Professor
M.M., Catholic University
Office: 815-753-1658
E-mail: RWY1230@comcast.net
At the age of thirteen, Richard Young was invited to perform for Queen Elisabeth of Belgium at the Royal Palace in Brussels. Since then he has been soloist with various orchestras and has given solo and chamber music recitals throughout North and South America, Europe, the Far East, Africa, and Australia. A special award winner in the Rockefeller Foundation American Music Competition, he was a member of the New Hungarian Quartet, as well as the violinist of the Rogeri Trio. From 1985 to 2007 he was the violist of the renowned Vermeer Quartet. Mr. Young has performed at many of the most prestigious summer festivals throughout the world, and has recorded over three dozen chamber music works for Teldec, Naxos, Orion, Cedille, Vox, Musical Heritage, Angelicum, and Alden Productions. He was also the producer of the Vermeer Quartet’s Grammy-nominated CD of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ. He has taught at Northern Illinois University, the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and was chairman of the string faculty at Oberlin Conservatory. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. In addition to his more traditional teaching activities, he does a substantial amount of volunteer work in inner-city Chicago for the benefit of disadvantaged children – at the People’s Music School, and as the supervisor of the International Music Foundation’s extensive “outreach” program.