Tyler Wottrich, piano

Recently appointed to the faculty at North Dakota State University, pianist Tyler Wottrich has distinguished himself as a performer and teacher of unusual versatility. An alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW, Wottrich received the Emerson String Quartet’s Ackerman Prize for chamber music and has performed with such artists as Colin Carr, Philippe Grafin, Carol Wincenc, Frank Morelli, William VerMeulen, Harry Bicket, and Andres Diaz. The growing list of composers he has worked with includes John Luther Adams, John Corigliano, Georg Friedrich Haas, Jocelyn Hagen, Richard Hundley, David Lang, Libby Larsen, Missy Mazzoli, Dominick Argento, and Bright Sheng. Wottrich served as collaborative piano faculty at the Banff Centre in summers 2015-2016.

In his role at NDSU, Tyler Wottrich designed a new graduate collaborative piano program and in Spring 2015 he created and directed the NDSU Chamber Music Festival, which in its first two seasons has featured NDSU student pianists alongside professional string players from across the country as well as the UK. As a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW, Wottrich performed frequently at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Recital Halls, the Juilliard School, and other notable NYC venues. The video of a cartoon theme mash-up Wottrich composed for Ensemble ACJW has surpassed 1.5 million views on YouTube.

Committed to his collaborations with singers, Wottrich performed at Marilyn Horne’s “The Song Continues” at Carnegie Hall after garnering an honorable mention in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Wottrich has been a vocal coach at Stony Brook University, North Dakota State University, Opera North, and the Music Academy of the West, and has performed with members of the Grammy Award-winning African-American Choral Group “Sounds of Blackness.” Wottrich has also served as assistant conductor for the Fargo-Moorhead Opera productions of Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

Recent appearances include a performance at the Source Song Festival of Argento’s “The Andrée Expedition” staged by renowned baritone Håkan Hakegård, for whom the cycle was written, as well as solo and chamber music recitals at the Banff Centre, the Dame Myra Hess Series at the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Schubert Club. In March 2015 and February 2016 Wottrich held educational performance residencies at the PianoArts Piano Competition and Festival in Milwaukee, and in June 2015 was head of the jury for their Wisconsin Youth Competition.

Wottrich began his piano studies with Gail Olszewski before studying with Lydia Artymiw at the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated summa cum laude with degrees in both music and mathematics. He completed his M.M. and D.M.A. at Stony Brook University where he studied with Gilbert Kalish.