Monday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m.
Squires Recital Salon
Free; no reservation required

Pianist Richard Masters and soprano Ariana Wyatt perform a free piano recital as a part of the Music on Mondays series.

On the program:
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903 by J.S. Bach
Fünf Lieder by Alma Mahler
Prélude, aria et final by César Franck
Improvisation, Album Leaf, and España by Emmanuel Chabrier

Masters is a soloist, opera coach, chamber musician, orchestral pianist, and an associate professor of piano and collaborative piano on the music faculty in the School of Performing Arts.

Masters’ significant collaborations include concerts with baritone Donnie Ray Albert, flutist Valerie Coleman, mezzo-soprano Marta Senn, the late mezzo-soprano Barbara Conrad, and many others. He has appeared with former Boston Symphony principal trombonist Norman Bolter, former Juilliard String Quartet violinist Earl Carlyss, saxophonist Harvey Pittel, and under the baton of the late Lorin Maazel. Masters has performed solo, chamber, and vocal recitals throughout the United States and in Europe.

As a solo pianist, Masters plays a wide variety of standard and non-traditional repertoire, including contemporary pieces written for or commissioned by him. A strong proponent of contemporary American composers, he has performed world premieres of pieces by Kenneth Frazelle, Charles Nichols, Kent Holliday, and many others. He is an enthusiastic performer of British music from the early 20th century, focusing in particular on the solo piano music of John Ireland. The critic John France wrote on MusicWeb International “Richard Masters approaches [John Ireland's Piano Sonata] with great style and understanding: all the facets of Ireland’s art are present here: ‘…the lyrical, the dramatic, the extrovert and the melancholy — the intense self-questioning and the open, almost naïve, avowals.’”

In addition to his performances as a pianist, Masters is active in the world of opera and musical theatre as a coach and conductor. 

Masters is a Yamaha Artist. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, and a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music.


Originally from Southern California, Ariana Wyatt is a graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center. She has peformed a number of roles including Micaela in The Tragedy of Carmen for Opera Omaha, and Leila in Les Pêcheurs de Perles at the Florida Grand Opera.

We are grateful to Main Street Inn and The Inn at Virginia Tech, the hotel sponsors for the Music on Mondays and Visiting Artist Series in the School of Performing Arts at Virginia Tech.