World-renowned pianist and Centralia College graduate Charlie Albright will perform a fundraising concert at Corbet Theatre in April. The event, which will raise money for the Centralia College Foundation, is expected to sell out.
It will be held at 7 p.m. on April 8 in the Corbet Theatre on the Centralia College campus.
Tickets are $40 for boxed seats or $30 for reserved general admission. Tickets can be purchased at Book ’n’ Brush in Chehalis, the Centralia College Foundation Office, located at Centralia College Boulevard and Iron Street, and online at http://aneveningwithcharlie.bpt.me.
Proceeds benefit student scholarships and the Charlie Albright Piano Fund.
According to a press release from the college, Albright plans to perform pieces from his newest CD and include time for improvisation.
As a former Centralia College student, Albright is a piano prodigy hailed as “among the most gifted musicians of his generation” with a “dazzling natural keyboard affinity” who “made quite an impression” by The Washington Post.
The New York Times has praised him for his “jaw-dropping technique and virtuosity meshed with a distinctive musicality.”
Albright is a firm believer in education and founded the Charlie Albright Scholarship and Charlie Albright Piano Fund, in collaboration with the Centralia College Foundation. The scholarship provides financial aid to music students, and money was raised to purchase a new 9-foot piano for the college’s Corbet Hall, according to the release.
He was born in Centralia and began piano lessons at the age of 3. Albright studied with Nancy Adsit and earned an associate’s degree at Centralia College while still in high school.
He was the first classical pianist accepted to the Harvard College/New England Conservatory 5-year BA/MM Joint Program and completed a bachelor's degree as a pre-med and economics major at Harvard in 2011, and a master of music degree in piano performance at New England Conservatory in 2012 with Wha-Kyung Byun. He graduated with the prestigious artist diploma from The Juilliard School in 2014, working with Yoheved Kaplinsky. He is an official Steinway Artist and is represented by Bill Capone of Arts Management Group.
His last performance at Centralia College was in 2014.
Among his many awards and recognitions, Albright is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award. He won the 2014 Ruhr Klavier Festival Young Artist Award and the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.
In 2011, he was the winner of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts from Harvard University and was also named Artist-in-Residence for Harvard University’s Leverett House, a position last filled by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Albright’s numerous awards include first prize in both Solo and Ensemble categories at the 2006 New York National Piano Competition; first prize and all other awards offered at the 2006 Eastman International Piano Competition; third prize at the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition; Semi-Finalist Award and Best Performance of a Work by Liszt in Stage I at the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition; and the Vendome Virtuoso Prize and the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award at the 2009 Vendome Prize Piano Competition.
Vivace, his debut commercial recording, has sold thousands of copies worldwide.
Albright’s 2016-17 season includes debuts with the Baltimore, Colorado Springs, and Mobile symphonies as well as return to the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Portland Piano International Summer Festival.
During his 2015-16 season, Albright included debuts at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, China; the Portland International Piano Festival; solo concerts in Detroit, Houston, and San Antonio, among many other appearances. He also returned to perform with the Seattle Symphony.
For more information on Albright, go online to his Facebook page “Charlie Albright Pianist,” or to the website CharlieAlbright.com.
