Introducing Christopher Foley

Christopher Foley is a pianist dedicated to the fields of teaching, chamber music, art song, opera, and contemporary music. At the Eastman School of Music, he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1994, majoring in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music as a student of Jean Barr and David Burge. He is currently on the piano and voice faculty of The Royal Conservatory of Music, having previously served on the faculties of the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia. The summer of 2006 marked his thirteenth summer as Resident Accompanist at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. In 1989 at the Eckhardt-Grammaté Competition for the Performance of Contemporary Music, he won first prize for the performance of the commissioned work (Walter Buczinski's Mosaics) and third prize overall. In 1991, he won first prize in piano at the Kneisel Competition for the Performance of German Lieder in Rochester, New York.

As pianist and repetiteur for Tapestry New Opera Works, he has been involved with recent productions of Opera To Go 2006, Nigredo Hotel, Opera To Go 2004, and Facing South, as well as being on the creative team for Tapestry's unique Composer/Librettist and Director/Musical Director laboratories. At the 2006 Women in Music festival at the Eastman School of Music, he will be performing works of Laura Schwendiner and Barabara Pentland. A longtime member of the Vancouver New Music Ensemble, solo performances have included The Wanderer: Chamber Music of Africa and two critically acclaimed six-hour retrospectives of 20th-century music, entitled Countdown: The Odd Decades and Countdown: The Even Decades—Distance and Enchantment.

In June of 2004, his recording of Abigail Richardson's dissolve with Ryan Scott and Sanya Eng was awarded first prize in the under-30 division of the International Rostrum of Composers and was broadcast over 100 times throughout Europe and North America in the 2004-05 season. In January and February 2006, he appeared in several episodes on the new Bravo!Canada reality show Bathroom Divas. As author of the Collaborative Piano Blog, he writes about issues of importance to the collaborative pianist, as well as current musical events in Toronto and elsewhere.

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If you are looking for piano lessons in Toronto or Oakville, or are interested in the Collaborative Piano Class at The RCM, you can contact Dr. Foley at collaborativepiano at gmail dot com or (416) 408-2824 ext. 886.