Deborah Richards, Pianist Based in Cologne, Germany Specializing in Experimental Music and Music by Women Composers

Biography:

Deborah Richards grew up in Edwardsville, Illinois and attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she graduated with honors after studying with Italian pianist Maria Luisa Faini. With the aid of a Fulbright scholarship and a University of Rochester-University of Cologne exchange program, Richards was able to continue her studies in Cologne, Germany with Wilhelm Hecker and Aloys Kontarsky. Since 1976 she has been active as a performer, recording artist, teacher and lecturer.

From 1979 until 1992 Richards was a member of the Clementi-Trio Cologne, premiering trios by young composers, recording for radio and CD, and performing in most European countries, North America, Japan and Hong Kong.

Since the 1980's Richards has performed on fortepianos or copies of early pianos. Her own instrument was built by Monica May (Marburg an der Lahn, 1991) and is a copy of a piano made by Anton Walter (Vienna, ca. 1795).

In 1993 Richards became a member of The Bozza Mansion Project, an Amsterdam ensemble of variable insturmentation dedicated to the performance of experimental music.

Deborah Richards' CD recordings of chamber works and songs by Fanny Hensel, Clara Schumann, Rebecca Clarke, and Germaine Tailleferre demonstrates her dedication to promoting works by women composers, while recordings of Schoenberg, Ives, Satie, and Shostakovich present more mainstream composers. Her recording of piano solo works of Charles Koechlin has received critical acclaim for both its interpretive qualities and the welcome addition of these pieces to the twentieth-century repertory.

Composers whose works were premiered and recorded by Ms. Richards and her colleagues include Clarence Barlow, Michael Biel, Philip Corner, Morton Feldman, Johannes Fritsch, Barbara Heller, Tom Johnson, John McGuire, Pauline Oliveros, Karin Rehnqvist, Christian Wolff, and Walter Zimmermann.

Deborah Richards became committed to performing and recording the music of women composers in the late seventies as a direct result of the influence of feminism on musical research and musicians. Since 1984 she has represented Frau Musica (nova) e.V., a society devoted to the promotion of new music by women composers of our time, in the Music Council of Nordrhein-Westfalen, serving on the council's board from 1995 until 2002. Currently, Richards serves on the board of Cologne Society for Contemporary Music (CSCM or KGNM). She is also active in the Initiativkreis Freie Music (IfM).