William Fried

My work as a pianist focuses on French music and various postwar Avant Garde traditions. My other interests include electroacoustic music, collaboration with dance, and the realization of unconventional notation.

Some concert highlights include performances at the LA Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, Vancouver New Music Festival, Roerich Museum (NY), UC San Diego Wed@7 Series, La Giralda de l’Arboç, and New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice. Critics have described my playing as “poised and remarkably dexterous… hypnotic” (The Boston Globe), “in possession of an incredible technique” (Vancouver Classical Music), “particularly forceful” (The San Diego Union Tribune), “subtly shaded and delicately phrased” (SanDiego.com), and “awe inspiring” (Beacon Sound).

As a specialist in new music, I have premiered numerous new works, and recorded for Mode, Carrier, and various independent releases. My writing has been published in Perspectives of New Music, Piano Magazine: Clavier Companion, and American Music Teacher, and my playing featured on Universal Music Publishers Classical online. In 2016 I was resident pianist with the Atlantic Music Festival’s new music ensemble.

I also remain active as an interpreter of traditional repertoire, appearing as soloist with the Palomar Symphony, UC San Diego (UCSD) Chamber Orchestra, the Jordan Winds, UCSD Wind Ensemble, Hillcrest Wind Ensemble, San Diego East County Youth Orchestra, and the Davidson College Symphony Orchestra, in concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré, Rachmaninoff, Falla, Gershwin, and Hanson.  My latest album, vues féeriques, featuring music by Bach, Fauré, and Messiaen, was released in 2022.

In addition to work as soloist, I am part of an electro-acoustic duo with Indianapolis-based percussionist Scott Deal. In recent years we have performed at the Vancouver New Music Festival, Ball State New Music Festival, the Indiana Historical Society, and Boston’s SICPP festival, in addition to performances at Davidson College in 2015 and 2019. Our playing has been featured on a WDAV program “Music Under the Influence of Computers,” and has been described as “truly engrossing” by I Care If You Listen arts magazine.

Locally, I have appeared in several productions of Charlotte’s Sensoria Festival of the Arts, including accompanying the Paul Taylor Dance company during their 2017 visit, and have been a frequent guest at the Charlotte New Music Festival. I often serve as clinician and adjudicator throughout North Carolina.

My undergraduate degree was in mathematics; during subsequent graduate studies in music, I studied piano with Aleck Karis and Stephen Drury.

Teaching

MUS 050, 055, Applied Music (Non-Credit)
MUS 155, 255, 256, 355, Applied Music (Credit)