Christopher Harding

Chair of Piano and Professor of Music

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Bio

Pianist Christopher Harding maintains an international presence as a noted teacher and performer. He has given solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in venues as far flung as the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the IBK and Recital Halls of the Seoul Art Center, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, and halls and festival appearances in Newfoundland, Israel, Italy, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Romania, Russia, and China. His concerto performances have included concerts with the National Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, the San Angelo and Santa Barbara Symphonies, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic, working with such conductors as Andrew Sewell, Eric Zhou, Taijiro Iimori, Gisele Ben-Dor, Fabio Machetti, Randall Craig Fleisher, John DeMain, Ron Spiegelman, Daniel Alcott, and Darryl One, among others.

Mr. Harding’s chamber music and duo collaborations have included internationally renowned artists such as clarinetist Karl Leister, flautist Andras Adorjan, and members of the St. Lawrence and Ying String Quartets, in addition to frequent projects with his distinguished faculty colleagues at the University of Michigan. He has recorded solo and chamber music CDs for the Equilibrium and Brevard Classics labels. He has additionally edited and published critical editions and recordings of works by Claude Debussy (Children’s Corner, Suite Bergamasque, the Arabesques and shorter works) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Viennese Sonatinas) for the Schirmer Performance Editions published by Hal Leonard.

Professor Harding has presented master classes and lecture recitals in universities across the United States and Asia, as well as in Europe, Israel, and Canada. He is a Permanent Guest Professor at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China; he has additionally served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Sichuan Conservatory (2008) and Seoul National University (2011) and Ewha Womans’ University (2023). He has taught masterclasses and performed lecture recitals at all the major universities and schools of music in South Korea, and throughout China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.

In addition to serving as Chair of Piano and teaching undergraduate and graduate piano performance and chamber music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Mr. Harding also serves on the faculty of the Sicily International Piano Festival and is a regular guest artist and teacher at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, Florida.

Harding was born of American parents in Munich, Germany and raised in Northern Virginia. His collegiate studies were with Menahem Pressler and Nelita True. Prior to college, he worked for 10 years with Milton Kidd at the American University Department of Performing Arts Preparatory Division, where he was trained in the traditions of Tobias Matthay. He has taken 25 first prizes in national and international competitions and in 1999 was awarded the special “Mozart Prize” at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, given for the best performance of a composition by Mozart.