Category: IMPORTANT EVENTS
Richard Cionco, Pianist
Professor of Piano, California State University, Sacramento since 1993
Pianist Richard Cionco -- praised by Donal Henahan of the New York Times for his “sensitive pianism” has performed with many orchestras including the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, and with the Seijo Symphony of Tokyo in a Washington, D.C. concert that commemorated Japan’s admission to the United Nations. He has also performed with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Lawton Philharmonic (OK), the Las Cruces Symphony (NM), the Merced Symphony, the new Folsom Lake Symphony (CA), the Auburn Symphony (CA), the Saratoga Symphony (CA), the Oakland Civic Symphony, and orchestras in San Diego and Mendocino. In Europe, he has performed concerti with the Czech State Chamber Orchestra, and in Prague’s Smetana Hall with the North Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra as a winner in the Prague Spring International Music Competition. Mr. Cionco has traveled three times to Denmark, performing in recital and master class. In 1996 he performed Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 seven times on tour in Japan and Taiwan with the California Youth Symphony; the performance in Osaka was broadcast on Japan Television and has been released as a live and unedited CD.
He has performed in recital in nearly every major U.S. city and his performances of Liszt’s complete 12 Transcendental Etudes have brought him rave reviews. Ed Roberts of the Washington Post wrote: “I have rarely heard as fine a piano recital as the one Richard Cionco gave on Sunday. The program (Liszt Etudes) was difficult and unusual. Cionco’s virtuosity was impressive and he drew beautifully varied tone colors from the instrument.” Another Washington Post review acknowledged “Richard Cionco is not just a terrific pianist. He is that rarest of artists: a champion of twentieth century music. Throughout his recital at the Phillips Collection Sunday, his coloristic sense and attention to structural clarity rendered even the thorniest of recent works accessible.”
A Steinway Artist, Mr. Cionco is a graduate of the University of Maryland and The Juilliard School. Important performances include those at New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall and Carnegie’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall and Steinway Hall, as well as The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and the Chicago Cultural Center. Mr. Cionco was a Teaching Fellow for David Dubal at The Juilliard School for four years and is presently Professor of Piano at California State University, Sacramento. Since 2005, each summer Mr. Cionco serves on the artist faculty of the Orfeo International Music Festival and Competition in Northern Italy (www.orfeomusicfestival.com).
