Christopher Taylor

Christopher Taylor joined the University of Wisconsin music faculty in August 2000, having by that time already emerged as one of the nation’s foremost musicians.  A graduate of Harvard University (BA in mathematics, summa cum laude, 1992) and New England Conservatory (MA 1999), Professor Taylor has received numerous awards confirming his high standing in the music world.  He was named an American Pianists’ Association Fellow for 2000, before which he received an Avery Fischer Career Grant in 1996 and the Bronze Medal in the 1993 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where he was the first American to receive such high recognition in twelve years.  In 1990 he took first prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition, and also became one of the first recipients of the Irving Gilmore Young Artists’ Award.

Critics frequently hail the intensity and artistry Professor Taylor brings to the works of masters ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Boulez and Bolcom.  The Washington Post, for instance, deems him "one of the most impressive young pianists on the horizon today."  The New York Times has featured his work several times in the past five years, terming him a “superb pianist” whose performances of Messiaen and Nancarrow (for example) are "astonishing."

In recent seasons Professor Taylor has concertized around the globe, performing throughout Europe and in Korea, the Philippines, and the Caribbean.  At home in the U.S. he has appeared with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Boston Pops, and has toured with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic.  As a soloist he has performed in such venues as New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls, Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia and Aspen festivals, and dozens of others.  His first recording released by Jonathan Digital in 2000 featured works by present-day American composers William Bolcom and Derek Bermel.  His most recent recording, Liszt’s Twelve Transcendental Etudes, was released in 2003 on the Liszt Digital label.  He can also be heard in a CD accompanying his recently released edition of the Bach Inventions, published by George Schirmer.

A dedicated teacher, Professor Taylor’s students have shone in many competitions and performances on and off campus, and have begun themselves to secure teaching positions in this country and in Canada.  During his first five years here, his work was supported by a Vilas Young Investigator Grant, while in 2003 he became one of two music professors designated for the new Paul Collins Endowed Professorship.

Professor Taylor owes much of his success to several outstanding teachers, including Russell Sherman, Maria Curcio-Diamand, Francisco Aybar, and Julie Bees. 
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