Winner of the prestigious 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, pianist Charlie Albright concluded the 2010-2011 season of debuts to critical acclaim, hailed as being “among the most gifted musicians of his generation” (Washington Post) whose "impressive range of differently colored sounds at the keyboard was matched by overwhelming virtuosity" while "musical shape was never sacrificed to showmanship."  The New York Times praised his “jaw-dropping technique," "intelligently wrought interpretation" and "virtuosity meshed with a distinctive musicality."  Mr. Albright made his New York and Kennedy Center recital debuts on the Young Concert Artists Series and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Orchestral debuts included the San Francisco Symphony with conductor Alondra de la Parra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra with conductor Gerard Schwarz, and the Boston Pops with conductor Keith Lockhart. 

Highlights of Mr. Albright’s busy 2011-2012 season include a fourth concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, an appearance as soloist with the Phoenix Symphony performing Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat minor, Op. 23, solo recitals at the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Friends of Music Concerts (NY), and at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts (MI), the Palladium Theater at St. Petersburg (FL), and Missouri State University, among others.

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 again performed with Mr. Ma in a program commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, featuring Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison.  He has given concerto performances with the Seattle Philharmonic and the Olympia, Port Angeles, and Northwest Wind symphonies in Washington State.

Winner of the 2011 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts from Harvard University, Mr. Albright has also been named the Artist in Residence for Harvard University’s Leverett House for 2011-2012, a position last filled by Yo-Yo Ma. His debut recording Vivace was released in February 2011 with works by Haydn, Menotti, Schumann-Liszt, Janácek, Chopin and Albright.

Mr. Albright won the Paul A. Fish First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions as well as the Ronald A. Asherson Prize, Summis Auspiciis Prize, the John Browning Prize, the Sander Buchman Prize, the Ruth Laredo Award, and four performance prizes: the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize, the Friends of Music Concerts Prize for an engagement in Sleepy Hollow, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival Prize, and the Embassy Series Prize for a concert in Washington, DC.  Other awards include a Vendome Virtuoso Prize and the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award at the 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition in Lisbon, Portugal.  Mr. Albright won the 2008 Harvard Bach Society Orchestra’s competition to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, Third Prize as the youngest competitor at the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and First Prizes in the 2006 Eastman Piano Competition, the 2006 Stecher and Horowitz Foundation’s New York Piano Competition and the 2005 IIYM International Competition in Lawrence, Kansas. 

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 accepted to the Harvard College/New England Conservatory of Music joint program, where he completed his Bachelor’s degree as a Pre-med and Economics major at Harvard in 2011 and is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, with Wha-Kyung Byun. Mr. Albright is a Steinway Artist.

Charlie is under management with Young Concert Artists, Inc.

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Early Career - To be used as background information only. Do not reproduce in any publications, online or print.:

Charlie has been selected five times as an Olympia Chapter representative to the Washington State Music Teachers Convention. He was chosen to play with the University of Puget Sound Orchestra at the University’s 1998 Piano Festival. In the fall of 2000, he won trophies in the Central Washington University’s Sonatina/Sonata Festival and the Olympia Chapter Concerto Festival. Charlie was awarded a scholarship from the Beaux Arts Society in Portland and performed there on 12 May 2001. He was a guest soloist with the Capitol Area Youth Symphony on 20 May 2001 to play the first movement of the Grieg Concerto.

In November of 2001, Charlie played in the Junior High Washington Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) competition and received an Honorable Mention and 2nd in the composition division. He also was one of three area students selected to participate in a workshop with Christopher O’Riley. He performed in the Elsinore Piano Series in Salem, Oregon on 8 December.In January 2002, Charlie performed with Dr. Tanya Stambuk in Gig Harbor, Washington. Later, he played the Menotti Toccata on a “live” taping of ”From the Top” at Indiana University on 17 February 2002. He appeared in a full program in April at The United Churches in Olympia and on the Longview Piano Recital Series. On 17 November 2002 Charlie was the guest performer with the Olympia Symphony at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts and on 1 December with the Seattle Philharmonic at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall, where he played the Haydn Concerto in D.

