BIO

Evan Ritter is a pianist, composer, and pedagogue living in Austin, Texas. He began piano lessons at the Suzuki Music Institute of Dallas with Dr. Bret Serrin. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Evan received his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance in addition to the Peter Salaff Prize (‘18) and John Celentano Award (‘17). He continued his studies at Eastman earning a double Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature, and Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music. At Eastman, his primary teachers were Dr. Douglas Humpherys and Dr. Jean Barr. Summer studies have included the Aspen Music Festival and School, Orford Musique, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Gijon International Piano Festival with teachers including Anton Nel, Robert McDonald, Marc Durand, Logan Skelton, and James Giles. 

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Since his debut with orchestra in 2006, Evan has performed with the Plano and Fort Worth Symphonies under the batons of Hector Guzman and Andres Franco, respectively. He has received top prizes in competitions including the Sixth International Chopin Youth Piano Competition, WRR Young Artist Piano Competition, Juanita Miller Concerto Competition, Hubbard Chamber Music Competition, Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition and the Fort Worth Symphony Young Artists Competition.

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A passionate chamber musician as well as soloist, Evan is a founding member of the Windsor Piano trio. In 2017, the group claimed first prize at the National MTNA Competition and were finalists at the Coltman Chamber Music Competition in 2016. The Windsor Trio was closely mentored by Professors Elinor Freer and David Ying at the Eastman School of Music. There, they also performed in masterclasses for Trio Cleonice and the Kalichstein Laredo-Robinson Trio.

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Outside of performance, Evan has taught students of all ages and levels. In 2015 and 2016, he was on the faculty of the Southeast Asia Music Festival. There, he worked with a studio of students from the Philippines teaching private lessons, masterclasses, and group classes. As part of his position, he performed in venues in the Philippines including in Valencia City, Manila, and Bukidnon. Inspired by his own Filipino heritage, Evan is committed to providing high-quality music training to other young Filipino students. While living in Rochester, Evan was a Piano Faculty Intern at the Eastman Community Music School. He currently teaches private piano, piano group classes, and coaches string and vocal students full-time at the Clavier-Werke School of Music.

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An advocate of new music, Evan has given US premieres of several works including Alexander Schubert’s “Point Ones” and Joseph Clark’s Alto Clarinet Sonata. Additionally, Evan has acted as a member of SoundExchange, and the Andrew Alden Ensemble, a group which performs music for silent films that include improvisation and modern compositions by Andrew Alden. In 2018, the Windsor Trio commissioned and premiered a piece by Alden written for piano trio: “House of Leaves”.

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As a composer, Evan is influenced by the music  of Arvo Pärt, Keiichi Okabe, John Cage and Kaija Saariaho. His “Fantasy for Piano and Fixed Media” premiered in 2017 at the Eastman School of Music, and his “Chronologies for Violin and Fixed Media” premiered in 2019 at the Juilliard School. Recently, his piece for solo piano entitled “Spectator” premiered during Summer 2020 as part of a multi-disciplinary online recital through the Literary Music Series. 

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Evan is an acting Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar.