Richard Becker
Poetry Reading by Richard Becker
Richard Becker reads from two chapbooks, “Fates,” published by The Literary Review and “On Sunday Afternoons,” published by Finishing Line Press.
Saturday, August 31, 2 - 3 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Donations for the atelier renovations are encouraged!
Renovations begin October 2024!
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All donations to the Friends of the Virginia Center in Paris for renovation at the Cité Internationale des Arts are exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). The Friends of the Virginia Center in Paris is a registered charitable non-profit corporation approved by Virginia State Corporation Commission and the IRS.
Learn more: music.richmond.edu/faculty/rbecker/
Biography
Richard Becker grew up in Brooklyn, NY. As a child, his mother regularly took him to Prospect Park and The Brooklyn Museum, exposing him to natural beauty and fine art. He studied piano and composition at Eastman School of Music, University of Texas, Austin, and Boston University.
As a poet, he has published in journals such as Columbia, America, The Baltimore Review, U City Review, Cold Mountain Review, among others. His chapbook,“Fates,” is published by The Literary Review. He has given poetry readings in Paris at Cité Internationale des Arts and Shakespeare & Co., in the US at Vermont Studio Center, BreadLoaf Writers Conference, Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, University of Richmond, Hawaii University, Waikiki (2022), and numerous bookstores in the Richmond area.
As a pianist, he has performed on numerous college campuses and at venues such as New York’s Tully Hall, The Town Hall, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, The National Gallery of Art, and, as First Prize Laureate of the French Piano Institute, at the French Embassy in Washington, DC. In Paris, he has performed at L’École Normale de Musique’s Salle Cortot and at Salle Michelet, a venue of the Cité Internationale des Arts, where he has been a frequent artist-in-residence. As a composer, he has been a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Virginia Center for Creative Arts Fellow and an American Academy of Arts and Letters nominee.
His music compositions have been performed at Tanglewood Music Center, L’École Normale de Musique, Brattleboro Music Festival, National Gallery of Art, Virginia Museum, University of South Florida, and on college campuses throughout the country. His compositions have received Meet the Composer Grants, Contemporary Music Studio grants, and wide critical acclaim in the press. His piano performance has been described as “powerful” by the Washington Post, “admirable in taste and technique” by the New York Times, and “brilliant with seamless passagework and elegant phrasing” by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
He lives in Richmond, VA with his wife Doris Wylee-Becker, with whom he plays two-piano concerts, their daughter Ilana Lee, and Golden Retriever Muffin. He is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Richmond, where he heads Piano Study, teaches piano and a course called “Poetry and Music.”