He was a prizewinner in the Northwest Chopin Festival on 1 February 2003. Charlie played another full program in Olympia and Gig Harbor in April. He also presented that program at Sherman Clay in Seattle in the Steinway Young Artists Series on 18 October 2003 and was the guest artist to perform the complete Grieg Concerto with the Port Angeles Symphony on 1 November 2003. A week later Washington State Music Teachers Association selected him top pianist in the state’s 2003 Senior Piano Division. Charlie was selected and performed at the 2004 Texas Christian University / Cliburn Piano Institute Young Artists Program in Forth Worth, Texas. He was the youngest pianist selected that year.

Throughout his music studies Charlie has coached with many renowned instructors, including Randolph Hokanson, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Andre Laplante, Harold Martina, John Owings, Leonard Richter, Boris Slutsky, Tamas Ungar, Blanca Uribe, Richard Goode and Jack Winerock. In November he was selected the State MTNA Senior 2004 Winner and winner at the Division Competition in Spokane in January 2005. On December 4th 2004 Charlie won the Olympia Music Teachers Association Fifth Annual Concerto Festival Senior Division competition. He gave a recital at Sherman Clay in Seattle on 16 January 2005 and in Longview, Washington in May.

In February he performed in a Prizewinners’ Concert at the 2005 NW Chopin Foundation Festival in Seattle. In March 2005, he performed on the Community Concerts Series in Centralia, Washington. Charlie was one of the top seven senior piano contestants in the country to compete at the National MTNA Convention. In April of he performed the first movement of the Grieg Concerto with the Northwest Wind Symphony.

In July 2005 Charlie was the first place winner of the IIYM 2005 International Piano Competition in Lawrence, Kansas. In January 2006, he was the 2nd place winner of the 1st Schimmel Senior International Piano Competition in Tempe, Arizona.

He performed the Shostakovitch Concerto #2 with the Olympia Symphony in March 2006 and is scheduled to play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Northwest Wind Symphony in April; he was also invited to return to Lawrence, Kansas to perform, this past April.

Charlie was recently chosen as one of twenty-two competitors for the 3rd Biennial New York Piano Competition, this June, in New York City, and won first place in both sections of the competition; the solo and ensemble competitions. He was also one of twenty-two competitors selected, worldwide, for the 2006 Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition in at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he took first place, as well as the Best Performance in a Master Class Prize, The Best Performance of a 21st Century Work Prize, and the Audience Prize.

Charlie Albright performed along the east coast during the 2006-2007 Season. Concerts included a performance at the Trinity Church on Sept. 11, 2006 in New York City for the 5-year memorial of the World Trade Center Attacks; a duo concert with Larry Weng with the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble in White Plains, NY; a performance at the First United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.; and a concert at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.

Charlie won the Washington State MTNA Senior Piano Competition for the fourth time in November of 2006, and was the youngest participant from an applicant pool of pianists 18-30 years old selected for the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition. As one of four people representing the United States, he won third place.

In July/August of 2007, Charlie participated in the 2007 Paris Piano Institute in Paris, France.

Charlie’s 2007-2008 Season included a performance with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in Olympia, WA; a concert at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City; and a concert as part of the Emerging Artists Series in Philadelphia, PA.

During the summer of 2008, Charlie participated as one of 36 pianists selected for the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia. One of the top 12 in the competition as a Semi-Finalist, Charlie also won the prize for the “Best Performance of a Study by Liszt in Stage 1.”

• Steinway Artist
  
  
• 2011-2012 Harvard University Leverett Artist-in-Residence
  
  
• 2011 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, Harvard University

• 2009 Young Concert Artist International Piano Auditions
  - Paul A. Fish First Prize
  - Ronald A. Ahserson Prize
  - John Browning Prize
  - Sander Buchman Prize
  - Ruth Laredo Award
  - Four Performance Prizes
  

• 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award

• 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition
  - Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award

• 2009 Top of the World International Piano Competition
  - Semi-finalist (Top 12)

• 2008 Grand Prix Animato International Piano Competition
  - Semi-Finalist (Top 6)

• 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition
  - Best Stage I Performance of a Study by Liszt Award
  -Semi-Finalist (Top 12)

• 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition
  - Third Prize

• 2006 Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition
  - First Prize
  - Best Performance of a 21st Century Work Prize
  - Best Performance in a Master Class Prize
  - Audience Prize

• 2006 New York Biennial National Piano Competition
  - First Prize, Solo Category
  - First Prize, Ensemble Category

• 2006 Schimmel Senior International Piano Competition
  - Second Prize

• 2005 IIYM International Piano Competition
  - First Prize