One of the few violists to ever be awarded the
prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as a
48th Annual GRAMMY Award Nomination (Best Soloist with
Orchestra), RICHARD O'NEILL is rising to international
prominence as one of the most promising artists of his
generation. Highlights from this season include his
solo debuts with the London Philharmonic and the
Moscow Chamber Orchestra, a Live from Lincoln Center
television broadcast for PBS with the Chamber Music
Society, and the release of his third album for
UNIVERSAL Classics/Deutsche Grammophon. In recent
seasons he has made debuts at the world's most
prestigous halls including New York's Carnegie Hall,
London's Wigmore Hall, Paris' Salle Cortot and Seoul
Arts Center, as well as an appearance at the Mostly
Mozart Festival with the Emerson String Quartet and
Leon Fleisher in Avery Fisher Hall. O'Neill has made
performed with many orchestras including the Los
Angeles and Euroasian Philharmonics, the KBS Symphony
Orchestra, and the American Youth, YMF Debut and USC
Symphonies.
A highly accomplished chamber musician, he has
collaborated with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri,
Emerson, Orion, Brentano and Mendelssohn String
Quartets, Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang
Lin, Kyung-Wha Chung, Jamie Laredo, Joshua Bell,
Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffmann,
Carter Brey, Edgar Meyer, Garrick Ohlsson, among
others. He was a member of Chamber Music Society Two
of Lincoln Center, a residency that features the
world's most gifted young chamber musicians, and will
join the Society for their 2007-08 season. He also
serves as principal violist of Santa Barbara-based
Camerata Pacifica. He frequently tours with the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as
with Musicians from Marlboro. He has held the
position of principal violist and soloist with Sejong
(ICM Artists). Festival apperances include Marlboro,
Aspen, Bridgehampton, Casals, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia,
Seattle as well as Bargemusic and Brooklyn Friends of
Chamber Music.
A UNIVERSAL/DG Classics Recording Artist, he will
release his next two solo albums for Deutsche
Grammophon. Mr. O'Neill's debut album for UNIVERSAL
Classics topped the Korean classical charts for 2005
earning him a Gold Disc Award. His second album was
the unprecdented #1 Bestselling Classical (as well as
International Pop) Recording of 2006 in South Korea,
which earned him a Double Platinum Disc Award. In
addition to his recording contract with UNIVERSAL/DG,
Mr. O'Neill is dedicated to recording the lesser known
music for labels such as Naxos, Bridge, Centaur and
Tzadik: his recordings of Schoenberg and Webern for
Naxos were the subject of an extensive New York Times
article which described his performances as
"revelatory". His recording of Schoenberg's String
Quartet Concerto as a member of the Fred Sherry String
Quartet earned him a GRAMMY Nomination for Best
Soloist with Orchestra. Recordings of Stravinsky's
Elegie for Solo Viola as well as Schoenberg's String
Trio, Ode to Napoleon and Third String Quartet are due
to be released on Naxos in the coming year.
An advocate for the music of our time, he has
collaborated with some of the most important living
composers including Elliot Carter, Oliver Knussen,
Mario Davidovsky, David del Tredici, Melinda Wagner,
Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn, whom he has made
several world premieres. He is a dedicated teacher as well as performer, and
serves on the faculty of the University of California
Los Angeles.
No stranger to the media, he has been featured on
television and radio broadcasts worldwide. He was the
subject of a two-part, five hour documentary for the
Korean Broadcasting System that was broadcast to over
12 million people, and has been featured on all of the
major television networks in South Korea. He has also
performed on CNN and PBS, served as a Young
Artist-in-Residence for National Public Radio's
Performance Today in Washington D.C., and has been
broadcast on BBC-3, the CBC Live from the Glenn Gould
Studio in Toronto, WQXR, WFMT, and most of the
broadcast stations nationwide.
The first and only violist to receive the prestigious
Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, he received
degrees from the University of Southern California
Thornton School of Music, graduating magna cum laude,
and The Juilliard School. He has studied with Paul
Neubauer and Donald McInnes. Mr. O'Neill performs on
a fine and rare viola made by Giovanni Tononi of
Bologna, crafted in 1699.
Residing in New York City for the past seven years, he
was recently honored with a Proclamation from the New
York City Council for his achievement and contribution
to the arts.
