92nd Street Y to Feature Grammy-Winner Richard O’Neill and Pianist Garrick Ohlsson in Classical Concert

Richard O'Neill, Grammy Award-winning soloist and violist with the world-renowned Takács Quartet, joins eminent pianist Garrick Ohlsson for a program of viola-piano duets and solos. Hailed by The Times (London) for his "ravishing" playing, O'Neill is quickly establishing himself as one of the great instrumentalists of his generation, collaborating with esteemed artists including Danil Trifonov, Emanuel Ax, Steven Isserlis, and others. Ohlsson, who last appeared at 92NY in an all-Chopin recital in 2023, is an avid chamber musician and joins O'Neill for an afternoon of repertoire gems, including Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata and Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata.

Program

Franz Schubert Impromptu in C Minor, Op. 90, No., D. 899

Schubert Du Bist die Ruh, Op. 59, No. 3, D. 776

Nacht und Träume, Op. 43, No. 2, D. 827

Schubert Sonata in A Minor, Op. posth., D. 821, "Arpeggione"

Sergei Rachmaninoff Étude-Tableau in E-flat Minor, Op. 39, No. 5

Rachmaninoff Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19

Violist of the Takács Quartet, Richard O'Neill has distinguished himself as one of the great instrumentalists of his generation. Grammy Award winner for Best Classical Instrumental Solo Performance in 2021, O'Neill is only the second violist awarded in the history of this category. Following two previous Grammy nominations, O'Neill's recent win for his recording of Christopher Theofanidis' Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra also spotlights conductor David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Theofanidis' composition was inspired by Navajo poetry and the composer's psychological response to the September 11 attacks.

An Emmy Award winner and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, O'Neill has appeared as soloist with the world's top orchestras, including the London and Los Angeles Philharmonics; Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra; the BBC, Hiroshima, and Korean National symphony orchestras; Kremerata Baltica; Moscow, Vienna, and Wurtemburg chamber orchestras; and Alte Musik Köln. He has worked with distinguished musicians and conductors including Andrew Davis, Vladimir Jurowski, Francois Xavier Roth, and Yannick Nezet-Seguin. An artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and principal violist of Camerata Pacifica, for 13 seasons he served as artistic director of DITTO, his South Korean chamber music project, leading the ensemble on international tours to China and Japan and introducing tens of thousands to music.

A Universal Music/Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, O'Neill has made 10 solo albums and many other chamber music recordings, earning multiple platinum discs. Composers Lera Auerbach, Elliott Carter, Paul Chihara, John Harbison, and Huang Ruo have written works for him. He has appeared on major television networks in South Korea and enjoyed huge success with his 2004 Korean Broadcasting System documentary Human Theater, which was viewed by over 12 million people, and his 2013 series Hello?! Orchestra, which featured his work with a multicultural youth orchestra for Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation and led to an International Emmy in Arts Programming and a feature-length film.

He serves as Goodwill Ambassador for the Korean Red Cross, Special Olympics, UNICEF and Oxfam, and serves on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Long regarded as one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Frederic Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire encompassing more than 80 concertos.

For the first time in its history, the Chopin Competition invited an American to chair the jury, and Ohlsson assumed that role for the 19th incarnation in October 2025. This season he returns as guest soloist to The Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), followed by a tour with violist Richard O'Neill that takes them from Los Angeles to Charlottesville (Virginia), St. Paul to New York. In solo recitals, he can be heard in Vienna, London, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Collaborations with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo, and Takács quartets have led to decades of touring and recordings. His solo recordings are available on the British label Hyperion and in the U.S. on Bridge Records. Both Brahms concertos and Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concertohave been released on live recordings with the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras on their own labels, and he recorded Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Spano.

A native of White Plains, New York, Garrick Ohlsson began piano studies at the age of eight at the Westchester Conservatory of Music and at 13 he entered The Juilliard School. He was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and the University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1998. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music and in August 2018, the Polish Deputy Culture Minister awarded him the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit. He is a Steinway Artist and makes his home in San Francisco.