Described as “a keyboard superstar” (The New Yorker), and a “spellbinding,” “vigorously virtuosic,” “all around go-to new music specialist” (LA Times), richard valitutto is a GRAMMY-nominated piano soloist, chamber musician, and vocal accompanist. They have collaborated and performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Tiny Desk Concerts, PBS Great Performances, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, and the American Academy in Rome, among many others.
valitutto is a founding member of the ensemble Wild Up, most notably as “pianist, and resident [Julius] Eastman scholar” (Vogue), contributing their piano artistry, incisive writing, and tenacious research efforts to the ensemble’s ongoing Julius Eastman Anthology, dedicated to the late composer’s music. Released annually on New Amsterdam to wide-spread acclaim, both Volumes 2 and 3 were Grammy-nominated for Best Classical Compendium. Volume 4 will come out this June, featuring valitutto’s deeply personal, virtuosic rendition of Eastman’s only surviving piano composition, Piano 2.
valitutto is currently ABD in Cornell University’s Keyboard Studies DMA program with a dissertation project on Julius Eastman, his life and music. They hold additional degrees from the California Institute of the Arts (MFA) and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (BM, summa cum laude).