Christopher O'Riley
Encyclopedia
Christopher O'Riley is an American classical pianist
and public radio show host. He is the host of the weekly National Public Radio program From the Top
. O'Riley is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative artists.
O’Riley was born in 1956 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Evanston, Illinois
. He began Classical piano studies at the age of 4, and became interested in Pop music and started his own band in 6th grade. His dual-track musical interests led him to Jazz-Rock Fusion and included professional performance in his later high school years with the Pittsburgh alto sax player, Eric Kloss. His choice of music school was fortuitous as the New England Conservatory of Music had as its President in the 70's the composer/historian, Gunther Schuller. It was upon entering NEC that O'Riley decided to pursue Classical studies exclusively In 1981 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He has received awards at the Leeds
, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Montreal competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. O'Riley has made many recordings of classical music. His debut album, a collection of the works of Ferruccio Busoni
, including the seldom performed Fantasia Contrappuntistica
, was released in 1983. He has since released several recordings, including works of Maurice Ravel
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
, Jean-Philippe Rameau
, John Adams
, Igor Stravinsky
, and Alexander Scriabin
, as well as a recording of Rhapsody in Blue
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
.
O'Riley is the host of the weekly National Public Radio program From the Top
, on which young musicians are heard and interviewed. According to its website, it is the most popular classical music show on the air today. O'Riley first began performing Radiohead
songs as a time-filler during a break in the program, to supplement preludes and miniatures by composers such as Debussy
and Rachmaninoff
. Many of those short classical pieces are found on his CD release At the Break. Initially designed as a media platform for all manner of young musicians, From The Top soon became exclusively dedicated to Classical music, and it was in this atmosphere that O'Riley decided to augment the format by inserting, unannounced, his own arrangements, presumably Classical pieces, of Radiohead songs. When listeners were apprised of the title and provenance of the pieces, emails came into the show asking "Who is this Mr. Head and where can I find more of his beautiful music?"
True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead
, his recording of his own piano arrangements of songs by the alternative rock
band Radiohead
, was released in 2003. O'Riley's second Radiohead-derived album, Hold Me To This
, followed two years later and contains a different selection of songs. Both albums had moderate success on the classical crossover
charts. In 2006, he released a piano tribute to Elliott Smith
, Home to Oblivion, again featuring his own arrangements.
O'Riley claims his renditions have introduced the music of Radiohead to classical audience as well as introducing classical music to a wider or younger audience, as he sometimes performs both standard concert repertoire, such as Shostakovich
or Mozart
, and Radiohead, Elliott Smith or Nick Drake
interpretations at the same concert. O'Riley describes himself as an obsessed Radiohead fan in interviews, and says he was attracted to the multilayered nature of the band's music, leading him to listen and transcribe lesser known album tracks, live bootleg recording
s of performances, b-sides
, and even songs never officially released, as well as some of their hit singles. In his liner notes for Home to Oblivion, he calls Elliott Smith "the most important songwriter since Cole Porter
," although admitting he was unaware of Smith's music until his apparent suicide in 2003. When asked to explain his unusual choice of material for a classical pianist, O'Riley has often quoted Duke Ellington
's statement that "there are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind."
O'Riley's work, has often been distinguished from other classical rock-tribute albums by music critics, who note O'Riley's quality of playing. True Love Waits received 4 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone
magazine, allegedly the only "classical" recording to do so, while his Radiohead concert programs have received generally favorable notices from classical critics and promotion on NPR's Performance Today.
O'Riley currently resides in Sagamore Hills, Ohio
.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and public radio show host. He is the host of the weekly National Public Radio program From the Top
From the Top
From the Top is a national program and initiative to develop and showcase young classical musicians. It is best known for its NPR radio and PBS television programs hosted by pianist Christopher O'Riley, which celebrate the passion, dedication and personal stories of America's best young classical...
. O'Riley is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative artists.
O’Riley was born in 1956 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
. He began Classical piano studies at the age of 4, and became interested in Pop music and started his own band in 6th grade. His dual-track musical interests led him to Jazz-Rock Fusion and included professional performance in his later high school years with the Pittsburgh alto sax player, Eric Kloss. His choice of music school was fortuitous as the New England Conservatory of Music had as its President in the 70's the composer/historian, Gunther Schuller. It was upon entering NEC that O'Riley decided to pursue Classical studies exclusively In 1981 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He has received awards at the Leeds
Leeds International Pianoforte Competition
The Leeds International Piano Competition informally known as The Leeds takes place every three years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1961 by Marion, Countess of Harewood and Fanny Waterman, who is today its Chairman and Artistic Director. The competition was first held in 1963...
, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Montreal competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. O'Riley has made many recordings of classical music. His debut album, a collection of the works of Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
, including the seldom performed Fantasia Contrappuntistica
Fantasia Contrappuntistica
Fantasia contrappuntistica is a solo piano piece composed by Ferruccio Busoni in 1910. Busoni created several versions of the work including several for solo piano, and one for two pianos. It has been arranged for organ and for orchestra since the composer's death.The work is in large part a...
