundi to a similarly enthusiastic response. In April 2006, his third set of transcriptions, Home to Oblivion: An Elliott Smith Tribute, was released on the same label. In it, O’Riley tackles the deeply emotional and complex work of the troubled singer/songwriter who died prematurely in 2003.
Just as his radio show and his contemporary classical recordings have created extraordinary buzz, so have his performances in traditional classical context. In November 2004, O’Riley toured the U.S. with the world-famous Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra, visiting ten cities in two weeks, playing Bach, Mozart and Lizst concerti. He recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Minnesota Orchestra, and Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Baltimore symphonies. The illustrious group of conductors with whom he has collaborated includes Marin Alsop, David Zinman, Leonard Slatkin, John Williams, Neeme Järvi, Bobby McFerrin, Hans Graf, Yoel Levi, Hugh Wolff and Andrew Litton.
An enthusiastic advocate of new music, O’Riley has twice participated in the annual “Absolut Concerto” concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, premiering works by Richard Danielpour and Michael Torke. In 1999-2000 he performed Michael Daugherty’s Le Tombeau de Liberace with the Detroit Symphony and with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, both in the city of St. Paul and on tour. He has also given premieres of works by Aaron Jay Kernis, including his piano quartet, Still Movement with Hymn, (also recorded for Decca’s Argo label) and the Superstar Etude No. 1, inspired by the pianism of Jerry Lee Lewis.
From early in his career, O’Riley was honored with many awards at the Leeds, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Montreal competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Among his many solo releases are a Scriabin disc for Image Recordings and an all-Stravinsky disc on Elektra Nonesuch. Other recordings include an RCA Victor Red Seal release of French repertoire for flute and piano with James Galway; his audacious debut disc of music of Busoni including the monumental Fantasia Contrapuntistica, a disc of Ravel’s solo works; a recording of Beethoven Piano Sonatas; a collaboration with cellist Carter Brey titled Le Grand Tango; and the premiere recording of P.D.Q Bach’s The Short-Tempered Clavier by the fabled composer-satirist Peter Schickele. Other contemporary composers he has recorded include Richard Danielpour, Robert Helps, Todd Brief, Roger Sessions and John Adams.
In addition to his own transcriptions, O’Riley has ventured into alternate territory on tour with other classical artists. He has developed programs with fellow pianists: “Heard Fresh: Music for Two Pianos,” with the jazz pianist Fred Hersch; and “Los Tangueros,” with the Argentinian pianist Pablo Ziegler, a program of two-piano arrangements that feature Astor Piazzolla’s classic tangos. In 1999 he collaborated with choreographer and director Martha Clarke, who staged several stories of Anton Chekhov set to the piano works of Alexander Scriabin, performed live on stage by O’Riley. This production, titled “Vers la Flamme,” toured Europe and the United States, and was presented by Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, among others.
O’Riley has performed his transcriptions at major jazz festivals in Istanbul, London, San Francisco and Sicily as well as on a tour of the U.K. He appeared at the Belfast Festival and in January 2006, debuted in Australia at the Sydney Festival in a program called “Shostakovich meets Radiohead” as well as with Pablo Ziegler in “Los Tangueros” followed by solo concerts in Adelaide and Brisbane. His next transcriptions project features the music of the British folk singer Nick Drake who died in 1974 after releasing just 3 albums, and yet influenced two generations of songwriters.
O’Riley studied with Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory of Music. He makes his home in Los Angeles.
