Ricardo de la Torre

Applied Piano Lessons

Active as a performer, teacher, adjudicator, curator, and scholar, Dr. Ricardo de la Torre has played in concert venues in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Spain, France, and Austria, and has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Mexico and the U.S. A finalist and prize winner in several competitions in his home country, he has also held grants and scholarships from different cultural and government institutions. Ricardo won second prize at the Eleventh Annual Competition in the Performance of Music from Spain and Latin America, sponsored by Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center and the Office of Education of the Embassy of Spain. The recordings he made for the Latin American Music Center as the result of this competition were included in the two-CD collection “Piano de Pampa y Jungla,” produced by the LAMC. He is frequently heard as part of Duo Powers-de la Torre, which he forms with Dr. Lark Powers. The duo obtained a Silver Award at the first international competition of the Carles & Sofía Foundation of Spain.

In demand as an adjudicator throughout the state, he has been invited to judge such events as the MTNA Northwest Division Competition finals, the Spokane Piano Competition, Pacific Lutheran University’s Concerto Competition, the Washington State Music Teachers Association Outstanding Artist Competition, and the Performing Arts Festival of the Eastside.
Having taught Piano Ensemble, private lessons and music analysis at PLU, Ricardo also serves as an instructor for the Community Music program at the University of Puget Sound and was on faculty at East Central University in Oklahoma, teaching a variety of subjects.

Born in Mexico City, Ricardo attended the pre-college program at Escuela Superior de Música in his hometown. He later received a Bachelor’s degree with honors from this institution. He continued his studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he received a Master of Music degree and went on to graduating with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he worked as a teaching and accompanying assistant. His main teachers include Ana María Tradatti, Fernando García Torres, Evelyne Brancart and David Korevaar. He has taken part in numerous masterclasses with pianists Jorge Federico Osorio, Peter Donohoe, Leon Fleisher, Jörg Demus, Cristina Ortiz, Jean-Paul Sevilla, Ursula Oppens, Roberto Prosseda, Gustavo Romero, and Gregory Allen among others.

Also active in scholarly endeavors, Ricardo has been invited to present lectures and lecture-recitals at local, regional, national, and international conferences and has had articles published by peer-reviewed journals in Mexico, Colombia and the U.S.

Ricardo is Curator of Art and Music at Lakewold Gardens, sits on the board of Early Music Seattle, and curates Orquesta Northwest’s Latino Chamber Music Festival in Seattle every Fall.