, was released in 1983. He has since released several recordings, including works of Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
, John Adams
John Coolidge Adams
John Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
, Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, and Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
, as well as a recording of Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
.
O'Riley is the host of the weekly National Public Radio program From the Top
From the Top
From the Top is a national program and initiative to develop and showcase young classical musicians. It is best known for its NPR radio and PBS television programs hosted by pianist Christopher O'Riley, which celebrate the passion, dedication and personal stories of America's best young classical...
, on which young musicians are heard and interviewed. According to its website, it is the most popular classical music show on the air today. O'Riley first began performing Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
songs as a time-filler during a break in the program, to supplement preludes and miniatures by composers such as Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
. Many of those short classical pieces are found on his CD release At the Break. Initially designed as a media platform for all manner of young musicians, From The Top soon became exclusively dedicated to Classical music, and it was in this atmosphere that O'Riley decided to augment the format by inserting, unannounced, his own arrangements, presumably Classical pieces, of Radiohead songs. When listeners were apprised of the title and provenance of the pieces, emails came into the show asking "Who is this Mr. Head and where can I find more of his beautiful music?"
True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead
True Love Waits (album)
True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead is the first tribute album by classical pianist Christopher O'Riley of songs by the experimental rock band Radiohead.The concept of reinterpreting Radiohead's works is not new...
, his recording of his own piano arrangements of songs by the alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, was released in 2003. O'Riley's second Radiohead-derived album, Hold Me To This
Hold Me to This
Hold Me to This: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead is the second tribute album by classical pianist Christopher O'Riley of songs by the rock band Radiohead, the first being True Love Waits...
, followed two years later and contains a different selection of songs. Both albums had moderate success on the classical crossover
Crossover (music)
Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...
charts. In 2006, he released a piano tribute to Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
, Home to Oblivion, again featuring his own arrangements.
O'Riley claims his renditions have introduced the music of Radiohead to classical audience as well as introducing classical music to a wider or younger audience, as he sometimes performs both standard concert repertoire, such as Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
or Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, and Radiohead, Elliott Smith or Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
interpretations at the same concert. O'Riley describes himself as an obsessed Radiohead fan in interviews, and says he was attracted to the multilayered nature of the band's music, leading him to listen and transcribe lesser known album tracks, live bootleg recording
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
s of performances, b-sides
B-Sides
B-Sides is an iTunes-exclusive album from the Coventry Trio The Enemy, consisting of ten songs that were B-sides to the single releases from their debut album We'll Live and Die in These Towns.-Track list:#Fear Killed the Youth of Our Nation...
, and even songs never officially released, as well as some of their hit singles. In his liner notes for Home to Oblivion, he calls Elliott Smith "the most important songwriter since Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
," although admitting he was unaware of Smith's music until his apparent suicide in 2003. When asked to explain his unusual choice of material for a classical pianist, O'Riley has often quoted Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
's statement that "there are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind."
O'Riley's work, has often been distinguished from other classical rock-tribute albums by music critics, who note O'Riley's quality of playing. True Love Waits received 4 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, allegedly the only "classical" recording to do so, while his Radiohead concert programs have received generally favorable notices from classical critics and promotion on NPR's Performance Today.
O'Riley currently resides in Sagamore Hills, Ohio
Sagamore Hills Township, Summit County, Ohio
Sagamore Hills Township is one of the nine townships of Summit County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 9,340 people in the township.-Geography:Located in the northwestern part of the county, it borders the following townships and municipalities:...
.
Discography
| Release date | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|
| October 1, 2001 | Christopher O'Riley at the Break | From the Top Records |
| June 10, 2003 | True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead True Love Waits (album) True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead is the first tribute album by classical pianist Christopher O'Riley of songs by the experimental rock band Radiohead.The concept of reinterpreting Radiohead's works is not new... |
Sony |
| April 12, 2005 | Hold Me to This: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead Hold Me to This Hold Me to This: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead is the second tribute album by classical pianist Christopher O'Riley of songs by the rock band Radiohead, the first being True Love Waits... |
World Village Records IODA |
| April 11, 2006 | Home to Oblivion: An Elliott Smith Tribute Home to Oblivion: An Elliott Smith Tribute Home to Oblivion: An Elliott Smith Tribute is a 2006 tribute album to Elliott Smith recorded by Christopher O'Riley.- Track listing :... |
World Village Records IODA |
| April 10, 2007 | Second Grace: The Music of Nick Drake Second Grace: The Music of Nick Drake Second Grace: The Music of Nick Drake is a 2007 release of piano instrumentals by Christopher O'Riley, host of NPR's From The Top, of songs by English singer-songwriter Nick Drake... |
World Village Records IODA |
| August 18, 2009 | Out of My Hands | White Tie Records |