Event Detail

May 22 features an intimate duo with intrepid pianist Joshua White and trumpeter and UC San Diego faculty Steph Richards, featuring new compositions by Richards.  

This concert marks the beginning of a new cycle of works Richards is writing specifically for White's unique and extraordinary navigation of notated and improvised music. Steph Richards has been called "boldly inventive" by the New York Times saying that "Steph Richards composes in ways that standard notation could never document." While her trumpet “skillset explodes every category,” (WBGO/Nate Chinen), Richards has worked with pioneering artists ranging from Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton and John Zorn to David Byrne, St. Vincent and Yoko Ono. Richards is driven by a curiosity how listeners interact with music and what sensory variables are open to experimentation. Her compositions have premiered on stages at Carnegie Hall, the Blue-note and Lincoln Center to include works for carousel, underwater ensemble, film, dance and most recently, scents. Her debut record "Fullmoon" (Relative Pitch Records) was voted on multiple “Best of 2018” year end lists and in early 2019 she released her latest record “Take The Neon Lights” earning high praise from NPR, stating that "Richards is one to watch". Richards co-produces the annual FONT Music Festival in NYC, and, beginning last year, began producing a San Diego-based FONT Music Festival in partnership with Dan Atkinson and UCSD Extension. Richards is on faculty at UC San Diego and is a Yamaha artist.