Winter Speaker Series: Richard Dowling

Richard Dowling, Acclaimed concert pianist and lecturer

Join us for a fascinating combined lecture and performance by Richard Dowling of beloved ragtime piano works by American composer Scott Joplin (ca. 1868-1917). We’ll hear, and learn about, memorable pieces like The Entertainer, featured in the 1973 Academy Award-winning movie The Sting, alongside dazzling, delightful, and rarely-heard Joplin compositions. Hailed as “The King of Ragtime Writers,” Joplin’s piano repertoire includes 53 rags, waltzes, marches and cakewalks. His syncopated works were and still are considered to be the best of the genre. The first pianist in the world to perform all of Scott Joplin’s piano works in public, Mr. Dowling has performed at Carnegie Hall and has been nominated for a Grammy Award. Don’t miss this very special Winter Speaker event!

Each lecture will be followed by audience Q&A, and continued conversation in the galleries over  hot tea, coffee, and scrumptious light fare and desserts, courtesy of Blenheim-Newport, a Benchmark Senior Living Community.

Hailed by The New York Times as “an especially impressive fine pianist,” Steinway Artist Richard Dowling appears throughout America in recitals, at music festivals, and as guest soloist with orchestras. Works of Chopin, Debussy, Gershwin, Gottschalk, Ravel, and ragtime figure prominently in his repertoire. Reviews praise him as “a master of creating beautiful sounds with impeccable control of colors and textures,” as “a musician with something to say, the skill to say it and the magnetic power to make you want to listen,” and for giving “a superb recital that left the audience craving for more at the end.” Dowling is a versatile recording artist with over a dozen CDs of classical, chamber, ragtime, jazz, and popular music. On April 1, 2017, Mr. Dowling performed the complete piano works of Scott Joplin in historic twin sold-out recitals at Carnegie Hall, exactly 100 years to the day Joplin died in New York. He is the first pianist in the world to perform the Joplin cycle – 53 rags, waltzes, marches and cakewalks – nearly four hours of music, all from memory. His 3-CD set of the Complete Joplin was nominated for a Grammy Award. Celebrity ragtime pianist Max Morath says “Richard Dowling’s mastery of the Joplin rags invokes a tenderness that charms us and a technical command that inspires our admiration.” Mr. Dowling resides in New York and holds advanced degrees in music from Yale and University of Texas, including a doctorate.