E. Michael Richards
clarinet
Office: 410-455-3064
Room: FA 511
emrichards@umbc.edu

As a recitalist of new music, E. Michael Richards has premiered over 150 works that have utilized the clarinet at performances throughout the US, Japan, Australia, and Western Europe. Trained as a clarinetist at the New England Conservatory (B.Mus.) and Yale School of Music (M.Mus.), Richards earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego. He received a 1990 U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship (sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, and Japanese Government Cultural Agency) as a solo recitalist for a six-month residency in Japan, a NEH Summer Fellowship to study traditional Japanese music, and a residency grant (Cassis, France) from the Camargo Foundation to complete a book - The Clarinet of the Twenty-First Century. He has subsequently completed similar books for bass and E-flat clarinets, and has finished a revision of these three texts, a new next that includes more than 70 etudes and exercises, a DVD-Rom, an interactive multi-media website, and CD-Rom versions of all four texts.

Richards has performed as concerto soloist with the Syracuse Symphony and Shinsei Japan Philharmonic (Tokyo), in chamber music performances with the Cassatt Quartet, Ying Quartet, SONOR, and the East-West Quartet, and in recital at 10 international festivals and more than 25 universities, as well as at the American Academy in Rome, and the Tokyo American Center. He has also performed as a member of the Tanosaki-Richards Duo (with pianist Kazuko Tanosaki) since 1982. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), an artist faculty member at the Val Tidone Summer Masterclasses (Pianello, Italy), and a founding member of RUCKUS (contemporary music ensemble of UMBC).

Recently, Richards performed solo recitals at the 2004 International Clarinet Association Festival in Washington, DC. and at the Greenwich Music Settlement in New York, and performances at the International Computer Music Conference in Miami, Donald Robb Composers Festival in Albuquerque, and Third Practice Festival in Richmond. During Summer-Fall 2005 he will perform at the Pulcheria Festival in Piacenza, Italy, New American Music Festival in Sacramento, and ClarFest 2005 in Tokyo. Engagements with RUCKUS have included a week-long residency at Stanford University, a concert at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC, and an upcoming performance at the Collision Symposium in Victoria, BC. Richards was a member of the Syracuse Society for New Music from 1986-2001, and has served as a member of the Board of Directors since 1998. He has previously held full-time faculty positions at Hamilton College, Bowdoin College, and part-time positions at the University of California, San Diego, the Hochstein Music School (Rochester, NY), Nazareth College (Rochester), and Smith College.

Richards has been recorded (CD) on the NEUMA, Mode, CRI, Ninewinds, and Opus One labels. He has taught at Smith College, UC San Diego, Bowdoin College, Hamilton College, and the Hochstein Music School in Rochester, NY, and completed short terms with Kazuko Tanosaki as visiting artists in residence at the University of Massachusetts, CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technologies) at UC Berkeley, and San Jose State University. Richards and Tanosaki have also organized three international symposia on contemporary Japanese music, and one on contemporary Asian-American music. Courses taught at UMBC: clarinet, chamber players, music theory IV, music theory V, American Music seminar (part of post-baccalaureate certificate program in contemporary American music)

Courses taught at UMBC:
clarinet, chamber players, music theory IV, music theory V, American Music seminar (part of post-baccalaureate certificate program in contemporary American music)

Events
Music of Japan Today 2003

Contact Information
Prof. E. Michael Richards, Dept. of Music, UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21228 USA emrichards@umbc.edu

http://www.research.umbc.edu/~emrich/clarinet21.html

Discography:

RI CD (#849) - P. Q. Phan Banana Trumpet Games (selections include "My Language," "Beyond the Mountains") - E. Michael Richards, clarinet; Kazuko Tanosaki, piano; Julieta Mihai, violin; Leonardo Altino, cello

CRI CD (#846) - Barton McLean (Ritual of the Dawn) - with Linda Green, flute; Barton McLean, piano

Mode CD (#80) - Iannis Xenakis (Palimpsest) - with Aki Takahashi (piano) and the Society for New Music, Charles Peltz (conductor) - winner of "Diapason d'or" from French music magazine, Diapason

Ninewinds CD (NWCD0188)- Music for Clarinet and Piano by Japanese Composers (Honma, Yuasa, Fujieda, Matsushita, Matsuo, Takemitsu) - with Kazuko Tanosaki, piano

Opus One CD (#156) - New Music for Orchestra - music of Masataka Matsuo - "Hirai V" double concerto; with Kazuko Tanosaki, piano

Neuma CD (#450-73) - Electro Acoustic Music 1 - music of Richard Boulaner ("from temporal silence") - microtonal clarinet with tape