Richard Dowling

Richard Dowling, an American pianist, has cultivated a wide-ranging professional life that encompasses solo recitals, chamber-music partnerships, and concerto appearances while embracing classical literature, ragtime, jazz, and further styles. Born in Houston, Texas, he started piano lessons at five and made his first appearance with the Fort Worth Chamber Symphony at eighteen. He completed his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude at the University of Houston before earning a master’s degree at Yale University. While pursuing his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin on a full graduate fellowship, he received the Lockwood Award for the strongest solo recital and the Simonds Award for distinguished solo and ensemble playing. His programming spans works by George Gershwin and Zez Confrey together with the principal classical composers, with special attention given to French repertoire. Devotion to Scott Joplin’s rags, waltzes, marches, and cakewalks produced more than seventy recitals and led to the three-CD set The Complete Piano Works of Scott Joplin, issued by Rivermont in 2017. For his advocacy of French music he was received into the Company of Musketeers of Armagnac as a Chevalier, one of only a few Americans so recognized. Dowling edits publications for Ludwig/Masters Music and Alfred Music and has performed repeatedly since 1994 under the auspices of the nonprofit Piatigorsky Foundation.