A native New Yorker, pianist Christina Wright-Ivanova enjoys all aspects of chamber music collaboration. Praised for her expressive, intelligent performances and crystalline sound, she is equally at home with art song as she is with string and chamber repertoire. Ms. Wright is also dedicated to bringing exceptional new music to a larger audience. Her current Doctoral studies with Anne Epperson at the University of Texas at Austin continue to focus on all these aspects of collaboration.

After completing her Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Ms. Wright-Ivanova performed in many venues around the city, including the Harvard Fogg Art Museum, Jordan Hall, MIT, Longy School of Music, and the Lily Pad in Cambridge. She also worked in the voice studios of Patricia Misslin, Delores Ziegler, James McDonald, and Patricia Craig and the instrumental studios of Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, and Laurence Lesser. She also worked in master classes with artists such as Warren Jones, Alan Smith, Kenneth Griffiths, Roger Vignoles, and Pierre Vallet.

As an advocate for connecting cultures through classical music, Ms. Wright was honored to spend the summer of 2008 in Venezuela as Guest Pianist-in-Residence with the Orquesta Infantil de Acarigua-Araure. During this time, she taught many classes and worked with emerging young artists of all ages. She performed with many young performers of all instruments as part of Venezuela’s classical music program, El Sistema, and was interviewed on television, newspaper, and radio broadcasts throughout the country.
In Fall 2011, she will travel to Nanjing, China, where she will perform a collaborative recital with faculty from the University for the Arts.

Recent faculty piano positions include the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Salzburg and the Ip Piano School in Boston. She was previously on faculty at the Victoria Piano Summer School and has taught talented young students at the 'Camp Encore/Coda' summer program in Sweden, Maine.

Due to her deep love of art song, Ms. Wright-Ivanova won the prestigious ‘Johann Strauss Scholarship for Advanced Study in Austria’ as a duo with Canadian soprano Allison Cecilia Arends. This enabled her to study for a summer at the Franz-Schubert-Institut, Baden-bei-Wien. During this festival, she worked with Rudolf Jansen, Helmut Deutsch, Edith Wiens, and Elly Ameling, which further increased her desire to study art song in depth. This passion has been further developed with studies at the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, and the Vancouver International Song Institute specifically with professors Rena Sharon, Alison d’Amato, and Cameron Stowe. She has also participated in chamber music festivals including the ‘Niagara International Music Festival’ in Ontario and the ‘Ameropa Chamber Music Festival’ in Prague, Czech Republic.

She naturally enjoys premiering new works and attended two summers of the 'Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice' led by the pianist and conductor Steven Drury. She has premiered works by Canadian composer Gavin Bryars and has performed in the Clutch New Music series at University of Texas at Austin as well as in the Steve Reich Festival at the New England Conservatory. The 2011/2012 season will include further new music projects.

Ms. Wright-Ivanova enjoys opera work and has worked as Assistant Rehearsal Pianist for the Pacific Opera Victoria. She has directed opera scenes for the Boston Opera Collaborative and was recently rehearsal pianist for their 2011 summer production of Falstaff. Other projects include keyboard pianist for the Vancouver Island Symphony, University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, pianist for the award-winning Wellesley College Choir, the Libella Vocal Quartet, and the award-winning UT Chamber Singers directed by Dr. James Morrow.
Ms. Wright-Ivanova was also the pianist for the Handel & Haydn Society Youth Women’s Chorus (2008/09 season) and enjoyed working on many of the Young Artist Outreach concerts with the company.

Awards for piano include the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Performance Fund Scholarship, New England Conservatory Lackey-Eliot Scholarship, Fletcher Piano Scholarship (UVic), Eugenie Ngai Memorial Award in Collaborative Piano, and the Florence Hamblett Memorial Award for Outstanding Student Collaborative Pianist.

Ms. Wright-Ivanova has enjoyed multiple private concerts in recent years, mostly collaborating with outstanding violinists and cellists with promising careers. She has performed in concert series including Apollo Arts in Sacramento, CA, St. Paul’s Church in Boston, All Saints Concert Series in Worcester, the Whitehead Piano Concert Series at MIT, and the Christ Church Summer Recital series in Victoria, BC. Recent European concerts in 2010 included performances at conferences in Lyon, France, and at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Christina Wright-Ivanova, Pianist