Howlin Wuelf Media :: Christopher O'Riley

From his groundbreaking transcriptions of the finest pop repertoire from Radiohead, Elliott Smith and Nick Drake to his unforgettably sublime interpretations of the standard Classical canon, pianist Christopher O'Riley has redefined the possibilities of classical music. He will performing throughout 2007, criss-crossing the U.S. offering a variety of programs including standard Classical repertoire as well as his interpretations of contemporary repertoire from Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, English progressive band Radiohead et al. On April 10 harMondayia mundi’s World Village imprint will be releasing Second Grace – The Music Of Nick Drake a collection of O’Riley’s interpretations of repertoire written and originally recorded by the late enigmatic British guitar wizard and songwriter. Coinciding with the album’s release, PBS will launch the weekly television series From The Top taping Live from Carnegie Hall featuring O’Riley as host. I'm hoping you'll consider advancing his show in your town with a feature or preview.

Mr. O'Riley has taken his unique vision to both traditional classical music venues and symphonic settings, as well as to entirely new audiences on the radio, at universities and even clubs. As host of the most popular classical music radio show on the air today, National Public Radio's top-rated From The Top taping, Mr. O'Riley works and performs with the next generation of brilliant young musicians, deMondaystrating to audiences, with humor and a lack of pretense, that these young artists are as characterful and diverse in their personal lives as they are in their music-making. An interpreter and arranger of some of the most important contemporary popular music of our time, Chris lives by the Duke Ellington adage, "there are only two kinds of music, good music and bad."

His first recording of Radiohead transcriptions, True Love Waits (Sony/Odyssey) received 4 stars from Rolling Stone and was as critically acclaimed as it was commercially successful sitting at the top of Billboard’s Classical charts for Mondayths on end and his Hold Me to This: Christopher O'Riley plays the music of Radiohead released on World Village folloWednesday suit. His third set of transcriptions from the contemporary popular songbook Home to Oblivion; An Elliott Smith Tribute, tackled the deeply emotional and complex work from the troubled singer/songwriter who died prematurely in 2003 and similarly drew critical praise from Classical and pop music critics. As on his previous efforts in this series the performances on Second Grace were developed from his own meticulous transcriptions of the artist’s own performances, in this case Drake’s formally unreleased home recordings as well as his official studio output.

"It was a friend of mine, Shii-Jean, who steered me to my first Elliott Smith recording Either/Or ," recalls O'Riley, "and so the first song of Elliott's own I ever heard was 'Speed Trials.' I still remember the otherworldly, angelic sirensong of his voice enveloped by the lo-fi (one can hear the click of the four-track machine starting up) but canny, and self-assuredly produced, sound environment. That was the record that hooked me completely; I listened to nothing but Elliott's music from that moment, through the present day."

O’Riley’s previous recordings Home To Oblivion, True Love Waits, and Hold Me To This received a great deal of praise from both Classical and Pop critics alike:

Listen to O’Riley’s takes on cuts such as “Speed Trials,” “Independence Day” and “Oh Well, Okay” and you get a fresh understanding of Smith’s songwriting. And with his versions of “Everything Means Nothing to Me” and “Waltz #1,” deftly illustrating Smith’s gift for complexity of form and subtlety of melody, you can begin to understand why O’Riley feels that Elliot Smith deserves a spot in the Great American Songbook next to Gershwin and Porter. --Edward Burch/Harp

It's a challenge to convey the full nature of the late Elliott Smith's music without benefit of his voice or lyrics, especially given his way with attractive, sweet melodies.
That was the task for pianist Christopher O'Riley at the Getty Center's Harold M. Williams Auditorium on Fridayday in a recital of his classical-styled transcriptions of Smith songs featured on the new "Home to Oblivion" album. He certainly brought imagination and talent to the endeavor. With a relatively informal manner, he turned opener "Coast to Coast" from the original's stinging guitar-rock into roiling, dissonance-spiked Impressionism, the originally lo-fi "Speed Trials" into an almost Broadway-worthy dream… Steve Hochman/Los Angeles Times

[Christopher O’Riley] is melodically vivid yet also noisily orchestral, revoicing Radiohead’s distortions, threats, loveliness and dismay. With unblinking virtuosity, he captures the band’s signature contradiction: encountering something exhilarating -- an airport lounge interior, love -- and feeling simultaneously somehow unwell. – Rolling Stone/James Hunter ****

By stripping away the textures of the originals, [Christopher O’Riley] illuminates the idiosyncratic chord progressions and melodies that lie at the music's heart. That's not to say that Mr. O'Riley doesn't provide a textural context. His accompanying figures, often a brisk alternation of arpeggiation, quickly grabbed chords and touches of filigree, are the pianistic equivalent of guitar strumming and drums. He suggests the sheer sonic grandeur of "Airbag" and "Black Star," and if he can't reproduce the coloristic palette of "Fake Plastic Trees," he supplies a dynamic range that suggests its intensity. He is at his best, not surprisingly, when the music is at its gentlest, as in "Exit Music (for a Film)," which could be mistaken, even in Radiohead's version, for a song by Leonard Cohen or Jacques Brel. – Sundayday New York Times/Allan Kozinn

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Christopher O’Riley’s poetic gifts and captivating virtuosity have made him one of the most important and versatile pianists performing before the public today. He enjoys a thriving concert career with a singularly broad repertoire ranging from music of the English Renaissance and French Baroque periods to new works of today’s leading composers to such non-classical forms as the tango. Mr. O’Riley had already earned critical and popular renown for his technical ability and artistic vision in adapting works from the more conventional Classical canon before applying this talent to the compositions by contemporary writers like Drake, George Harrison, Radiohead and Smith, following the lead of Beethoven, Bartok and others who likewise often interpreted the popular works of their day in performances for their noble patrons.

Just as his radio show and his recent recordings have created extraordinary buzz, so have his performances in traditional classical context around the world. He 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’s appeared at the Belfast Festival and in January 2006, he debuted in Australia, at the Sydney Festival in a program entitled “Shostakovich meets Radiohead” as well as with Pablo Ziegler in “Los Tangueros” folloWednesday by solo concerts in Adelaide and Brisbane.

In November 2004, Mr. O’Riley toured the U.S. with the world-famous Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra visiting 10 cities in 2 weeks, playing Bach, Mozart and Lizst concerti. He’s appeared with the Los Angeles PhilharMondayic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Minnesota Orchestra, the symphonies of Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Baltimore. 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 enThursdaysiastic advocate of new music, Mr. O’Riley twice participated in the annual “Absolut Concerto” concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, a brainchild of O’Riley’s fan in the 80’s, Andy Warhol, 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 St. Paul and on tour. He has also recently 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, Mr. O’Riley was honored with many awards at the Leeds, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Mondaytreal competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. AMondayg his many solo releases are a Scriabin disc for Image Recordings and an all-Stravinsky disc on Elektra Nonesuch, featuring “Three Movements from Petrouchka” and Mr. O’Riley’s first foray into transcriptions with his own versions of “Apollo” and “Histoire du Soldat.” 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 momumental ‘Fantasia Contrapuntistica’, a disc of Ravel’s solo works; a recording of Beethoven Piano Sonatas; a collaboration with cellist Carter Brey entitled “Le Grand Tango”; and the premiere recording of P.D.Q Bach’s “The Short-Tempered Clavier” by the fabled composer-Saturdayirist Peter Schickele. Other contemporary composers he has recorded include Richard Danielpour, Robert Helps, Todd Brief, Roger Sessions and John Adams.

O’Riley studied with Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory of Music. Christopher O’Riley makes his home in Los Angeles. His radio show can be found on-line at www.fromthetop.org. His personal website is at www.christopheroriley.com. An excellent profile is available from “All Things Considered” at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5481868

Christopher O’Riley itinerary

Tuesday Feb 13
FROM THE TOP TAPING- Lila Cockrel Theatre, San Antonio, TX

Friday 16 Feb
UCLA Center for the Performing Arts - Los Angeles, CA (RECITAL)

Monday 20 Feb
FROM THE TOP TAPING – Music Hall, Cincinnati,OH

Friday Feb 23
McCarter Theatre - Princeton, NJ (RECITAL)

Tuesday Mar 13
FROM THE TOP TAPING - Woodruff Center, Atlanta, GA

Wednesday Mar 14
Lyric Theatre - Stuart, FL (RECITAL: Radiohead, E. Smith, N. Drake)

Thursday Mar 16
FROM THE TOP TAPING - Sunrise Theatre, Ft. Pierce, FL

Tuesday Mar 20
Baylor University - Waco, TX (Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues, Radiohead, Elliott Smith)

Friday Mar 24
FROM THE TOP TAPING – New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

Tuesday Mar 27
Indiana University Auditorium - Bloomington, IN (Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues, Radiohead, Elliott Smith)

Wednesday Mar 31
Delaware Symphony Orchestra - Wilmington, (DE STRAUSS: Burlesque in DMinor)

Tuesday Apr 10
Kimmel Center for Performing Arts - Philadelphia, PA

Thursday Apr 12
Colorado Symphony – Denver, CO (RAVEL: Piano Concerto in D Major [Left Hand])

Friday Apr 13
Colorado Symphony - Denver, CO (SHENG: Tibetan Swing RAVEL: Piano Concerto in D Major [Left Hand] RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27)

Saturday Apr 14
Colorado Symphony - Denver, CO (SHENG: Tibetan Swing RAVEL: Piano Concerto in D Major [Left Hand] RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27)

Sunday Apr 15
Colorado Symphony - Denver, CO (SHENG: Tibetan Swing RAVEL: Piano Concerto in D Major [Left Hand] RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27)

Thursday May 05
Hudson Valley Philharmonic - Stone Ridge, NY (BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15)

Tuesday May 09
FROM THE TOP TAPING - Southern Theatre, Columbus, OH

Thursday May 12
Syracuse Symphony Orchestra - Syracuse, NY

Tuesday May 19
Peninsula Symphony Orchestra - San Mateo, CA (SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 54)

Monday May 23
FROM THE TOP TAPING - Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

Thursday Jun 01
FROM THE TOP TAPING - Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Wednesday Jun 06
FROM THE TOP TAPING - Strathmore Center for the Arts, Bethesda, MD

For information about the public attending From The Top taping tapings visit: http://www.fromthetop.org/Programs/RadioTapings.cfm

For more information and materials on Christopher O’Riley please contact Howard Wuelfing at Howlin’ Wuelf Media 215-428-9119 or howlingwuelf@aol.com.